City ethics board to begin ruling on election complaints.

Byline: Kate Nash KNASH@ABQTRIB.COM / 823-3602

The Albuquerque Election Code says the "candidate assumes ultimate and complete responsibility for the conduct" of his or her campaign.

After the Oct. 5 election, some candidates are having to answer for how they ran and financed their campaigns.

The City Council election generated a record number of complaints alleging improper politicking.

The Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices today is expected to rule on a handful of complaints. It will deal with more complaints in January.

In all, 19 complaints were filed against winning and losing candidates as well as several election-related groups and the city's two daily newspapers.

The complaints go right to the heart of the city's Election Code a collection of 12 rules aimed at keeping City Hall campaigns clean.

They deal with how money is spent on campaigns, who provides the cash and how it is reported.

How the complaints are handled could reaffirm "clean campaign" rules or ultimately lead to a re-examination of the Election Code.

"The December meeting is going to be …