Durkee has a reputation as a "well-known" and "widely respected" campaign treasurer who usually works for members of the Democratic Party, said Mona Field, a political science professor at Glendale Community College.
But Durkee also received an order from the Fair Political Practices Commission in February 2006 that required her to pay a penalty on charges that she "violated the Political Reform Act by sending a mass mailing that did not include proper sender identification," the commission's order said.
The Coalition for Responsible Leadership is one of many groups that are often turned to during political races to orchestrate mass mailings of campaign literature, Field said.
"There are a million of these front groups and it is very difficult to know who is behind these types of mailings because with the way filings and contributions are registered, you really don't know who's behind it," she said.
Durkee could not be reached for comment.
But the remaining question is who stands to benefit from the mailer attacking Bric and Reinke, Field said.
And these sorts of questions naturally lean toward the two candidates not mentioned in the mailer, in this case married couple Carolyn and Philip Berlin, she said.
"I think we could surmise that people who support the Berlins are doing some kind of independent expenditures to undermine their opponents," she said. "But whether there's any partisan problem underneath this or is it just a coincidence that this coalition is linked to a major Democratic treasurer — you just really don't know."
