The Scranton Times-Tribune reported Sunday that it had counted 533 checks totaling more than $188,000 written to "Cash" from the campaign committee of Sen. Robert J. Mellow since Jan. 1, 2000. Mellow, from Lackawanna County, is the Senate's Democratic leader.

Pennsylvania's campaign finance law requires that campaign finance reports to the state include the date and recipient of each expenditure, along with its purpose.

However, state officials who regulate campaign financing told the newspaper that they typically do not treat small individual payments as violations.

"I think what's happened is, we've always looked at that as like a petty cash, if you will, and it's small amounts," said Harry A. VanSickle, a Department of State deputy secretary who oversees the Bureau of Commissions, Elections, and Legislation. "You know, now, obviously, small amounts over a long period of time can add up."

Mellow declined to tell the newspaper exactly how the money was spent. However, he said he had complied with the law.

"Every dime of it has been spent properly," Mellow told the Associated Press yesterday.

He pointed to a random 2006 audit carried out by a Harrisburg firm that studied six months of spending by his campaign committee. It raised no concerns about the practice, state officials said.

"If we were told, you've got to change certain things, they would have been changed immediately," Mellow said.

In all, Mellow's campaign committee spent more than $2.9 million from Jan. 1, 2000, to Oct. 19, 2009, the newspaper said. The portion written in checks to "Cash" was about 6.5 percent.

Sherry J. Messimer, who heads the state's campaign finance division, said Pennsylvania has no written policy for writing checks to "Cash."