A little more than a week before the Milwaukee mayoral election, current Mayor Marvin Pratt was charged with five civil counts of campaign finance violations Monday.

Milwaukee County District Attorney Michael McCann tacked Pratt with four counts of falsifying campaign finance reports and one count of depositing campaign contributions into a personal bank account.

By not placing campaign funds in his campaign account, Pratt allegedly illegally underreported the amount of money he had for his campaign.

A difference of nearly $116,000 existed between Pratt’s campaign finance reports and his campaign bank account for 2003, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Pratt campaign officials could not be reached for comment.

In a press conference Monday, Pratt acknowledged he had been negligent when reporting his campaign finances, but said he felt the investigation resulted more from his opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, trying to gain an edge in the close election for Milwaukee mayor than actual violations of state campaign finance laws.

Barrett’s campaign manager, Joel Brennan, said Pratt dodged any accountability for the counts against him during the press conference by accusing the Barrett camp of using the charges to win the election.

“It appeared that he claimed to take some responsibility for [the charges], and then in the next breath was accusing some kind of political conspiracy,” Brennan said.

The charges are set to shake up the tight race for mayor in the city as election day, April 6, quickly approaches. Before the civil counts were made public, Pratt and Barrett were in a dead-heat with 44 percent of voter support each, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel poll released Saturday revealed.

Brennan said he was confident voters will consider the district attorney’s counts against Pratt at the ballot box next week.

“The voters certainly will take a look at competence, the ability to manage the budget and the ability to maintain campaign finances,” Brennan said, adding the Barrett campaign will not need to emphasize the implications of those allegations against Pratt.

“They certainly speak for themselves … they speak to the shoddiness and the disinterest about how campaign finance reports were put together and money was managed.”

Questions concerning Pratt’s campaign finances have been repeatedly raised over the past few weeks. Pratt has refused to directly address the allegations, although his campaign did publicly attribute any false reports to errors in bookkeeping.

The Milwaukee DA’s office opened a criminal investigation into Pratt’s campaign finance records in November, later turning the inquiry into a John Doe investigation.

A John Doe inquiry is done secretly, permitting evidence and witnesses to be used in closed-door hearings where a judge can then determine if the law has been violated.