A brand new marketing campaign finance report filed by Mayor Brandon Johnson contains greater than $200,000 that his marketing campaign had mentioned however not formally reported.
Asked earlier this month why Johnson solely raised $970 within the last quarter of 2024, a determine listed within the earlier report, his political spokesperson Christian Perry instructed Politico that the mayor had truly raised about $200,000. Johnson’s new report filed Thursday night time lists 42 donations including as much as $232,800.
In the report, Johnson’s staff dates every of the contributions to January 16, the day after its earlier report raised eyebrows over its vacancy.
State regulation requires politicians to report contributions over $1,000 inside 5 enterprise days of submitting contributions. While Johnson might have been given checks for the massive contributions months earlier, he seems to have adopted marketing campaign finance regulation by reporting the cash shortly after he deposited it, Illinois Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich mentioned.
Politicians typically maintain on to dangerous checks till elections get nearer, he added. But for regulators, what issues is the submitting day.
“It’s not the day that they had this huge fundraiser, it is the day they took all the cash raised in that fundraiser and put it of their checking account,” Dietrich mentioned. “For our system, this was accomplished by the foundations.”
Perry and one other of Johnson’s political spokespersons, Jake Lewis, didn’t instantly reply to questions concerning the new submitting Friday morning. Lewis beforehand instructed the Tribune amendments to Johnson’s earlier submitting.
“Our marketing campaign offers with all state and native marketing campaign finance guidelines and laws,” he mentioned in an announcement on the time. “Recent adjustments to metropolis marketing campaign finance regulation have required us to take the time to correctly vet contributions and guarantee compliance. As we now have accomplished all through this mayor’s time period, we are going to introduce acceptable amendments to replicate marketing campaign contributions, a commonplace course of in Illinois. “
Johnson’s most up-to-date fundraising haul contains $30,000 from the Illinois Black Political Action Committee and $3,000 from Smokey’s Tobacco Shop, amongst different contributions.
The mayor’s staff appeared to confess an error within the fourth-quarter 2024 report filed in mid-January. Johnson’s marketing campaign returned $48,500 to the Chicago Latino Public Affairs Committee.
The PAC, led by Homero Tristan — WHO City Records proven is a lobbyist for tech large Oracle — contributed $50,000 to Johnson in June 2023. But Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg discovered the contribution ha exceeded the quantity that lobbyists are allowed to offer to mayors and despatched a letter telling the PAC to request a refund, the Sunshine Times reported Friday.
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