RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond City Council candidate’s campaign reports thousands of dollars in donations from people they say have never donated, but officials and agencies contacted by CBS 6 say , did not say it was investigating the situation.
Responses from local and state officials have raised questions about the role of finance in politics and accountability mechanisms, with some advocates and experts saying Virginia’s campaign reporting laws aren’t strong enough. That’s what I think.
John Henry Williams lives in Richmond’s 6th Ward, and is a member of incumbent Ellen Robertson, Tavares Floyd, who previously worked in Robertson’s office at City Hall, and Willie Hilliard. We are paying close attention to the city council elections. Climate justice advocate Williams said he supports Hilliard.
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Vivares Floyd
As he researched candidates, Williams said he was skeptical about the amount of money the Floyd campaign claimed to have raised.
Floyd’s campaign reported raising a total of just over $140,000 in donations to the state, which is significantly higher than Floyd’s opponents, which CBS 6 political analyst Dr. Bob Holdsworth said is the most for a local race. He described it as a “rare” number.
“When you pay that much money, you’d think the support would be overwhelming, but that’s not what I’ve experienced living here. What I’m looking for in a City Council candidate is someone who is honest. ” Williams said.
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Some of Mr. Floyd’s reported top donors told CBS 6 that they have not donated to Mr. Floyd’s campaign and do not know who Mr. Tavares-Floyd is.
Floyd’s campaign said he received $20,000 from a Chicago businessman, $5,000 from a Tennessee lawyer and $5,000 from a Tennessee funeral home owner. Each denied contributing, even though they were listed as donors in the Floyd campaign’s filings with the Virginia Department of Elections.
“When things like this are reported, they should be investigated. We should have government agencies that are actually interested in investigating how money is influencing our politics,” Williams said. ” he said.
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Richmond General Registrar Keith Ballmer
However, the Virginia Department of Elections, Richmond General Registrar Keith Ballmer and Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin all indicated they were not investigating the issue.
Andrea Gaines, a spokeswoman for the Department of Elections, said it is the responsibility of local registrars to obtain further information from candidates and report violations to the federal attorney.
However, Mr Ballmer, the local registrar, said his only responsibility was to ensure that financial reports were completed and submitted on time, not to scrutinize the content of submissions. .
Both the state and Ballmer said they had no authority to investigate the matter.
U.S. Attorney Colette McEachin said her office does not have any investigators. She added that she has not received any complaints from local or state agencies regarding Floyd’s campaign coverage.
“Because this is an unprecedented situation, we’re seeing officials at the state and local level essentially playing ping pong,” said CBS 6 political analyst Dr. Bob Holdsworth.
Holdsworth said there is actually no current law in Virginia that specifies how to report inaccurate financial campaign reports. Rather, he said, the law only addresses reporting violations related to incomplete reports or reports not submitted on time.
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CBS 6 Political Analyst Dr. Bob Holdsworth and CBS 6 Investigative Reporter Tyler Lane.
Wes Gober, Clean Virginia’s director of good governance, said the current system is confusing and prevents local and state officials from enforcing responsible and transparent financial reporting.
“The bottom line is that Virginia is the Wild West when it comes to campaign finance laws,” Gober said.
Meanwhile, Gobar said voters may not have access to complete and accurate information to make informed decisions that affect their future.
“If Democrats and Republicans can come together in a bipartisan manner to fix our broken campaign finance system and election laws, we can restore fundamental trust in our democracy. This is all fixable.” he said.
Mr. Holdsworth and Mr. Gobar said the issues surrounding Mr. Floyd’s campaign raise questions that state lawmakers should take up during their next General Assembly meeting in just a few months.
“We need to look at the bigger system and get serious about this as well. We’re going to see things like this happen over and over again until Virginia decides to actually care about money in politics.” Deaf,” Williams said.
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