Lack of investigation into Richmond campaign's finance reporting raises concern

RICHMOND, Va. — The campaign for a Richmond City Council candidate has reported thousands of dollars in donations from people who said they've never contributed any money, but no government official or agency contacted by CBS 6 said they were investigating the situation.

The responses from local and state officials are raising questions about the role of finances in politics and the mechanisms for accountability, and some advocates and experts believe Virginia's campaign reporting laws aren't strong enough.

John Henry Williams lives in Richmond's 6th District and is paying close attention to the city council race between incumbent Ellen Robertson, Tavares Floyd who used to work for Robertson's office at City Hall, and Willie Hilliard. Williams, a climate justice advocate, said he's backing Hilliard.

TavaresFloyd.com

During his research of the candidates, Williams said he was skeptical of the amount of money Floyd's campaign claimed to have raised.

Floyd's campaign reported to the state that it raised just over $140,000 in total contributions which is significantly higher than Floyd's opponents and a figure CBS 6 political analyst Dr. Bob Holsworth called "rare" for a local district race.

“For that amount of money, you would have thought that the support was overwhelming, and that's not what I experienced living here," Williams said. "What I want of a city council candidate is someone that's honest."

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Some of Floyd's top reported donors told CBS 6 they didn't contribute any money to his campaign and don't know who Tavares Floyd was.

Floyd's campaign stated it received $20,000 from a Chicago businessman, $5,000 from a Tennessee attorney, and $5,000 from a Tennessee funeral home owner. Each person denied making donations, despite being listed as a donor on the Floyd campaign's filings with the Virginia Department of Elections.

“When something like this is reported, it should be investigated," Williams said. "We should have government institutions that actually care about investigating where money influences our politics."

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But the Virginia Department of Elections, Richmond General Registrar Keith Balmer, and Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Colette McEachin all indicated they are not investigating the matter.

Department of Elections spokesperson Andrea Gaines, said it's the local registrar's responsibility to inquire more information from the candidate and report violations to the commonwealth's attorney.

But Balmer, the local registrar, said he's only responsible to ensure finance reports are complete and filed on time, not to scrutinize the contents of the filings.

Both the state and Balmer said they don't have the authority to investigate the matter.

Commonwealth's Attorney Colette McEachin said her office has no investigators. She added she's received no complaints from any local or state agencies regarding Floyd's campaign reporting.

“Because it's an unprecedented situation, what you're now seeing are these officials, both at the state level and the local level, essentially playing ping pong," CBS 6 political analyst Dr. Bob Holsworth said.

Holsworth said there really aren't any current laws in Virginia that specifically govern how to report inaccurate finance campaign reporting. Rather, he said the laws just address reporting violations pertaining to incomplete reports and reports not filed on time.

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Wes Gobar, the Director of Good Governance at Clean Virginia, said the current system creates confusion and the inability for local and state officials to enforce accountable and transparent finance reporting.

“The bottom line is Virginia is the Wild Wild West for campaign finance laws," Gobar said.

In turn, Gobar said voters may not have access to complete and accurate information to make informed decisions that affect their future.

“If Democrats and Republicans come together in a bipartisan way to fix our broken campaign finance system and election laws, they will restore that foundational trust in our democracy," Gobar said. "This is all fixable."

Both Holsworth and Gobar said the issues surrounding Floyd's campaign raise questions for state legislators to address when they meet for the next General Assembly in just a couple of months.

“We need to look at the larger system and also be serious about this. It's just going to happen again and again and again until Virginia decides we actually care about money in politics," Williams said.

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