Campaign investigation threatens Janeese Lewis George's union alliance
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A large crowd gathered at Howard Theatre in January to hear from labor leaders and supporters at JLG's campaign launch. Photo: Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post via Getty Images
At Howard Theatre in January, labor leader Jamie Contreras made a bold promise to Janeese Lewis George: local unions were ready to mobilize their 53,000 members.
- Call it JLG's superweapon in the D.C. mayor's race: A volunteer army primed to turn out voters block by block.
Why it matters: Now, her opponents are striking at the heart of that operation.
State of play: Spurred by a citizen complaint, the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance opened an investigation this week into whether JLG's alliance with labor unions crossed the line into improper campaign coordination.
- Lewis George called the allegations "baseless."
The main allegation is that JLG's campaign is "engaging in concerted coordinated activity" with two unions and a labor-funded super PAC called Safe & Affordable DC.
- Campaigns are prohibited from working with super PACs. The six-page complaint, first reported by journalist Tom Sherwood, says the PAC used official photos from the campaign, claiming it's "evidence of collusion."
- It asks investigators to review whether campaign manager Adam Yalowitz and spokesperson Amanda Michelle Gomez were improperly compensated. The two are on leave from their union jobs to work for the campaign, but the complaint alleges the campaign has improperly reimbursed the union to cover "their salaries, taxes, benefits, etc."
- In response, the campaign says it "is careful to follow the legal advice we receive from our lawyers" and that it has "had no involvement in the unions' contributions or in the PAC's activities."
Zoom out: The complaint's real impact may be whether it can hobble JLG's labor-backed momentum.
- Her campaign is benefiting from the union-funded, big-money super PACs cutting commercials against Kenyan McDuffie, her moderate Democratic rival.
- Heavy hitters like SEIU 32BJ and Unite Here Local 23, plus a dozen other shops, back her.
- Any cloud over the campaign could be a distraction as the sprint begins to primary day, June 16.
- In two weeks, D.C. begins sending ballots in the mail to voters.
Already, JLG supporters are fighting back.
- Some are pointing out irregularities in McDuffie's attorney general campaign in 2022. Following an audit, city officials last year fined McDuffie's ex-campaign treasurer $2,000 for failure to respond to investigators, who had sought missing financial records.
- McDuffie's campaign says the ex-treasurer had moved out of the city and hadn't received the investigator's inquiries.
The bottom line: We'll have to see what investigators turn up — and how it might chip away at JLG's biggest edge in the race, her union machine.
💠Town Talker is a column about money and power in Washington. Tell me about the talk of the town: [email protected]