D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George’s close ties to labor unions are the focus of a campaign finance investigation of allegations that her team is improperly coordinating with the unions and another organization that is supporting her.
The city’s Office of Campaign Finance, which monitors candidates’ spending, initiated the inquiry after receiving a complaint alleging that Lewis George’s team is potentially violating laws that bar candidates from working with independent expenditure committees.
Kevin Sobkoviak, who was part of an unsuccessful effort to recall another D.C. lawmaker two years ago, alleged that Lewis George’s campaign is improperly sharing several employees — including two top aides — with unions also linked to an independent expenditure committee backing her.
“I think DC residents want to know who isn’t honest or ethical before votes are counted,” Sobkoviak wrote in an email explaining why he filed the complaint.
Campaign finance experts say that to prove wrongdoing, investigators must find evidence that Lewis George’s campaign aides directed or suggested activity that the independent expenditure committee undertook.
The campaign denied that any improper coordination occurred.
“This is a baseless complaint to get reporters to write ‘under investigation’ headlines and will be found meritless,” Zach Teutsch, a senior campaign adviser, wrote in an emailed statement.
The Office of Campaign Finance has up to 90 days to complete the investigation, said agency spokesperson Kamill Key-Hinton. The agency commences investigations after the director finds reasonable cause for the complaint, Key-Hinton said.
The investigation, first reported by journalist Tom Sherwood, is occurring less than two months before the June 16 Democratic primary. Lewis George, a D.C. Council member representing Ward 4, and former council member Kenyan R. McDuffie are the leading candidates in the race to succeed Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who is not seeking a fourth term.
Lewis George and McDuffie are heading into the final six weeks with about $1 million each, according to their latest spending reports. The candidates are backed by outside groups representing different bases of support, with McDuffie picking up support from the city’s business community while organized labor is consolidating behind Lewis George.
The race’s intensity was evident after the Office of Campaign Finance initiated its investigation.
Almost immediately, Lewis George’s supporters revived complaints relating to McDuffie’s runs for office in 2022 — including campaign finance violations for which he was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and a complaint about his switch from the attorney general’s race to one for the D.C. Council. The city’s elections board said McDuffie was allowed to switch races. The McDuffie campaign said the fine was issued after its then-treasurer moved and did not see communications from the OCF but was paid this year once officials became aware of it.
McDuffie’s campaign manager, Shelli Jackson, on Tuesday called the allegations against Lewis George “serious” and dismissed as desperate her supporters’ attempts to turn attention back on him.
Sobkoviak, who filed a six-page complaint, notes that Lewis George campaign staffers — including campaign manager Adam Yalowitz and spokesperson Amanda Michelle Gomez — are employed by the D.C.-area chapter of the Unite Here hospitality workers union.
In response to an inquiry from The Washington Post, the Lewis George campaign confirmed that four staffers — three from Unite Here Local 25 and one from a separate service workers union — are working for the campaign while on leave from their union jobs, and it provided their names. They include Yalowitz and Gomez.
Lewis George’s campaign finance disclosures show that the campaign has reimbursed the unions to cover staff salaries.
Sobkoviak further claims that a web of improper connections exists between the campaign, the unions and an independent expenditure committee. Both unions have ties to a labor-funded independent expenditure committee called Safe and Affordable DC, which has been backing Lewis George in the race.
The fundraising arm of SEIU 32BJ gave $100,000 to Safe and Affordable DC, according to the group’s March campaign finance report. Workers Vote, an independent expenditure PAC associated with the national Unite Here union, also contributed $100,000 to the independent expenditure committee.
According to Sobkoviak’s complaint, the Unite Here Local 25 chapter also shares an address with Safe and Affordable DC, along with one staff member — communications staffer Benjy Cannon.
“What we do know with certainty is that [Janeese Lewis George] campaign officials work for Local 25, that Local 25 houses an independent expenditure committee supporting Janeese Lewis George, that there are indications of potential prohibited coordination, and that the public is unaware of these connections despite its lawful right to know,” Sobkoviak wrote in the complaint.
Teutsch, the Lewis George campaign adviser, said campaign staff “never” coordinate with independent expenditure committees.
“The campaign is careful to follow the legal advice we receive from our lawyers, including on this issue,” Teutsch wrote in an email Tuesday.
SEIU 32BJ spokeswoman Julie Karant said the union has and will fully comply with the law. Safe and Affordable DC also said the complaint has no merit. A spokesperson for the national Unite Here union did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.
To prove a campaign finance violation, investigators would have to show that agents of Lewis George’s campaign were “directing, requesting, or suggesting the supportive actions of the PAC,” said Scott Thomas, a partner at Blank Rome who specializes in campaign finance law.
“It might turn out that the entities involved had ‘walling off’ procedures in place to prevent any improper direction/request/suggestion activity,” Thomas said in an email. “Bottom line, there are many facts that would need to be evaluated to come to a proper legal conclusion.”
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