From KERA News:
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s conservative political association has raised over half a million dollars since he created it in late 2023. But only a fraction has been spent directly in campaign contributions to candidates or to Republican political committees, according to tax records reviewed by KERA News.
Johnson’s National Republican Mayors Association (RMA) has paid a little over $10,000 directly on candidates and $6,500 to a handful of local conservative political organizations, according to publicly available records filed with the IRS.
The RMA listed on IRS documents “total amount of reported expenditures” of more than $330,000. That included consulting, legal and fundraising fees. But those expenditures have no other details beyond who got the money and when.
“That sounds like a pretty paltry sum going to support candidates,” Michael Beckel, the research director for a cross-partisan political reform organization called Issue One, told KERA. “And that really raises questions about what the strategy is here or what they’re doing with the funding if they’re not spending it on politics.”
Beckel focuses on money in politics — and has been following the trends for more than a decade.
Other experts KERA interviewed said that the amount spent on candidates may not be that unusual for such an organization, but that there could be transparency concerns around “dark money” groups.
Short of asking the group and consultants what work they’re doing for candidates, Beckel said tracking where the money ends up is “basically a closed door.”
KERA reached out to the RMA and both Johnson’s City Hall staff and his staff at Troutman Pepper Locke — the law firm where he works — but did not receive comment about what the funds are being used for.
Funds directly to candidates
Johnson, who served for years as a Democrat in the Texas Legislature, switched to the GOP just months after winning reelection for a second mayoral term in 2023. Then he created the RMA.
The RMA was formed to “support the election of Republican mayors and candidates across America, to build and expand upon their [successes] in office, and to advocate for Republican leadership of American’s cities,” according to its public IRS reports.
The group often backs candidates with press releases and posts on its social media accounts — and touts their victories when they happen.
But few candidates have gotten money from the association. The RMA listed its contributions to seven political candidates and two local political committees.
In Virginia Beach, the RMA gave Bobby Dyer’s mayoral campaign $1,000, and a Republican committee in Barre City, VT. received $500.
Tony Perry’s bid for mayor of Middletown, N.J., got $5,000 from Johnson’s political association. Bruce Rector’s mayoral campaign in Clearwater, Fla. and the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee both received $1,000 from the RMA.
When Brian McDonald was running for mayor of Oxnard, Ca. the RMA pitched in $800. And $5,000 went to Sid Edwards, a candidate who successfully ran for mayor in Baton Rouge, La.
In Chesapeake, Va., the RMA gave Mayor Rick West $1,000 for his reelection campaign.
A month before the reported expenditure was paid, WHRO — a Virginia-based NPR affiliate — reported West asked the then-city attorney in 2022 to help his stepbrother with some legal advice.
West’s stepbrother had run into a legal issue “while building on a property in Georgia.”
And the city attorney did the work.
According to documents obtained by WHRO, the Chesapeake city attorneys made calls to Georgia officials — and West’s stepbrother wrote a thank you note to the city officials “saying his dispute had been resolved.”
West, who was running for a second full term as mayor, told WHRO at the time that he “probably should not have done that” — but maintained asking for legal advice wasn’t inappropriate and blamed the then-city attorney for “doing the work and not telling West if he was overstepping.”
KERA reached out to West for comment about if he sought out the RMA’s help during his campaign and whether WHRO’s reporting into his stepbrother’s dealings with city officials was still accurate, but did not receive comment before this story was published.
In Las Vegas, Johnson flew out personally to help Victoria Seaman’s mayoral campaign last year, according to pictures posted on social media.
Along with Johnson, former Newport Beach, Ca., Mayor William O’Neill also campaigned with Seaman. Johnson’s organization paid $5,000 to an organization called Visit Newport Beach for “consulting fees” months before the O’Neill and Johnson showed up in Las Vegas for Seaman’s campaign.
Visit Newport Beach is a nonprofit organization “under contract with the City to position Newport Beach, California as a visitor and conference destination,” according to the group’s website.
KERA reached out to the law firm O’Neill works for to ask whether he knew about the RMA’s expenditure to Visit Newport Beach and if so, what the money was used for. O’Neill did not immediately respond to the request.
Seaman lost the election.
The association also gave $1,000 to Bruce Rector’s campaign for mayor in Clearwater, Fla. Rector also sits on the RMA’s Advisory Board.3
‘Basically, a closed door’
KERA asked for information about other ways the organization was supporting conservative politicians at the local level, but did not receive comment back from Johnson or the RMA.
Beckel said when politicians form organizations to support likeminded candidates, they “have a lot of latitude on how they spend those funds.”
“…But presumably, if you’re trying to support candidates across the country in these types of elections, you would be spending a lot more money from your fund to do that,” Beckel added.
Johnson’s association has reported spending almost $180,000 on consulting fees, according to IRS documents. That includes money for legal consulting, public relations and fundraising — and nearly all of it went to a handful of consulting firms.
The RMA files reports with the IRS as a 527 political organization. These types of groups have different ways of using funds to support politicians.
The most direct way is to give money to a candidates’ campaign. There are seven expenditures showing money going directly to a candidate and two for conservative committees across the country.
They can also buy ad time for candidates in other states — and engage consultants to, presumably, do campaign work for candidates.
But these groups also have different reporting requirements. Brett Kappel is an attorney Harmon, Curran, Spielberg and Eisenberg, a law firm specializing in giving legal advice to nonprofit organizations.
He told KERA some 527 organizations manage to avoid some of the state reporting requirements.
“So, there are some political organizations that raise money from the public that only file with the IRS,” Kappel said.
And these types of political organizations have systems in place that make it hard to track exactly where the money is going. Kappel says national political groups often utilize multiple bank accounts to stay in compliance with different state election laws.
But they’re not required to report expenditures by type of bank account.
“What they do is they aggregate all the money coming in and all the money going out of all the accounts, so you cannot tell…whether any one contribution is coming in, what it was, which account it went into and what it was used for,” Kappel said.
“There’s been a continuing problem from a transparency point of view.”
Keppel said groups like the RMA don’t always give money directly to candidates.
“…Because then they would have to register and file reports in either the state or jurisdiction where they’re making those contributions,” he said.
The support they do give, he said, might be in the form of consultants or advertising.
What may be a standard practice among these types of political organizations, can leave a void when it comes to transparency, experts say.
Figuring out exactly where the money goes once someone contributes to a group like the RMA is “basically a closed door,” Beckel said.
“Maybe some of those same consultants would be forthcoming with you in interviews. But the paper trail can only get you so far,” he said.
