A new campaign finance report filed by Mayor Brandon Johnson includes over $200,000 his campaign had discussed but not officially reported.
When asked earlier this month why Johnson raised only $970 in the last quarter of 2024, his political spokesperson Christian Perry told Politico the mayor had actually raked in about $200,000. Johnson’s new report filed Thursday evening lists 42 donations that add up to $232,800.
In the report, Johnson’s team dates each of the contributions to Jan. 16, the day after his previous report raised eyebrows for its emptiness.
State law requires politicians to report contributions greater than $1,000 within five business days of depositing the contributions. While Johnson may have been given checks for the large contributions months earlier, he appears to have followed campaign finance law by reporting the money shortly after depositing it, Illinois State Board of Elections spokesperson Matt Dietrich said.
Politicians often hold on to uncashed checks until elections get closer, he added. But for regulators, what matters is the deposit day.
“It’s not the day they had this big fundraiser, it’s the day they took all the money they raised at that fundraiser and put it into their bank account,” Dietrich said. “By our system, this has been done by the rules.”
Perry and another Johnson political spokesperson, Jake Lewis, did not immediately respond to questions about the new filing Friday morning. Lewis previously told the Tribune amendments to Johnson’s previous filing were forthcoming.
“Our campaign abides by all state and local campaign finance rules and regulations,” he said then in a statement. “Recent changes to city campaign finance law have required us to take the necessary time to properly vet contributions and ensure compliance. As we’ve done for the entirety of this Mayor’s term, we will file the appropriate amendments to reflect contributions to the campaign, a process that is commonplace in Illinois.”
Johnson’s most recent fundraising haul includes $30,000 from the Illinois Black Business Political Action Committee, $38,000 from two realtor groups and $3,000 from Smokey’s Tobacco Shop, among other contributions.
The mayor’s team did seem to admit one error in the 2024 fourth quarter report filed in mid-January. Johnson’s campaign returned $48,500 to the Chicago Latino Public Affairs Committee.
The PAC, led by Homero Tristan — who city records show is a lobbyist for technology giant Oracle — contributed $50,000 to Johnson in June 2023. But Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg found the contribution exceeded the amount lobbyists are allowed to give mayors and sent a letter telling the PAC to request a refund, the Sun-Times reported Friday.