Dr. Tarece Johnson is asking for you to trust her with $2.3 Billion budget.
But she can’t even handle $2,277 in campaign contributions. Not legally, anyway.
She fails the Integrity test
That’s right – Johnson accepted $2,277 in (what appears to be) illegal campaign contributions – contributions accepted before filing her “Declaration of Intention to accept campaign contribution” form. This form, commonly called a DOI, must be filed before any campaign accepts donations. But Tarece was happily pocketing donations for a full three months BEFORE she filed the form. Georgia law is very clear on this:
O.C.G.A. 21-5-30(g) – “[n]either a candidate who is not a public officer nor his or her campaign committee may lawfully accept a campaign contribution until the candidate has filed with the [county election superintendent] a declaration of intention to accept campaign contributions which shall include the name and address of the candidate and the names and addresses of his or her campaign committee officers, if any . . . .”
Not only did she accept contributions, contrary to what she may be claiming she actively solicited contributions way back in March, almost two months before she would file the correct paperwork.
The Georgia State Ethics Commission (now called the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission) has been informed of this and will release its official report shortly.
She fails the Transparency test
For a candidate that continuously advocates transparency, Dr. Johnson has failed to mention this to any of her supporters or her contributors. It is clear she knew it – see the next section on how she tried to fix it after the fact. Fortunately, the people who donated are in the clear. But Johnson will have some questions to answer. And probably some fines to pay.
Unlike the Republicans, NONE of the Democrats in this race have filed a Personal Financial statement. It would be interesting to see where her money comes from, because she is always asking for donations. Whether it is to restart her “Global Purpose Academy,” to sell her book (I have read it, by the way – it is mostly about her), to pay her to read poetry, to pay for horseback riding or basketball, to help her sell beauty products, to tutor her children (who don’t attend public school) or even to pay off her mortgage.
GCPS.info suggests one reason the three Democrats are hiding their financials – their ties to Everton Blair and his conflict of issues problems. Read the story HERE.
She fails the Competency test
Simple campaign disclosure reports are not that difficult to do correctly. But Johnson made a number of errors that makes one wonder if she should be in charge of spending over two billion in taxpayer money:
- She accepted $1,518.61 into her campaign before filing the DOI
- She then tried to quickly file the DOI but instead of declaring that she was running for County School Board District 5, she stated on the form that she was running for State Senate, District 5. That is right. She filed the correct form but listed the wrong office!
- She then proceeded to accept almost $1,000 more in illegal contributions.
- She finally filed an accurate DOI on May 1 – three months after the initial contribution.
Do you want a person who is so distracted by her political rallies, outlandish TikTok videos, and poetry that she can’t be bothered to follow the law with a few thousand dollars? What will she do if she is put in charge of $2.3 BILLION?
Below are the campaign documents referenced in the article.
CampaignDisclosureDOI_1
DOI_2