A filing with the Richmond County Board of Elections by mayoral candidate Lori Myles on Jan. 22 has gone viral on the internet.
Prior to the January filing, Myles claimed to only have $6,288.21 in her campaign, from a personal loan she made, but then, suddenly, the coffers swelled to over $100,000 with just one donation.
According to the filing, T-Mobile donated $100,000 as an in-kind contribution. According to state law, both monetary as well as in-kind donations are limited to $3,000, said Travis Doss, director of the Richmond County Elections Board.
The filing lists the donation as for “name recognition, representation, giveaways, communications.”
While the filing lists the donation as in-kind, the documents show that Myles also claims the $100,000 to be money in the bank.
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Doss says his office is aware of the filing and has directed everyone who has contacted the local elections board to speak with the Georgia Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, as his office is only the custodian of records.
“We are only in charge of filing the information in the public record. Other than reminding candidates of deadlines, we do not give them advice on what to put in their filings,” Doss said.
The state commission is also aware of the contribution and has begun a preliminary investigation.
“We certainly noticed this, and sometimes people try to inflate their donations for political purposes, but this one just zooms past the limits,” a representative of the Commission said.
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T-Mobile does run a political action committee, Open Secrets; however, the PAC only supports federal candidates. Its campaign donation disclosures show donations for congressional and senatorial candidates, but there are no payouts listed to candidates for a city mayoral election.
Records show that Open Secrets spends roughly 55 percent on Republican candidates and 45 for Democrat candidates; however, there is no figure showing the PAC has ever made a donation in a non-partisan race.
In the 2020 election season, Open Secrets gave out a total of $988,500 to individual candidates and all of the donations appear to align with campaign contribution limits.
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Local political campaign strategist Jim Cox, who does not represent Myles or any other mayoral candidate, says he is mystified at the irregular donation.
“If she wanted to get her name in the press and be a topic of conversation, then she definitely succeeded, but I don’t think it is the type of attention she wanted. She either looks foolish or dishonest, or even both,” Cox said.
Myles’ is the second Augusta mayoral campaign to be scrutinized by the commission. Currently, the commission is conducting two separate investigations into Mayor Hardie Davis Jr.’s prior campaigns. A recent amended complaint accuses the mayor of continuing to raise and spend money using his campaign account, which should be defunct since he is prevented by term limits from running in the current election cycle.
Elections board records list Myles as one of 12 declared candidates in the 2022 mayoral race. So far, the two leading candidates, Garnett Johnson and Steven Kendrick, have reported $183,900 and $108,021 in donations, respectively.
Much of Johnson’s campaign haul is from a $125,000 personal loan he made to his campaign, which is allowed by law. Meanwhile, Kendrick’s disclosures show his funding has come from individual donors.
Myles, who currently works for the department of juvenile justice, has not returned repeated calls and messages seeking clarification or comment.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
