The campaign finance report of mayoral candidate Keiffer Mitchell Jr. released on Wednesday lists thousands of dollars? worth of checks made out to cash but provides no details on how the money was spent or who received it.
Reports submitted to the State Board of Elections and posted online Wednesday list $9,000 worth of checks made out to cash without any details on who received the money, but a majority of those expenditures have been reimbursed.
However, more than $3,000 of those checks made out to “cash” have been challenged by the campaign and have yet to be reimbursed.
Mitchell campaign spokeswoman Antigone Davis said the unreimbursed checks made out to cash were recently uncovered by the campaign?s accountant.
“As we did a thorough review of the account with our CPA, we discovered some additional expenditures that have since been challenged,” she said.
Davis said all cash expenditures without payees also were challenged.
A dispute over campaign spending erupted nearly two weeks ago when Mitchell?s father, Dr. Keiffer Mitchell Sr., resigned as campaign treasurer over disagreements in spending, including the rental of hotel rooms and cash expenditures approved by Mitchell Sr.
Attorneys for Mitchell Sr., however, defended the spending as perfectly legal.
Meanwhile, state officials have yet to post the campaign finance report for Mayor Sheila Dixon, citing difficulty in uploading the report. Dixon campaign spokesman Martha McKenna said the reportwas submitted late Tuesday evening.
“We?re not trying to hold things up,” she said, reporting that Dixon has raised $1.2 million and has $700,000 on hand.
Other mayoral hopefuls showed a shortage of cash.
State Del. Jill Carter raised only $15,704 dollars in the period from Jan. 17 to Aug. 7, and has $8,110 on hand. Andrey Bundley raised $54,648, according to his report, but has no cash on hand. Bundley said the report was out of date.
“We need to amend the report,” Bundley said. “We have money.”
The report for Clerk of Courts Frank Conaway Sr. was not available on the Web site at press time.
Candidates must file a new report by Aug. 31.
