Report says something is screwy in Floyd’s reported donations
Samuel B. Parker at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some crazy news in the 6th District City Council race:
Five reported donors to the campaign of Tavares Floyd — who is running for the 6th District City Council seat — said they did not make any such contributions, casting doubt on Floyd’s campaign finance reports submitted to the Virginia Department of Elections.
According to VPAP, Floyd has reported raising $141,410, compared to $73,881 for the incumbent Ellen Robertson and $16,849 for challenger Willie Hilliard.
We interviewed Floyd back in August and asked him about his prodigious fundraising:
Q: You’ve raised an incredible amount of money, like running for mayor level of money. A good chunk is from Tennessee, and Willie Wilson from Chicago donated $20,000. How’d that come about?
“I’ve just had relationships with a whole lot of people over the years. I’ve served on a whole lot of boards where people, I’ve connected with people.One thing I value is relationships.
When your script is already written, things will always happen the way that they’re supposed to happen. And so I’ve never been in a space that I never wasn’t supposed to be in. And therefore I’ve been able to manifest things in life because I knew what I was supposed to be and it’s no different now.
You know, you just create rapport with people. And one of the things that I’ve always valued in life is you can have as much money as you want, you can have as many degrees as you want, you can have as much material things in life as you want, whatever the case may be. It’s those relationships that matter the most. And when you need people, you can count on them. And so that’s what the majority of my life has kind of centered around.”
RELATED: This year’s City Council and School Board candidates
From the Friends of Willie Hilliard
Willie Hilliard for Council
contact@williehilliard.com
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
Octl 19, 2024
WILLIE HILLIARD CALLS FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE TRANSPARENCY IN 6TH DISTRICT CITY COUNCIL RACE
RICHMOND, VA –
This morning, it was reported that Tavares Floyd—one of my opponents and Councilwoman Ellen Robertson’s former aide—may have significantly inflated his campaign contributions. This is incredibly concerning.
I am calling on the Floyd campaign to publish financial records and validate that his donations are not fabricated as quickly as possible.
Residents in Richmond have lost faith in our city’s government. Even in the last few months, there have been multiple Inspector General reports of embezzlement that were not disclosed by city council in a timely manner. If residents cannot trust that their local elected officials’ campaigns are honest, they won’t trust that council can run an honest city government.
Virginia’s campaign finance laws are extremely weak. There is essentially no enforcement. Candidates are able to easily under-report donations to hide donors and over-report to inflate the perceived momentum of their campaign. They may also legally transfer funds out of their campaigns into personal bank accounts—as was alleged against Councilwoman Ellen Robertson in 2020. Our laws essentially allow legal bribery.
Fundamentally, we need to get money out of politics. The success of a candidate and a campaign should not be solely tied to how many wealthy folks they know and can give favors to when they are elected. This is exactly why our campaign doesn’t accept donations from corporations. In the next General Assembly session, the legislature must strengthen our laws. In the meantime, it is vital that candidates run clean and transparent campaigns.
City Council candidate calls for opponent to prove donor info following RTD report
https://www.richmonder.org/city-council-candidate-calls-for-opponent-to-prove-donor-info-following-rtd-report/
Floyd’s fundraising in 6th District council race mostly from out-of-state sources
https://www.vpm.org/elections/2024-10-19/tavares-floyd-fundraising-richmond-6th-district-city-council