Eleven Jackson mayoral candidates failed to file a campaign finance report. Here’s who

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• Only eight out of 19 mayoral candidates in Jackson, Mississippi, submitted campaign finance reports by the March 25 deadline.
• Mississippi law requires all candidates running in a contested primary election to file these reports.
• Penalties for failing to file are unclear due to the state’s complex campaign finance laws.

Only eight of Jackson’s 19 mayoral candidates have filed mandatory campaign finance reports by a Wednesday, March 25, with only hours to go until polls open for the April 1 primary elections.

Per Mississippi law, all municipal candidates who are running in a contested primary were required to file a campaign finance report by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25. That means all Democratic and Republican candidates were required to file a report, since all are in contested primaries. Independent candidates and the winners of the primaries are required to file another campaign finance report on May 27, which is a week before the June 3 general election.

On March 25 — the date the latest round of campaign finance reports was due — only one Republican candidate and four Democratic candidates for mayor submitted their campaign finance reports. The candidates who filed their report on-time include Democratic candidates Socrates Garrett, Delano Funches, LaKeisha Crye and John Horhn, as well as Republican candidate Kenny Gee.

But as of Monday, three other Democratic candidates had filed after the March 25 deadline, including Democrats Marcus Wallace, Tim Henderson and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

The Clarion Ledger is reviewing the candidates’ campaign finance reports and will publish the findings in a subsequent article.

The five Democratic candidates who failed to file a report are David Archie, James “Blue” Butler, James Hopkins, Kourtney Christopher Paige and Albert Wilson. The Republican candidates who have yet to file a campaign finance report are Wilfred Beal and Ponto Ronnie Downing.

Because of Mississippi’s confusing and hard-to-understand campaign finance laws, what will happen to the candidates who failed to file is unclear. Mississippi’s Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment by publishing time for this story.

Elizabeth Johnson, the communications director for the Mississippi Secretary of State Office, said Monday, “if a candidate does not turn in (campaign finance) reports during the current election cycle, some penalties include not being certified as the winner until the report has been turned in. That would be incumbent on the appropriate executive committee.”

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson previously told the Clarion Ledger that his office has “limited authority to impose civil penalties (fines) for failing to file reports,” because the secretary of state’s office’s oversight “only extends to state district and statewide candidates and PACs supporting those candidates” and not municipal elections.