Yesterday the latest campaign finance reports were due. This is what we found for the top three mayoral contenders, Cassandra Hernandez, Renard Johnson and Brian Kennedy. The reports covered the period starting this year and ending on June 30, 2024.
Cassandra Hernandez
The city’s website has not posted Cassandra Hernandez’ campaign finance report for this period. It is unclear whether she filed her report by the deadline yesterday or if the city has yet to post it. However, we looked at Hernandez’ city council report filed on January 16 to get an idea of her campaign finances. The January 16 report covers the period between July 1 and December 31, 2023.
According to that report, Hernandez has $1,302.37 in campaign funds and an outstanding loan of $12,660. On December 29, Hernandez reported loaning her campaign $6,660. Her largest campaign expense for that reporting period was $13,160 in two payments to the Valenzuela Law Firm, the first on September 6, 2023, and the second on December 29. The campaign expense is listed as “officeholder matters.”
However, on July 20, 2023, the El Paso Ethics Commission issued a Letter of Reprimand to Hernandez for misusing her city-issued gasoline card. Attorney Felix Valenzuela represented Hernandez during the hearings before the ethics commission.
In late August, Valenzuela also sent a letter to the city council asking them to reconsider the censure letter issued to Hernandez.
Renard Johnson
In his campaign finance report, Renard Johnson reported accepting $297,920.50 in campaign contributions and spending $187,693.96 in campaign funds. Johnson had several large political contributions made to his campaign.
The largest was a campaign contribution of $25,000 that he made to his campaign. Normally, candidates loan personal funds to their campaigns which are repaid with political contributions later. There is a section in the campaign finance reports where candidates can list the loans they make to their campaigns from their personal funds. Almost every campaign finance report we have reviewed has candidates listing their personal funds as loans.
Because Renard Johnson seems to have chosen to list the $25,000 as a campaign contribution in his report, we assume he does not intend to be reimbursed and contributed the money to his campaign. The second largest campaign contribution was from his father, Alvin Johnson for $5,250.
The next largest campaign contributions were seven $5,000 contributions from insurance broker Deborah Flaknor, vice-president of Fox Auto Team Paige Fox, president of W. Silver Recycling Gaddy Lane, Pizza Properties owner J.K. Robinson, Douglas Schwartz of Southwest Land Development, CEO of oil company Wolf Energy Larry Wollschlager and Martin Wayne.
The two largest expenses reported by Renard Johnson are about $63,000 in salaries on two campaign staffers plus almost $50,000 in campaign consulting services.
The Johnson Campaign reported paying Lauren Zimmerman $33,811.81 and Cynthia Cano $30,000 in salaries. Cano was previously the District Director for Beto O’Rourke from 2013 through 2019. Zimmerman was previously the campaign manager for Veronica Escobar.
The Johnson Campaign paid two consulting out-of-town consulting firms for political consulting services.
One of the firms is Stanford Campaigns. The Dallas-based firm, which the Johnson Campaign paid $7,500, specializes in opposition research.
The other firm is Murphy Nasica, which the campaign reported paying $42,154.46. Murphy Nasica & Associates is a political consulting firm with offices in Austin. The political firm has been paid around $20 million for consulting work during the 2024 election cycle, according to campaign finance reports. El Pasoans for Prosperity PAC was one of two firms that led efforts to oppose the Climate Charter in 2023. The PAC paid Murphy Nasica & Associates $591,429.82 in 2023.
Other clients of Nasica include Greg Abbott, Texas for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) and the Texas Association of Realtors, among other clients.
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Where’s Johnson’s Ground Game?
An observation about the Renard Johnson Campaign expenses is that it has spent about $8,000 in printing costs which suggests that campaign has yet to send mailers or deploy a large canvassing ground game. Door-to-door canvassers usually have literature to give voters during outreach to likely voters at their doors.
The low amount in printing costs suggests that the Johnson Campaign has not launched a large-scale ground game reaching voters at their doors. Adding the low amount in printing costs to the $2,824.65 in yard signs also suggests that voter outreach has not been a priority for the campaign since it announced.
Another expense listed by Johnson’s Campaign is the $1,552 it spent for access to voter data in the NGP-VAN platform.
Johnson Campaign Pays City Employee
Back in June we reported about questions being raised about a city employee campaigning for the Renard Johnson Campaign. The employee is Jovany Meza, who is city representative Art Fierro’s administrative assistant. We asked Fierro then about Meza’s work for the Johnson campaign. When we asked, we were only aware that Meza was campaigning for Johnson. At the time, Fierro wrote that he is aware that Meza “does participate in political campaigns during his personal time.” Fierro added that Meza “is fully aware of the City’s policies prohibiting certain political activities,” adding that he supports “the right of all employees to engage in their community.”
According to Renard Johnson’s campaign finance report filed yesterday, the campaign paid Jovany Meza $3,600.
Another campaign expense reported by the Johnson Campaign was $4,875 in rent payments made by Severo Hughston as “in-kind contributions” to the campaign. Presumably these expenses are for office space for the campaign.
The Johnson Campaign reported having $104,684.50 in campaign funds available to it, according to the latest report.
Brian Kennedy
According to Brian Kennedy’s latest campaign finance report, he has not spent any money on his mayoral candidacy and has $152,752.91 available in campaign funds for his campaign. Kennedy reported carrying $181,000 in loans to his campaign, including a $50,000 he made to his campaign on June 30. Kennedy’s largest campaign expense was $4,300 in two payments to IFC, a voter polling service based in Oklahoma. This was the only expense the Kennedy Campaign reported.
We will follow up with another article as soon as Cassandra Hernandez’ campaign financial reports become available.