The Georgia State Ethics board (now called the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission) is currently investigating illegal campaign contributions Dr. Johnson received during her 2020 campaign for Gwinnett County School Board.
The complaint revolves around the fact that she solicited and accepted donations for her race before she filed a Declaration of Intent to Accept Campaign funds (a ‘DOI’). This is no small matter, as laid out plainly in Georgia law:
“[n]either a candidate who is not a public officer nor his or her campaign committee may lawfully accept a campaign contribution until the candidate has filed with the [county election superintendent] a declaration of intention to accept campaign contributions which shall include the name and address of the candidate and the names and addresses of his or her campaign committee officers, if any . . . .”
O.C.G.A. 21-5-30(g)
The facts are clear – Dr. Johnson filed a DOI on May 1, 2020. But she was asking for donations before that date, as evidenced by these Facebook posts from March:
She was successful, raising a total of $2,277.01 according to her April 30, 2020 Financial Disclosure Report. It should be noted that this $2,277 of illegal campaign contributions entirely funded her campaign where she defeated Louise Radloff and won her primary race.
Once the Ethics Board decides that a complaint is valid, they give the defendant an opportunity to respond. In keeping with Dr. Johnson’s victim mentality, her excuse is that it wasn’t her fault. Other people and situations are to blame. Specifically:
- There was a virus called COVID!
- Nobody told me that I needed to file a DOI
- I didn’t collect that much money anyway
You can read the notice from the Ethics Board and Dr. Johnson’s response below.
JohnsonResponseToEthicsChargeBlur