Yesterday, Greensboro mayoral candidate Bill Knight said during a forum that he thought his opponent, Yvonne Johnson, raised and spent about $100,000 in her last election. (Johnson partially denied the claim.) In my report on the exchange, I wrote — incorrectly, as it turns out — that Johnson had raised $106,053.
Having spoken today with treasurer Drew, along with Brenda Wallace from the Guilford County Board of Elections, I can clarify some things about Johnson's 2007 campaign finance reports.
Drew told me that an accounting program she used for the reports kicked the period totals for receipts ($5,345) and expenditures ($1,279) for the mid-year report into the period totals for the next two period reports. The error artificially inflated Johnson's election cycle receipts total by $10,690 and her election cycle expenditures total by about $2,558.
Wallace said she expects Drew to file amended reports to reflect the changes.
I came up with a total of $95,997 from tallying Johnson's total expenses over the entire election cycle. Drew concurs that this is the correct figure. I have not tallied receipts, but adding the new period figures provided by Drew brings the election cycle receipt total to $95,363.
My cover story on money in Greensboro politics that hit the streets on went online today includes the incorrect and inflated figures. I brought the evident discrepancies in Johnson's reports to Drew's attention last Thursday. Although she was initially reluctant to acknowledge any problems with the reports, today she has been very gracious in explaining the errors to me.
I will look forward to reviewing any additional amended reports filed by the Johnson campaign to ensure that the figures stated above are accurate.
I've been working with Wallace to correct several discrepancies over the past seven days. Now, on to Mary Rakestraw.
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