Philly mayoral candidate Amen Brown did not file a financial disclosure by this week’s deadline
Candidates for office were required to disclose their fundraising information and donors by Tuesday night.
Philadelphia mayoral candidates Amen Brown and James DeLeon did not file fundraising reports this week that disclose their donors as required by city campaign-finance rules.
Brown’s failure to file by the Tuesday deadline is another sign that the West Philadelphia state representative running with a tough-on-crime message has struggled to pull together a robust campaign ahead of the May 16 Democratic primary. He is one of 11 Democrats in a crowded field.
Three other mayoral candidates who will appear on the ballot — DeLeon, a retired judge, Warren Bloom Sr., and Delscia Gray — have not filed any campaign-finance disclosures with the city, despite appearing and speaking at events and forums alongside other contenders.
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A spokesperson for the city’s Board of Ethics said Bloom and Gray have both indicated that they are running without campaign committees, meaning their financial activities will be captured in candidate reports that do not need to be filed until next month.
Brown’s and DeLeon’s campaigns did not respond to a request for comment. Campaigns can be fined $250 per day for failing to file a financial disclosure. The total penalties can’t exceed $2,000 within the first 30 days the report is not filed.
In January, Brown filed an annual campaign-finance report that showed he had raised just $3,500 since launching his campaign for mayor in November. He was expected to be supported by an independent expenditure group, also known as a super PAC, funded by a New York City developer, but that has yet to materialize.
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It’s clear Brown has raised and spent some cash since the January filing deadline. This week, he released an advertisement. It shows a mother concerned about crime in the city and Brown sitting in her living room, saying, “no mother should ever have to worry if her child will make it home safely. As your mayor, I will fight to bring back safety to our streets, to our schools, and to our communities.”
His campaign spent about $13,000 to run the ad on broadcast television this week, according to media-tracking firm Ad Impact. That’s a very modest amount of money that’s unlikely to get his message seen by a wide audience — the rest of the mayoral field is spending more than $1.2 million combined on television commercials this week.
The failure to file campaign-finance paperwork is another stumble for Brown, who last month fought to stay on the ballot. He was rebuked by a city judge for failing to properly disclose debts and financial interests, as is required by law. He was scolded by a judge for a similar error less than a year ago when he ran for state representative.