Jackson mayoral candidates address campaign spending
[gtxvideo vid=”ASe9k2m8″ playlist=”” pid=”OTSe9U1y” thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/ASe9k2m8.jpg” vtitle=”Campaign Financials – Mallory”]
JACKSON, Tenn. — Three weeks from Tuesday, voters in Jackson will elect a mayor. Records show two of the five candidates far outspent the others during the first quarter. Records show from mid-January to the end of March, candidates Mayor Jerry Gist and Lowe Finney each spent more than $50,000. “You have to have money to run an efficient campaign,” Finney said. “You have to have money to communicate, but a lot of that money is being spent right back here.” Records show Gist donated more than $2,000 to four local organizations including New Hope Baptist Church and Lane College. The Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance said that is legal and that candidates can make charitable donations with their campaign contributions. “It’s not buying votes,” Gist said. “It’s simply contributing to a worthy cause in this city.” Records show Finney spent nearly $60,000 with companies in Washington, D.C. He said the large sums are because the businesses handle many aspects of media coverage, from buying air time to postage for flyers, allowing him to write fewer checks. “A lot of that money is actually money that goes to buying air time locally on local stations,” Finney said. Gist said he recycled video to make his first commercial. He said the U.S. Conference of Mayors granted him permission to use the footage from an ad when Jackson won the Most Livable Small City in America Award in 2013. But Gist‘s most recent financial disclosure statement does not list production expenses for his campaign ad. “We took bits and pieces, did some editing on it locally and there was no need to show that because it was done locally by local businesses,” Gist said. State campaign finance experts said if someone volunteers to do work for a candidate on their own time, the candidate does not have to disclose that. Records show both candidates still have more than $120,000 on hand. Gist said he plans to hold on to some of the money in case of a runoff. Finney said he has not decided how to spend the remaining funds.
