We reported that Renard Johnson held a fundraiser April 17 at WestStar Tower that was attended by almost all the major local developers and their bankers and attorneys. Here, again, is the guest list:
But Johnson has also held out-of-town fundraisers: one at the Texas Lyceum in Austin on March 27 and the other at The Weston Centre in San Antonio on July 23.
WHERE ARE THE MEDIA?
Our feckless media, which have reached an all-time low in their capacity for investigative reporting, have failed to vet Renard Johnson, who avoids news interviews like the plague.
The media have not questioned Johnson about the extent of his knowledge of his brother’s alleged Ponzi scheme, even though the two men worked together in the same building during the period of the alleged crimes.
The media have not asked Johnson why he is fundraising on the other side of Texas and why those contributors want him to be Mayor of El Paso.
The media have failed to ask Johnson how he plans to pay for all the expanded public spending he is demanding, even as he claims he will lower our taxes.
We deserve better.
*CLARIFICATION 8/5/24 5:56 PM
Earlier today we broke the news that Renard Johnson failed to report 43 contributions to City Council and the public as required by the Code of Ordinances.
We contacted Johnson’s Campaign Manager by text, left a voice message for his Treasurer, wrote to the campaign email address, and texted the campaign via Facebook and Instagram hoping for comment, but received no reply.
City Clerk Prine just informed us that the Johnson Campaign had, in fact, sent its list of contributions to her but the City’s server “flagged and quarantined the e-mails as they contained language or URLs that were linked to political advertising which are prohibited.” She tells me the missing contributions will appear on the August 13 agenda.
We are sure Prine is telling the truth, yet something here is not right.
How is it possible that the Johnson Campaign failed to notice their contributions were not posted on multiple City Council agendas, even as they examined the contributions of their opponents on those same agendas?
We have removed my accusation about the 43 campaign finance violations and rewritten our report but will not be issuing an apology.
The Johnson campaign had every opportunity to provide us with a comment, and they had months to contact the City about the missing notifications but took no action.
We believe that if the full list of contributors to the Johnson Campaign appears on the August 13 agenda, it will only be because we and the other media raised the issue of campaign finance violations, not because a computer glitch was miraculously discovered by a City employee and reported to the City Clerk.