GOP Labor Commissioner candidate Bruce Thompson faces campaign finance complaint

ATLANTA – A Buford, Georgia woman has submitted a marketing campaign finance grievance accusing Republican Labor Commissioner prospect Bruce Thompson of violating Ga campaign finance guidelines. 

The FOX 5 I-Team examined the allegations and found Thompson put in some $35,000 from his aged condition Senate campaign for his recent Labor Commissioner race.

Jeri Tyler has two loves: boarding and feeding her present horses and reminiscing about the previous horse races she followed, political horse races.

“I experienced a newspaper, and I was all over politics a large amount,” mentioned Tyler 

Tyler was the coronary heart and soul of the Hog Mountain Herald until 1996.

Reporter: “You ended up editor, publisher and owner?”

 Tyler: “Yup.”  

Reporter: So, at heart you are a journalist?”

Tyler: “”Yup.”

The previous journalist is now stepping back again into the political activity she so loves. 

Tyler has submitted a campaign finance complaint towards a statewide applicant running for Georgia Labor Commissioner, Bruce Thompson. 

“I’m hoping the voters will have a likelihood to see what form of person he is,” Tyler stated. 

Thompson has been a Republican Point out Senator out of White, Georgia considering that 2013. But, when Labor Commissioner Mark Butler introduced he was retiring, Thompson resolved to operate for his seat.  

The I-Team first reported on then State Senator Thompson all through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In March 2020, Senator Thompson posted a picture on Facebook, telling men and women he’d been rushed to an intense treatment unit with respiratory failure.

He reported he was identified with COVID-19.

Thompson promised, on Facebook, on March 22, to “continue to be at home in self-quarantine for the immediate long term.”

Then Thompson drove to his seashore household on St. George Island, off the coast of Florida. Thompson explained to people on Facebook he had a clear bill of wellbeing.

“The audacity of a gentleman, who had this ailment a few times back, and arrived into a local community that has been virus-absolutely free is irresponsible. I am just past text,” Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith reported.

An outraged Florida sheriff, A.J. Smith, reported he would write-up a deputy exterior Thompson’s beach property to preserve him inside and guard the neighborhood local community.

Thompson determined to appear household and hardly ever answered the FOX 5 I-Team’s concerns about the incident. 

Now, Thompson faces criticism about how he is paying for his race for Georgia Labor Commissioner. Records that are very easily uncovered on the campaign finance web page.

“If you know the place to look it pops proper up. Anybody could come across it. Not just me. Any person who desires to choose the time and hard work could do this,” Tyler said.

Jeri Tyler’s complaint alleges Thompson has illegally applied donations from his condition Senate campaign for his labor commissioner race. 

The regulation looks really distinct. A candidate can only use contributions for “that elected business office for which these contributions were being gained” 

In other words, Thompson can not consider dollars people today gave him for his state senate marketing campaign and use it to run for labor commissioner. 

“It seems to be apparent the statute states one particular point, and he’s executing another,” stated Dr. Adrienne Jones.

Jones is an assistant professor of political science at Morehouse Higher education. FOX 5 requested her to evaluate the complaint. She claimed it seems Thompson is violating the statute. She problems about the huge amounts of income it will take to run campaigns in the fashionable political earth, still.

“For an office like labor commissioner, or any elected workplace, what folks are looking for is an individual who is going to abide by the regulation. If it is a violation of the guidelines, it is a violation which usually means he both does not know the regulation or is disregarding it consciously,” explained Jones.

When the I-Team reviewed Thompson’s campaign disclosures, it seems to be like he expended some $35,000 from his Senate account to fork out a few distinct men and women to do the job on his labor commissioner race.

“The position of the Labor Commissioner is to make certain Georgians are used, so you will not want another person who isn’t honest with money, isn’t truthful in their own organization,” claimed Jones.

Thompson did not want to do an job interview but sent FOX 5 a assertion calling the complaint a “baseless, final minute attack by a desperate opponent who has led the most ethically challenged and scandal plagued agency in Ga.”

When the I-Workforce wrote back again asking point-blank why he utilised Senate campaign cash to fork out for persons performing on his labor commissioner race, he referred it to his lawyer.

Jeri Tyler has a “Mike Coan for Labor Commissioner” indicator in her front lawn. He was deputy labor commissioner less than Mark Butler and took a go away of absence to operate for the occupation.

She mentioned she filed the criticism because people today in significant areas need to have to adhere to the law.  

Reporter: “Did you file this for him. Did you file this on his behalf?”

Tyler: “Not seriously. Not actually. I’m undertaking this for the reason that I’m all set for our govt to be cleanse.”

FOX 5 by no means listened to from Thompson’s law firm. Republican candidate Mike Coan wrote FOX 5 to say he is calling on Bruce Thompson to return the contributions he utilized from his Senate account to their rightful donors and choose obligation for his misuse of marketing campaign cash.