Community organizer Stephen Smith gives the platform for the WV Can't Wait movement before filing for the Democratic primary for governor in January 2020.
CHARLESTON – A West Virginia progressive group working to elect a slate of mostly Democratic statehouse candidates has donated thousands in direct and in-kind donations to those candidates since the May primaries, but you wouldn’t know that from their campaign finance reports.
A review of campaign finance reports between the end of April through Oct. 23 filed by the WV Can’t Wait Action Committee, an arm of the progressive WV Can’t Wait group co-founded by community organizer and former Democratic primary candidate for governor Stephen Smith, showed no expenditures by the committee on their second quarter, third quarter, and general reports.
However, a review of the campaign finance disclosures for the same time period for 18 House of Delegates candidates and three state Senate candidates endorsed by WV Can’t Wait found that the committee spent $4,038 on $250 donations to 16 of those candidates. Another $11,612 was spent on in-kind donations to 14 of those candidates.
The reports are publicly available through the West Virginia Secretary of State’s online Campaign Finance Reporting System (CFRS). State Code requires every political action committee to “… keep detailed accounts of every sum of money or other thing of value received … including all loans of money or things of value and of all expenditures and disbursements made, or liabilities incurred, by the candidate or political committee.”
According to its 2022 general report covering the time period between Oct. 1 and Oct. 23, the WV Can’t Wait Action Committee raised $3,125 for that period, and raised $24,841 for the election year-to-date. The committee has a cash balance of $58,043. But the same report shows no expenditures by the committee.
Yet, most WV Can’t Wait endorsed candidates show at least a $250 donation from the action committee and multiple in-kind donations, ranging from the purchase of social media ads; door hangers, mailers, and postcards; technical assistance, and staffing.
“It sounds like they’re missing reporting,” said Donald “Deak” Kersey, chief legal counsel for the Secretary of State’s Office, in a phone conversation Friday morning.
“In-kind contributions are contributions and should be reported by the person providing the services or the goods as an expenditure or a contribution depending on what they did. If they just bought mailers and they coordinated that production with the candidate, it would be an in-kind to the candidate and an expenditure by the committee. If it’s a straight donation, it’s a straight expenditure. It’s pretty simple on the ins and outs,” he said.
For example, Democratic candidate Andrea Greer, running in the 13th Delegate District in Wood County for an open seat, received a $250 direct donation from the WV Can’t Wait Action Committee as well as $2,150 in in-kind donations over a six-month period. Greer faces Republican Scott Heckert.
Mountain Party candidate Dylan Parsons is running in a three-way race in the 7th House District. He also received $250 from the WV Can’t Wait Action Committee and $1,301 in in-kind donations since the 2nd quarter report was filed with the Secretary of State’s office. Parsons faces incumbent Del. Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall, and Republican Charles Sheedy Sr.
In an emailed explanation Friday morning, WV Can’t Wait co-founder Stephen Smith placed blame on the missing expenditure data in the campaign finance reports on the Secretary of State’s CFRS for not populating their information in the online reports. Smith provided a spreadsheet showing the action committee’s contributions and expenditures since the beginning of the year.
“As always, we’ve uploaded our complete contribution and expenditure data, consistent with the Secretary of State deadlines,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, that information is not populating correctly in the state’s software, and therefore the public-facing data.”
Smith cited previous issues with CFRS during his run for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2020. Smith outraised his Democratic opponents by leaps and bounds with hundreds of thousands of small-dollar donations, overwhelming CFRS. Smith lost the Democratic primary to Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango, but raised more than $975,000 off of small-dollar donations.
“This is not the first time we’ve had challenges … with the Secretary of State’s software, given the large number of contributions and expenditures we report,” Smith said. “They’re working on the tech now; we’re waiting to hear from them on the right next step. We have been consistently impressed by the speed and friendliness of the staff in the Secretary of State’s office, despite these technical difficulties.”
A request for comment from the Secretary of State’s office regarding Smith’s assertions was not returned Friday afternoon. But a political operative who has done work for Democratic candidates this cycle and past cycles cast doubt on Smith’s claims. The operative, who declined to be named, said it makes no sense that multiple campaign finance filings would all show no expenditures.
“Look, the CFRS can be a pain at times, but … everybody else makes it work,” the political operative said.
WV Can’t Wait began as an arm of Smith’s gubernatorial campaign in 2019 but later united several Democrats, Republicans, Mountain Party members, libertarians and Independents to run for office in 2020 under a progressive platform. Despite Smith’s 2020 Democratic primary loss, the group claimed several victories in local races and saw two incumbent House of Delegates members and two new House candidates elected in 2020.
The WV Can’t Wait Action Committee is registered as a political action committee with the Secretary of State and the Federal Election Commission. It is also registered as a 527 political organization with the IRS. WV Can’t Wait also has two c-corp. non-profit organizations registered with the Secretary of State: WV Can’t Wait Votes, and WV Can’t Wait Mutual Aid.
In March, the WV Can’t Wait gave out 40 “Hometown Heroes” awards. Each recipient received a $2,000 check to honor their charitable work in their communities. Last year, WV Can’t Wait launched ReplaceJoeManchin.com, a fundraising effort to support a progressive candidate to challenge U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin , D-W.Va., when his second term is up in 2024 or have a candidate ready should Manchin retire.
- Community organizer Stephen Smith gives the platform for the WV Can’t Wait movement before filing for the Democratic primary for governor in January 2020.
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