Jason Wells, a Republican candidate for mayor, wants to focus on public safety, including creating a city jail. Photo courtesy Jason Wells
JACKSON — The Republican nominee for Jackson mayor, Jason Wells, today told the Jackson Free Press that he has not filed documents with the Jackson City Clerk showing either how much he has spent on his campaign or the amount of donations, which has been about $1,000 to himself, he said, seeming surprised at the question. He has purchased a small amount of signage with that money, he said in an interview in the JFP office today.
The Democratic nominee, Chokwe A. Lumumba, followed through on a campaign pledge to this newspaper on April 28 to file a supplement report listing the addresses of campaign donors where possible. The Lumumba campaign missed the April 25 filing deadline for the primary, saying that it had an influx of last-hour PayPal donations that needed to be sorted. He filed the required April 25 report on April 28. That day, his campaign coordinator and sister, Rukia Lumumba, said the campaign planned to file a supplement report listing all available addresses.
As of April 28, Lumumba was third in the money race for mayor, but won over 55 percent of the primary vote to avoid a runoff.
Independent mayoral candidate Jaclyn Mask, a real-estate agent whose signs started blanketing Belhaven and Fondren in the days before the primary, was snippy when asked on Facebook if she had filed a report. Because independent candidates do not run in primaries, their reports are not due with the Jackson City Clerk until May 30.
So far, Mask seems to prefer using social media for campaigning, following the theme of making Jackson great again. She posted her top campaign pledge on her Jaclyn Mask for mayor Facebook page: "First plan of action as your leader will be to send all of the free loading, lazy life suckers of our capital city packing!"
Libertarian candidate for mayor, Corinthian Sanders, filed a report on time on April 25, 2017, showing that he had raised $240 and spent $187.50.
The City Clerk's office is posting the reports here including for both Ward 6 candidates, Aaron Banks and Ernest Slaughter.
Read more Jackson city election coverage at jfp.ms/election2017.
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