Last month, End Citizens United (ECU) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Margarita Wilkinson, Republican candidate for California’s 49th congressional district. The complaint alleges Wilkinson failed to file a personal financial disclosure report (PFD) in a timely manner.
Given that she appears to have loaned over $800,000 of her personal funds to her campaign, it raises even more questions as to why she’s attempting to keep voters in the dark—what’s she hiding?
Forbes: Self-Funded Candidate For Congress Blows Through Financial Disclosure Filing Deadline
Zach Everson
11/18/23
Key Sections:
-
A largely self-funded Republican running for Congress in California has missed a deadline to disclose exactly where her money is coming from.
-
Margarita Wilkinson, the general manager of Univision San Diego, filed papers with the Federal Election Commission on Aug. 15 to run for the House.
-
Candidates for the House are required to file personal financial disclosures with the House Clerk’s Office within 30 days of their campaigns receiving or spending $5,000, although they can request one extension of up to 90 days, according to guidelines from the House Committee on Ethics. Wilkinson’s campaign filings show she crossed the $5,000 threshold on Aug. 18. That means her disclosure or a request for an extension should have been filed with the House Clerk’s Office by Sept. 18.
-
As of Friday, two months after the filing deadline, neither Wilkinson’s disclosure nor a request for an extension was available on the clerk’s site. Wilkinson and a spokesperson did not respond to inquiries.
-
The lack of transparency is notable because Wilkinson appears to be fairly rich. She loaned $825,000 to her campaign, accounting for almost all of the $1 million the campaign had accepted by Sept. 30.
###