WASHINGTON – A D.C. businessman under investigation for allegedly financing a secret $653,000 funding campaign for D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray in 2010 allegedly also spent money on secret campaigns for seven other candidates for mayor and the D.C. Council.
Sources tell The Washington Post that businessman Jeffrey Thompson spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, including more than $100,000 in 2006 for the unsuccessful mayoral campaign of Linda Cropp.
Thompson is under federal investigation for allegedly organizing a secret funding campaign for Gray three years ago. Gray has denied having any knowledge of a shadow campaign.
Sources tell the Post money secretly went to many other D.C. candidates in recent years. The newspaper reports funding allegedly went to former council member Michael Brown and the council candidacies of Patrick Mara, a Republican, and Mark Long, an independent, in 2008.
Thompson also allegedly spent money in 2010 for council candidates Jeff Smith and Kelvin Robinson, both Democrats, and for council member Vincent Orange, D-At Large, in 2011.
Cropp, a Democrat who lost the 2006 mayoral primary to Adrian Fenty, tells the Post she had no knowledge of any illicit spending by Thompson for her campaign.
“We had a campaign that was above board,” she said.
Mara also said he was not aware of any secret money from Thompson. Other candidates mentioned in the Post report either declined comment or could not be reached for comment.
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