Jeffrey Mims is the front-runner for Dayton’s mayor, having raked in 58.43% of the vote with two challengers in the 2021 primary. Some comments on his campaign finance records:

1. Unlike others, Mims’ treasurer actually filled out the forms provided by the Secretary of State instead of adding an attachment with a list of donors. This actually made the list more difficult to add into a database and more difficult to search. This is a problem with Ohio’s Secretary of State (Frank LaRose), campaign finance laws, and the state’s attempts to pretend to be transparent while actually being opaque.
2. Especially on the expenditure report, Mims’ treasurer failed to fill out much of the basic information. His treasurer, Willis Blackshear Jr., is in the state legislature, has worked for county government, and is the son of a long-term elected official. He should know better. These omissions don’t suggest anything nefarious—nor does anything in the expenditures appear suspicious—but allowing sloppy campaign finance reporting makes corruption easier for others.
3. Many entities on the expenditure list are entered multiple times with different variations of the same name. Again, this does not appear to indicate any corrupt activity on Mims’ part, but because the state does not require uniformity others can take advantage of this type of sloppiness. For example, donors can get away with exceeding limits by donating multiple times using variations of the same name. Or expenditures can be funneled into organizations that are difficult to trace.
4. 18 out of 40 donations come from outside of Dayton.
5. $12,075 out of the $22,250 Mims raised came from outside of Dayton. $17,075 if you include Doug Mann and Michael Dyer, who used their Dayton law firm’s address instead of their home addresses.

Jeffrey Mims 2021 Pre-Primary Campaign Donations

Jeffrey Mims 2021 Pre-Primary Campaign Expenditures