Marlene Gonzalez's Campaign Workers Raise Tax Issues

Remember I told you how bad that judicial race was? Well this is part of a series I'm doing on that race in which there are some genuine concerns - magnified by the fact that the issues surround a campaign for a judicial seat.

Religious and non-profit entities are strictly forbidden from political activities. You can't be tax exempt and participate in political activities. Its a pretty simple rule.

That is why there is some controversy around volunteers or people employed by Marlene Gonzalez campaign. I say volunteers or people employed for a reason - because it is unclear.

I'll get to the pay thing shortly. For now, lets talk about facts. The non-profit in question is called Ministerio en Victoria. When you google them this is the website that shows up. It says its a Christian Rehab Center.

If you go to their Facebook page, its looks like its a church. They have video of entire church services on the page. From the photos, video, and the fact that the name is in Spanish, it looks like this is an organization that largely serves the Latino community. 

Looks like they have good reviews for what they do. This isn't a critique of the organization in the least. But there are some really important questions. 

According to Marlene Gonzalez's finance reports there was a contribution made to the organization (which I don't think judicial candidates are even allowed to do, though I'm still researching) on February 16, 2020. 

What is significant about that date?

It was the Sunday before the start of Early Voting. You'll see why that is important later. 

Marlene Gonzalez had what basically every other campaign in town was envious of during early voting...people power. Most campaigns were struggling to get coverage of polling places and Gonzalez had them all covered and had multiple people at the voting locations. Many of them were former clients based on my conversations with several of them. 

But several of them were young men that came from Ministerio en Victoria. How do I know? Well I'm glad you asked...

Because one morning when I was putting up signs at Pavo Real I saw a van pull up. I saw that it had the ministry name on the side and at first I didn't think anything of it. But then it hit me that they might be brining voters to vote so I went to grab my lit to hand out. When I went over to go talk to what I expected were voters, I found out it was a couple of the Gonzalez poll sitters. They all had gray hoodies and carried signs on Alameda. 

Later in the morning I was approached by one of my walkers who asked me if we could hire one of the guys because they weren't getting paid. Being the curious soul that I am, I struck up a conversation with one of the young men and asked him if he was volunteering. He shyly answered in Spanish that they weren't paid. To which I replied in Spanish, "oh, so you're a volunteer?"

He replied to me in Spanish that they had to be out there in exchange for room and board. 

Anecdotally I heard that they were paid $300 each for their time poll sitting during early voting. I can't verify that because it wasn't on any of the finance reports - which could be entirely on the up and up because of the timing of the 8 day report. But even if that number is accurate, which I hope it is not, that is pretty bad. If they didn't get paid and were out there in exchange for room and board, that would be an issue unto itself. But if they were paid $300 for the entirety of early voting, that is almost in some ways worse. Early voting was generally 9am-6pm, and ran for 13 days. That is a total of 104 hours of work if they stayed out there all day. $300 divided by 104 hours meant they were getting paid $2.88/hour. 

Are there people that volunteer to be out there all day during early voting? Sure. Not as many as their used to be, but yes they exist. But if they have to be out there for room and board - that is its own issue. But if they are out there for pay, I sure hope the $300 I was told was at lest per week. Then that would be about $5.76/hour. 

Both well below minimum wage. For Latino men being asked to work outside under the sun holding a sign in weather that would go from cold in the morning, to hot in the afternoon, back to cold in the evening. And don't get me started on the wind...

I sure hope that $300 contribution that just happened to be made right before early voting wasn't the compensation in its entirety. 

But lets back up for a minute. 

What were they doing working for a campaign to begin with? 

Whether that organization is a religious organization or a non-profit, they aren't supposed to participate in political activity. And as an organization - they most certainly were because they used their church / organization resources to transport the workers to the polling locations until someone raised the issue and then it suddenly stopped. 

And by someone, I mean me. 

But lest someone should doubt if they were actually using church / non-profit resources to transport the workers to conduct political activity days after receiving a contribution from a political candidate and those workers were campaigning on behalf of said candidate - I have video. 

There's always video, right?

This was taken at the Carolina Center on February 25th at 8:40am.

Quite frankly I don't know how it could be argued in the least that this isn't a very clear violation. How much more political of an act do you get then using your non-profit/church vehicle with the advertising on the side of the vehicle, to drop off and pick up campaign workers, at an early voting location, wearing campaign gear, and holding campaign material? 

Red-handed, smoking-gun - pick your metaphor here but the Gonzalez campaign is literally caught in the act here. 

And while you are attacking the incumbent at every turn about "justice" and "following the law" - while simultaneously engaging in an act like this, it certainly says one of two things - either they didn't know the laws involved, which is a terrible visual for a lawyer wanting to be a judge - or they knew the law and didn't care. 

I personally don't think its the latter. 

But sadly, there's more to discuss about this race. 

Stay tuned...