Aug 17, 2007 9:34 am US/Eastern
Dixon's Sister Paid $20,000 For Campaign Work
BALTIMORE (AP) ―
Mayor Sheila Dixon hired her sister to assist her campaign manager this year and has paid her more than $20,000,
according to campaign finance records.
Janice Dixon has received $4,122 a month, on average, from the campaign since February. She has been at the center of two controversies involving the mayor in recent years, in which Dixon came under fire for steering taxpayer money toward her sister.
Many candidates put relatives on their political staffs. But Janice Dixon's work on her sister's campaign became known just a year and a half after questions about how her employer had received Baltimore city contracts.
Dixon's campaign manager, Martha McKenna, said Thursday that Janice Dixon works full time on the campaign for $2,500 a month. Other payments are for expenses, she said and pointed out that Janice has been on Dixon's campaign staff for most of the mayor's political career.
Janice Dixon was not available for comment Thursday, McKenna said.
"She knows a great deal about the support that Sheila Dixon has received in her 20 years in public service," McKenna said. "She knows the mayor's supporters from their childhood and growing up together and she knows the sign locations that the mayor has used in previous elections."
The campaign finance reports also raised more questions about Dixon's leading opponent in the Sept. 11 Democratic primary, City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. The report documented expenses made by Mitchell's father and former treasurer that the councilman is now challenging.
In July 2003, The (Baltimore) Sun reported that Janice Dixon worked for Dixon, then the council president, office as a paid employee. Several other council members also employed relatives, and the city's ethics board ruled that such employment violated city regulations. Dixon fired her sister.
The U.S. attorney's office launched an investigation, but that inquiry ended in 2005 without any action.
Campaign finance reports released by the Maryland State Board of Elections Thursday showed that Janice Dixon received seven payments totaling $1,865 since March. A firm called Imani-Ellison, LLC, in its corporation filing, lists Janice Dixon as the registered agent. It received an 28 payments worth $18,754.
State records indicate that Imani-Ellison was created in early this year and that its purpose is to "engage in and operate a consulting business."
McKenna said the mayor's sister is responsible for organizing the campaign's office and for overseeing political signs. She said Imani-Ellison was created to accept payments from the campaign.
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