BILL JOHNSON
Republican Bill Johnson, who left the U.S. House on Jan. 21 to become Youngstown State University, moved the $873,721 he had in his congressional campaign account to a political action committee that existed for less than three weeks and then finally to his leadership PAC.
Johnson for Congress, his principal campaign committee, was closed with the money left in the fund moved to Ohio Belief PAC, which was organized June 28. Two days later, Johnson transferred the $873,721 in the Ohio Belief PAC to Belief in Life and Liberty PAC (Bill’s PAC), which is his leadership PAC organized May 22, 2013, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data.
Leadership PACs are established by members of Congress and other political leaders to support candidates for federal and nonfederal offices, according to the FEC.
Also, Johnson closed Ohio Belief PAC on Monday, less than three weeks after a statement of organization with the FEC was filed creating it.
Johnson said he is undecided if he was going to give the money to candidates, but wants to use some of it to benefit YSU. How that can be done is unclear though he gave $1,000 on Jan. 26 to the YSU Penguin Club, a booster organization that supports student athletes at the school.
Johnson, who represented the 6th Congressional District for 13 years before his resignation, also said he can keep the leadership PAC open as long as he lives.
“We’ve utilized the same FEC compliance firm (Professional Data Services Inc. of Athens, Georgia) for years and they have handled campaign accounts for hundreds of members of Congress, including retired members,” he said. “They recommended this procedure. What’s most common — and what we did — was to transfer the remaining funds from our campaign committee to my long-standing leadership PAC.”
Johnson said: “Since I have no plans to ever run for office again, the campaign committee is no longer needed. The proper procedure defined by the FEC is to convert the campaign account into a temporary, non-candidate PAC. It was not a new organization. It was the same account, but just recategorized because a direct transfer is not allowed. The process our compliance team used is FEC approved.”
During the 2021-2022 cycle, Bill’s PAC raised $77,304 and spent $69,660. It received its funding from PACs and contributed to the Ohio Republican Party, county Republican parties and Republican officeholders and candidates.
Bill’s PAC received no contributions besides the transfer between Jan. 1, 2023, and this past June 30 and reported $1,064 in expenses as of June 30 of this year. It had $1,609 before the transfer. It had $875,330 in it as of June 30.
On Jan. 6, 2023, Bill’s PAC notified the FEC that it was changing its filing frequency from monthly to quarterly. The FEC acknowledged that change four days later.
The PAC then notified the FEC on Jan. 15, six days before Johnson officially resigned from Congress, that it was going to go back to filing monthly. The FEC acknowledged that Feb. 6.
The PAC didn’t have to file its July report until Saturday, but filed it five days early.
The filing deadline is the 20th of each month through October and then it is Oct. 24 for the pregeneral period, Dec. 5 for the postgeneral period and then Jan. 31, 2025 for its annual report, according to the Feb. 6 FEC letter to the PAC.
While Johnson’s last day in Congress was Jan. 21, the YSU board of trustees announced his hire on Nov. 21.
When Johnson was planning to run for reelection before his YSU hire, his committee raised $860,848 and spent $1,047,891 in 2023.
Because of a large surplus from previous campaigns, he ended 2023 with nearly $1 million in his fund. And that was after he gave a $235,000 contribution on Nov. 29 to the National Republican Congressional Committee as part of an overall spending amount of $402,583.28 during 2023’s fourth quarter.
Johnson also closed Johnson Leads Committee on Feb. 15. That was a joint fundraising committee formed by Johnson’s now-closed campaign committee, Bill’s PAC and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Republican Michael Rulli of Salem won a June 11 special election for Johnson’s unexpired term. Rulli resigned his state senator position the day after the election and was sworn in June 25 to the U.S. House.
Rulli will run Nov. 5 against Democratic Michael L. Kripchak of Youngstown, who he defeated by 9.7% in the June 11 special election, for a full two-year term in the Nov. 5 general election.
The 6th Congressional District includes all of Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison, Monroe, Noble and Washington counties and portions of Stark and Tuscarawas counties.
