A former ºüÀêÊÓƵ County councilwoman faces hundreds of dollars in fines for campaign finance violations, according to state records filed late last week.
Rochelle Walton Gray’s campaign committee accepted $1,300 worth of postcards in July 2020 from a political action committee tied to Tony Weaver, a former county employee who was indicted on fraud charges. But neither reported the donation as required.
Gray has an active campaign committee that seeks to reclaim the North County seat she lost to Shalonda Webb in August 2020. The violations trace back to that summer’s campaign, according to a .
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The Unified Democratic Township Organization PAC donated the cardstock to Gray’s committee, which used it for campaign postcards mailed to prospective voters. But the committee failed to report the donation.
The ethics commission ordered Gray and her committee to pay $228 of a $2,287 fine. If the committee violates any other campaign finance laws in the next two years, it will have to pay the remainder, according to the complaint.
Gray did not respond to a request for comment.
The commission also dinged Unified PAC and its former treasurer, Chevon Weaver, in on the same issue. Chevon Weaver is the daughter-in-law of Tony Weaver, who was an aide to Gray when Gray was on the council. He was working as an administrative position for the county jail in 2022 when federal prosecutors charged him with four counts of wire fraud in a COVID-19 kickback scheme.
United PAC never reported the donation of cardstock to Gray’s campaign, according to the complaint.
The PAC’s current deputy treasurer, former state representative and disbarred ºüÀêÊÓƵ attorney Elbert Walton Jr., declined to comment. Rochelle Walton Gray is his daughter. Chevon Weaver hung up when reached for comment.
And separately, Unified PAC failed to properly report a $10,000 donation from County Executive Sam Page’s PAC in May 2022, the complaint says. Donations over $5,000 must be reported within two days. The PAC didn’t report it until a month later.
The PAC paid the bulk of that money, $7,500, to Gray for “meetings and event planning, organizing, coordination and management.†It’s not clear what sort of planning took place because Gray didn’t respond to requests for comment at the time.
The commission ordered Unified PAC and Chevon Weaver to pay $328 of a $3,287 fine with the same requirement as Gray’s order — steer clear of campaign finance violations for the next two years or pay the rest.
The District 4 Democratic primary takes place Aug. 6. Webb, currently the chair of the County Council, has said she intends to run for reelection, while Gray has an active campaign committee. Candidate filing begins Feb. 27 and ends March 26.