Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson paid campaign money to firm tied to his new Republican group

Everton Bailey Jr.
The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson won reelection by a landslide in May then started paying a consulting firm run by his former chief of staff thousands of dollars a month in campaign funds, records show.

Adept Strategies, which was registered with the state on the same day the mayor reported making his first payment to it, is also tied to a group created by Johnson to promote Republican mayors.

Johnson said in campaign finance reports he paid the firm more than $110,000 for “strategic consulting services” from May 15 to Dec. 20. The series of seven payments, which ranged from $4,000 to more than $21,000, started soon after Johnson was reelected May 6.

State records show Adept Strategies was founded by Mary Elbanna. She left Johnson’s office as chief of staff in February 2022, according to city payroll records.

Johnson’s campaign finance reports list Adept Strategies’ mailing address as a Dallas post office box. The Republican Mayors Association uses the same box as its mailing address, and Elbanna is one of five national board members listed for the organization. Johnson launched the mayors’ group last fall after he announced he was switching party affiliations from Democrat to Republican.

The connections raise questions about where contributions to Johnsons’ nonpartisan campaign for mayor are ultimately ending up.

Texas politicians have flexibility in how they spend their campaign funds as long as they support their political activities, but when that money appears to move to closely related groups, it demands an explanation, said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

“When you get these kind of connections — shared mailboxes, a member of the board receiving large payments — that has to be explained,” Jillson said. “It’s in the mayor’s interest to explain that in a way that readers of the main newspaper in town can understand.”

Neither Johnson nor Elbanna returned multiple requests to comment on the spending or discuss the work being done by Adept Strategies on behalf of the mayor.

The spending is coming to light amid bigger questions about Johnson’s focus on his duties as mayor of Texas’ third-largest city. A recall effort launched in January questioned his dedication to the job and pointed to missed City Council meetings. Johnson also missed nearly 70% of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Board meetings between January 2021 and December 2023, records show.

Johnson is also in the midst of a divorce, and his wife recently accused him of having an affair with a city employee in 2021. Johnson, his attorney and the now-former city employee have denied the allegations.

Social media postings show Johnson has been active in promoting his Republican Mayors Association, at one point traveling to Indiana last fall to support an Indianapolis mayoral candidate.

‘Consulting services for what?’

Johnson was the only choice listed for voters in the Dallas mayoral race on May 6, securing his second and final four-year term.

He was first elected mayor in 2019 after a campaign run by Elbanna. She started as an intern in Johnson’s office when he was a state representative and rose to his chief of staff while he was still a state legislator. She served as his mayoral chief of staff from 2019 until she left in November 2021, following the killing of her father. She formally resigned in February 2022.

Records show Johnson and Elbanna continued to work together after his reelection. The mayor reported spending $113,000 in campaign funds from July to the end of 2023. About 60% of that tally went to Elbanna’s firm, Adept Strategies.

Adept Strategies doesn’t appear to have a website or any social media accounts. Elbanna, who is listed in state filings as its registered agent, is currently enrolled in law school at the University of Pennsylvania, according to a LinkedIn profile bearing her name. Johnson also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s law school in 2003.

In his latest campaign finance report, the mayor also reported paying $21,500 to Strategic Partners and Media, an Annapolis, Md.-based advertising and consulting firm that lists the Republican Governors Association, Republican Senator Mitt Romney’s 2012 Presidential campaign and former Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson among its clients.

Johnson also paid that same firm nearly $146,000 between April 27 and June 30, according to his campaign finance records.

The rest of his spending for the second half of 2023 went toward flights, gifts, restaurant meals and other expenses. He reported ending the year with nearly $832,000 in campaign money on hand.

It’s not unusual for politicians to keep spending campaign funds even when they are term-limited, Jillson said. But the mayor should still fill the public in on why most of the money is going to a firm closely tied to a group he founded, he said.

“That is the kind of activity that demands an answer that the mayor or any other elected official can reasonably be called on to explain because the organization, if it’s not a shell for Mayor Johnson’s aspirations, it’s very near that,” Jillson said. “I mean, consulting services for what? It’s presumably a brand new organization that the mayor will only be associated with for a couple more years while he continues to be mayor.”

Common sense beliefs

The Republican Mayors Association officially launched Oct. 20, one week after it was incorporated in Delaware. Johnson is listed as its chairman and president on the group’s website.

The organization’s header photo on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, shows the downtown Dallas skyline in a shade of red, along with the group’s logo and the phrase, “preserving, protecting and defending the American dream one city at a time.”

Dallas and Dallas County have largely favored Democrats, and Johnson identified with the party until he announced in September that he was switching to Republican.

“In service to our communities and nation, the RMA is dedicated to promoting smaller, more efficient, more transparent, and more accountable municipal government and upholding the safety and security of our citizens by electing and retaining Republican mayors who share these values,” the group says on its website.

On X, the group shares clips of Johnson’s appearances on Fox News explaining why he believes more cities need Republican mayors, highlights the election victories of other Republican mayors and shows Johnson at a Nov. 3 campaign event for Jefferson Shreve, a Republican nominee for Indianapolis mayor. Shreve later lost to incumbent Democrat mayor Joe Hogsett.

In January, the RMA announced Johnson had been voted as president of the group he founded. It also identified Elbanna as one of five members of the group’s national board.

The other national board members are former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, who ran for California governor as a Republican in 2021; private equity investor and former Republican National Committee co-chair Tommy Hicks; William Palatucci, a Republican National Committee member from New Jersey who helped lead a political action committee that backed former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign; and Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming.

The group also announced McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos; Marion, Ind., Mayor Ronald Morrell Jr.; and New Britain, Conn., Mayor Erin Stewart as members of its advisory board.

The Republican National Committee announced on Feb. 14 that Johnson would receive the 2024 Trailblazer Award during the group’s annual Black Republican Trailblazers reception.

“The RNC Trailblazer Award is presented to someone who displays an exceptional leadership background in the Republican Party,” a news release from the RNC said. “Whether it be working to advance conservative legislation, helping to get Republicans elected, or committing themselves to growing the Republican Party, trailblazers have a track record of getting things done.”

In a video message released Feb. 14 accepting the award, Johnson said he couldn’t accept the award in person, “due to an important vote that I have to take in the morning to protect our local taxpayers.” A Dallas City Council meeting was held the next day, where the group voted to approve a $1.25 billion bond package onto the May 4 election ballot for voters.

“I hope my story offers hope to those who are considering leaving the Democrat Party, like I did just a few months ago,” Johnson said in the video message. “To those who are contemplating this often difficult decision, let me just say this: It is not too late to choose the only political party in America that shares our common sense beliefs.”