Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is responding to recent concerns about her campaign finances raised by her opponents in the September Democratic Primary.
Warren says her campaign will return $21,000 to donors, money that one of her opponents, James Sheppard said had gone over campaign finance limits.
But speaking to reporters at her campaign headquarters Friday, the mayor says it’s being done to move on to other more important city issues, not because she feels she did something wrong.
"My team and I truly believe that we do not need to return this money that we are within, that we’re within our legal rights in obeying the campaign finance law, but because this is an issue that has been raised over and over again I will return it based on his list , to those individuals that he says I need to return it too.”
Sheppard issued a statement saying he’s gratified Warren has chosen to do the right thing, but says she should have done it earlier.
And Rachel Barnhart, another Democratic candidate for mayor said she still feels Warren has violated campaign law, and contends it is an issue voters care about.
Warren also responded to questions raised about how her trip to the Democratic National Convention was funded last year.
“I didn’t talk about me, Lovely Warren, I spoke about the great work we are doing in the city of Rochester, what we’re doing as it pertains to pre-school enrollment and job training programs. I spoke about the advancement of Rochester and the team we have here working together.”
Warren says there are real challenges in the city that should be discussed, and says she doesn’t want to make the campaign about personal attacks.
