Thursday, April 16, 2015

Indianapolis City-County Council Candidate Reports $3,000 In Campaign Contributions From Church Groups


Churches and religious organizations are generally prohibited from engaging in political activity in order to maintain their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. Advance Indiana was surprised to see $3,000 in campaign contributions listed on  campaign finance reports filed by Councilor Stephen J. Clay, the slated Democratic candidate seeking election in District 13. Clay was selected by Democratic precinct committee persons last November to fill the unexpired term of Steve Tally following his election as Lawrence Township Trustee. He is running unopposed in the May 5 primary election.

According to Clay's campaign finance report, his campaign committee, "Friends of Stephen J. Clay," reported receiving on April 8 a $500 contribution from Shalom Church, a large black interdenominational church in Florissant, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb abutting Ferguson. Today, his campaign committee filed a supplemental large campaign report showing two contributions from the Baptist Ministers Alliance on April 14, one for $1,500 and one for $1,000. Clay, who is the senior pastor of Messiah Missionary Baptist Church, formerly served as the president of the Baptist Ministers Alliance of Indianapolis and Vicinity. According to records on file with the Secretary of State's office, Clay incorporated the nonprofit organization on March 23, 2010. Former City-County Councilor Lonell Conley is listed as the nonprofit's registered agent.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's it going to take to get any info available from Child Protective Services on Clay?

Can churches donate to political candidates?

Gary R. Welsh said...

I know nothing about the CPS issue. That was something Abdul was putting out there.

Anonymous said...

I don't know about Abdul but I can introduce you to a few CPS sources.

Anonymous said...

Stephen Clay is only concerned about Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, and becoming the Indy Jesse Jackson.

He has issues. What about his 'affinity' with boys?

What about his power struggle with 'whitey?'

It is time to report to the IRS all of his Political Contributors who are tax-exempt. They cannot hold tax-exempt status and support a Political Candidate.

Flogger said...

Even if these contributions are not legal, this will probably be filed in the No Action Taken folder by our Local "Justice" Units of Government. The persons name om the Large Contributions does not have an address which is required by the form.

Concerning the form itself Memo to ever is charge of forms - We now have Spreadsheets that can be used via a Computer. This Technology and software is nearly 25 years old. However, in Indiana we would not want to rush things along. A spread sheet would allow an easy searchable data base but we would not want something like that in Indiana.