Jody Owens, the district attorney in Mississippi’s capital city who faces trial on federal corruption charges, has been fined for failing to disclose his most recent campaign fundraising and spending. But the state’s weak and much-criticized campaign finance enforcement system may spare him from the strongest sanctions — the loss of his government salary.
Owens, a second-term Democrat, was charged last year with disguising bribes to local city government officials as campaign donations to buy favors and steer influence over a fictitious real-estate development project for which he was working as a consultant. Owens has pleaded not guilty.
As of Monday, Owens still hadn’t filed a mandatory report of his campaign committee’s 2024 financial activities. The report was due in January. Missing that deadline led to Owens incurring a $500 state fine. Although he paid the fine last month, Owens still hasn’t provided the report. State law says his salary as district attorney should be frozen until he files the report — a mandatory sanction that has rarely, if ever, been used.
District attorneys in Mississippi are paid $134,400 a year.
Owens told The Marshall Project - Jackson on Thursday that he plans to file the report soon, adding that “public officials frequently file campaign finance reports after the deadline.”
A spokesperson for the secretary of state confirmed that Owens contacted the office early last week to ask about filing his late report.
Public records show that candidates and officeholders commonly lapse in their reporting requirements and file error-filled or illegible reports. This long-known problem, as well as the details of the bribery scheme federal officials allege Owens helped orchestrate, highlight the extent to which Mississippi’s campaign finance laws remain a dysfunctional system of lax rules and limited enforcement.
Owens is among five people who have been charged with bribery and corruption, with federal prosecutors saying that more than $100,000 changed hands, much of it through campaign finance accounts, to secure favorable treatment for a fictitious downtown hotel project concocted by the FBI as part of a sting operation.
Despite the law against spending campaign donations for personal use, federal authorities alleged that Owens described to undercover FBI sources a system in which “public officials finance their personal lives through their campaign accounts,” making campaign donations “the most effective way to influence them.”
In a statement last year following his arraignment in court, Owens called comments attributed to him in the indictment “drunken locker-room banter.”
Three defendants — Owens, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and City Councilman Aaron Banks — pleaded not guilty in November. Two more — former council member Angelique Lee and local businessman Sherik Marve’ Smith — pleaded guilty earlier last year.
Of the defendants, Owens is the only one who will still be in office as of July. Lumumba was defeated last month in his re-election bid and Banks didn’t seek re-election.
Owens won’t have to face voters again until 2027, if he seeks a third, four-year term. A trial in his bribery case is scheduled for July 2026. A conviction would force him out of office. Otherwise, there’s no requirement that he resign or take a leave of absence while he faces criminal charges.
Several prominent state officials have called for stronger enforcement of Mississippi’s campaign finance laws, with some pointing to the Jackson bribery scandal as reason to act. But the legislature has repeatedly failed to take up such legislation.
Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican, told The Marshall Project - Jackson in a statement that new laws and tougher enforcement are still needed.
“Our office recognizes, yet again, the numerous loopholes in Mississippi’s campaign finance laws,” Watson said. “While we appreciate the legislature has made efforts to fund a new online reporting system, we have tried for the last three sessions to improve the ability to enforce Mississippi’s campaign finance laws but have faced resounding opposition. Perhaps, the legislature will finally see the need for our robust reform efforts.”
On paper, Mississippi has penalties for failure to heed at least the most basic reporting requirements. By law, candidates can’t appear on the ballot if they aren’t current in reporting requirements, election winners can’t take office if they have outstanding reports and officeholders can’t be paid if they fail to follow ongoing reporting requirements.
However, enforcement involves a tangle of state and local officials operating under sometimes inconsistent laws.
Anyone with an active campaign account in Mississippi was required by the end of January to file reports listing donations to that campaign fund as well as any money spent out of the fund throughout 2024. Owens missed that deadline and was among 18 sitting elected officials to do so, according to a list compiled by the Secretary of State’s office.
The Secretary of State’s Office keeps the campaign finance reports for statewide and district office candidates, but can’t take any direct action to enforce the law or penalize violators. Instead, the office must report delinquent candidates or officeholders to the state Ethics Commission, which can then levy fines.
In an April 4 letter, the Mississippi Ethics Commission notified Owens that he was being issued a $500 fine for failing to submit his annual campaign finance report.
Owens paid the $500 fine in April, according to Ethics Commission Director Tom Hood. The letter informed Owens that he was still required to complete his campaign finance disclosures.
Under Mississippi law, Owens can’t be paid his salary until he submits the report — the strongest sanction that’s on the books.
The problem? Hood said he’s not aware that this law barring payments to public officials who don’t file their campaign finance reports has ever been enforced. It’s not entirely clear who would enforce it.
In response to questions from The Marshall Project - Jackson about this law, Owens simply said he wasn’t aware of any public officials having their salary withheld over delinquent campaign finance reports.
District attorneys are state employees and are paid by the Department of Finance and Administration, an executive branch agency. When asked about whether the agency has withheld or will withhold the Hinds County prosecutor’s salary, a department spokesperson said that the agency “is unable to withhold a salary from any individual without an official, legal notification.”
An opinion from the state Attorney General in 2000 advised a local government that it did have the obligation to withhold salary payments from elected officials who don’t submit campaign finance reports, but the opinion also said that the local government didn’t have to try and recover salary payments that were mistakenly made during a delinquency period.
Owens has failed to file campaign finance reports before. Public records show that since 2019, the Ethics Commission has fined Owens and his campaign committee five times for failure to file financial disclosure reports.
At the local level, including county and municipal governments, enforcement can sometimes be virtually nonexistent. Campaign finance reports for those offices are filed with local clerks. Those clerks are supposed to forward such reports to the Secretary of State’s office, but that sometimes does not happen, and it’s not clear whether the Ethics Commission even has the power to fine local officials.
For example, as mayor of Jackson, Lumumba also failed to file any annual campaign finance reports from 2022 through early 2025, and faced no penalties or sanctions. After he filed all the delinquent reports, local news outlets reported that not all the math seemed to add up from one report to the next.
And sometimes officials who are fined for late campaign finance reports don’t even pay the fines.
However, the Ethics Commission can’t do anything if sanctioned individuals don’t pay the fines. Instead, the commission must refer such cases to the Attorney General’s Office.