In November of 2011, John Foust won the election for Fairfax County Dranesville District Supervisor. According to his filings with the Virginia State Board of Elections, he had $21,440.00 on hand as of July 16, 2012 yet on August 3, 2012 (9 months after the election was over) Mr. Foust personally authorized a $20,000 payment to the McLean based Avalon Group, run by Mr. Foust’s personal friend Leslie Faye Mason, for “consulting services.” (I am unable to find a website for the Avalon Group in McLean.) [read_more]
One has to wonder about this expenditure. It constitutes almost the entire amount of Mr. Foust’s remaining cash on hand and comes 9 months after the election was over. What “consulting services” was Ms. Mason providing 9 months after the election was over?
I thought it would be best to ask Mr. Foust himself and sent two emails to his official email address as Dranesville District Supervisor and asked if he could produce an invoice which entitled Ms. Mason’s company to all the remaining cash in his campaign account.
Both emails proved unavailing, as he failed to respond. Until he does respond voters have a right to ask, why is Mr. Foust’s personal friend Leslie Mason receiving virtually all the cash left in a campaign account? Is there an invoice for such a large expenditure of cash and why did the expenditure almost exactly match the amount of money Mr. Foust had left in his campaign account?
Report of payment can be found here.
Foust’s approval of the expenditure:
14 comments
Since Mr. Foust and his supporters have failed to respond here we must presume something is wrong.
You’re an attorney and you’re actually saying that?
The address for Leslie Faye Mason’s Avalon Group is a personal residence in McLean worth a bit over a million dollars.
A fat consulting fee to a personal friend months after an election is over is about as large a red flag as is imaginable. It often spells kickback or embezzlement from one’s own campaign.
No wonder no one wants to answer the key question as to what the $20,000 payment for “consulting services” a full nine months after the campaign was over was for.
There’s obviously lots more to this but Foust and Mason appear to want to run out the clock.
Mr. Webster, thanks for posting this information. Knowing a bit about campaign finance reports, I have one question. If Leslie had provided consulting services to the campaign and had not been paid, did the Foust report show a debt? Any unpaid invoices during the campaign are to be detailed on the CFR.
SterlingGirl, I checked and there was no debt showing to The Avalon Group as of the end of the election cycle in 2011.
Maybe he bought a rug. Page 9 has the phone number that the group uses.http://issuu.com/davidadler/docs/wd-_april_1981_complete
Is Foust even bothering to campaign? It’s like this guy has just rolled over and is playing dead. It’s good news for the Republicans because they are going to take that seat in a cake walk.
I’m honestly not sure. Comstock’s side seems to be very good about covering a large number of local events and activities. I’ve seen more Comstock yard signs so far (only 1 for Foust) and as far as bumper stickers go, it’s probably about 50/50. I can tell you that I have received more mailings that are either Pro-Foust or anti-Comstock and only one that is Pro-Comstock. As I said on another post, all the political forecasters have this race as “Leans Republican” and that has not changed in the past several months, despite their making changes in the past couple of weeks to other races throughout the country. In the end, it will come down to turnout, as it always does, but I think Comstock currently has the edge.
Democrats don’t campaign to Republicans. They don’t send mailers to you, they don’t call you, they don’t email you. For years now, Republicans have been saying “I never see anything from the Dem, we have the election in the bag”. Then, on Election Day, the Republican loses. McCain, Romney, Allen, etc.
Here’s a hint – the Democratic Party has a very good database. There are very few voters in Fairfax County that we don’t know their political leanings. This gets more spotty as you go south and west, but even in the boonies we know about 75% of the electorate. As a result, Democratic candidates know where to spend their time and money and where not to.
One might expect to see Mr.Foust at County Fairs and other events but we have not. I hear that he had a brief visit to the Loudoun County Fair, one evening of the week long fair. Other than that, we haven’t seen him in Loudoun County all of which is in the 10th district.
May God grant that you are correct.
I hope you put the same effort into finding out about the 85 thousand dollars Comstock failed to report and where that money is?
According to the Washington Post article, it was indicated that this was an unintentional oversight. That may or may not be the case (I’m personally inclined to think that it is), but we will have to see. If this is all Foust is focusing on (plus social issues) I honestly don’t think he can carry the day in November.
[…] the Virginia and District of Columbia Bars currently practicing law in Herndon,” has written an article in The Bull Elephant raising the question of why, nine months after his 2011 election as a Fairfax County Supervisor, […]