Bowser, at left, has become intimately involved in the battle for an At-Large seat on the D.C. Council, endorsing challenger Dionne Reeder, helping her raise money and campaigning on her behalf. (Photo by Andre Lee)

Government watchdog organization Public Citizen says D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser potentially violated campaign finance laws when she hosted a get-out-the-vote rally earlier this month where two candidates for the D.C. Council were fêted as “special guests.”

In a complaint filed on Tuesday with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, the organization said the rally was actually a thinly veiled—and possibly illegal—effort by Bowser to use her re-election campaign’s significant resources to benefit Democratic At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds and Dionne Reeder, a restaurant owner who is challenging Independent At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman. Bowser has endorsed both Bonds and Reeder.

Craig Holman, a lobbyist with Public Citizen, said that while D.C. law allows a candidate to put on a voter registration or get-out-the-vote rally, it has to be organized independently of any other candidate for office. If there is any coordination between the candidates, the expense of the rally can be considered an in-kind contribution from one candidate to the other. Under D.C. law, in-kind contributions—goods and services given to candidates in lieu of money—are allowed, though they have to abide by traditional contribution limits. For At-Large candidates, that’s $1,000.

Holman said the rally—held at a large restaurant in Northeast D.C. on Oct. 14, and advertised via a citywide mailer paid for by Bowser’s campaign—far exceeded that limit for both Bonds and Reeder.

“Mayor Bowser is seeking to get around the contribution limits to her favored candidates by staging a campaign event as a GOTV drive,” said Craig Holman. “That doesn’t cut it. The candidates are materially involved in the event, so Bowser’s expenditures for advertising and the rally constitute an in-kind contribution to the candidates.”

Bowser has become intimately involved in the At-Large race, where voters get to choose two candidates. Bonds, the Democratic nominee, is expected to win, but the fight for the seat currently held by Silverman has become especially heated. Bucking mayoral tradition, Bowser has endorsed Reeder, helped the challenger raise close to $100,000, and has actively campaigned for her.

Bowser, herself facing no real challenge ahead of the Nov. 6 election, has said Silverman is not collaborative, and has complained about her pointed questioning of agency heads during Council hearings. Silverman has countered that Bowser wants her off the Council because she’s an independent-minded legislator.

China Dickerson, an advisor to Reeder, rejected the claim that Bowser had coordinated with their campaign in organizing the rally. “Dionne was there as a special guest,” said Dickerson.

As for Bowser, campaign manager Malik Williams did not address the complaint itself, but rather questioned who may have prompted it.

“We had heard the Silverman campaign was going to file this baseless complaint, but I guess she had Public Citizen go negative for her,” said Williams in an email. “Clearly, Silverman is concerned about the momentum shifting to Reeder, but going negative is not what voters want to see.”

Silverman confirmed that she spoke to Holman about the rally and her concerns, but Holman said that Public Citizen’s decision to file a complaint was their’s alone.

“I reached out to Craig to get an expert opinion,” said Silverman. “The law is the law, and we have to operate with campaign finance law which has clear guidelines about independent expenditures and coordinated expenditures. And given that the other candidates were appearing at the event and benefitting from the public outreach, I felt it was a coordinated expenditure.”

Office of Campaign Finance spokesman Wesley Williams declined to comment, saying the matter would remain confidential under the investigation is completed.

This isn’t the first time Public Citizen has taken on Bowser over campaign finance violations. In early 2017, the group said Bowser took in 23 contributions worth $31,500 that exceeded the $2,000 limit for individual givers. Bowser’s campaign was ultimately fined $13,000 for those violations.

During her first year in office, Bowser’s allies created a political action committee named FreshPAC that sought to take in unlimited contributions from well-heeled supporters of the mayor, including corporations and contractors that do business with the city, to help support her agenda and candidates aligned with it. While the PAC’s organizers had said they expected to raise $1 million in its first year alone, they ended up shutting it down after an outpouring of criticism over where the money was coming from and how it would be used.

“Dionne clearly knew this was happening, she appeared at the event, she promoted the event,” said Silverman of Bowser’s rally with Reeder and Bonds. “It’s clear there was coordination between the campaigns.”

This story was originally published on WAMU.