'Holding about 5 people’s pay hostage': Candidate sued for not paying staff despite spending $3M

10 January

One campaign staffer for a Virginia U.S. House of Representatives candidate who lost her 2024 race is filing a lawsuit against his former boss, accusing her of withholding more than a month of pay.

In November, Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal failed to unseat Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) in the commonwealth's second congressional district, losing by just under 16,000 votes. Now, the Virginia Scope's Brandon Jarvis is reporting that former campaign staffer Dawann Steagall is pursuing legal action in Virginia Beach General District Court to get wages he said he was promised.

Jarvis wrote that while Steagall was paid for the month of September, he still has not been paid for work performed in October and through the November 5 election. Steagall had agreed to work for the campaign to help with field organizing and "constituent work," and said he was offered a job on Cotter Smasal's campaign without having to apply.

Text messages Jarvis obtained show Steagall communicating with campaign manager Brenna Crombie about getting the pay he was owed. One screenshot shows Steagall asking Crombie: "Hey is the pay problem solved?"

"No unfortunately [to be honest] Missy is holding about 5 people's pay hostage right now," Crombie responded, saying that she too was also waiting to be paid for work she did for Cotter Smasal's campaign. Steagall then opened a new text conversation with both Crombie and Cotter Smasal. In a screenshot of a text message from the candidate, Cotter Smasal told Steagall that Crombie "did not have authorization to hire a contractor for October and November, and told me she made that clear."

"Brenna told me on multiple occasions that you were volunteering and trying to be helpful, and not officially working for the campaign," she wrote. "I think the two of you need to have a candid conversation. I've been told multiple times that you already had."

Following that text, Crombie responded in the one-on-one text conversation with Steagall, telling him that due to him contacting the candidate directly, she would no longer be able to help him get the money he was owed.

"Buddy... you went directly to Missy?" Crombie wrote. "I just lost all the power I had to get you that money by tomorrow."

Steagall told the Scope that at no point was he under the impression that he was a volunteer as opposed to a paid staffer, and said he had received multiple "all staff" emails sent to his official campaign email account. He added that as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's former field director for Virginia's second congressional district in 2022, the campaign manager for a Virginia state delegate in 2023 and the constituency director for Virginia state delegate Michael Feggans, he had never seen volunteers do the high-level work he did for Cotter Smasal's campaign.

Data from the Virginia Public Access Project shows that Missy Cotter Smasal spent more than $3.2 million on her unsuccessful bid to oust Kiggans. That amount was only half of the $6.4 million spent by Kiggans' campaign. The 2nd congressional district is one of the most competitive in the country, which was represented by former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) before Kiggans defeated her in the 2022 midterms.

Click here to read the Scope's full article.

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