Here’s the latest example that Wake County school board elections are becoming like other elections in having an “October surprise.”
As this online article shows, documents have surfaced just days before the election showing Wake County school board candidate Monika Johnson-Hostler was ordered by a court to pay a five-figure credit card debt three years ago.
A similar last-minute surprise took place in 2011 when documents surfaced shortly before the runoff election about school board candidate Heather Losurdo’s bankruptcy filing.
In this case, Wake County District Court Judge Lori Christian ruled in August 2010 that Johnson-Hostler must pay back nearly $14,000 to American Express. Court documents obtained by The News & Observer on Friday included a writ of execution ordering payment of $13,973 in principal, along with interest and court costs that drove the total to nearly $18,000.
Veronica Shingleton, Johnson-Hostler’s campaign manager, acknowledged the judgment, but questioned the timing of the information’s release four days before Tuesday’s school board election.
“The recession hit (Johnson-Hostler and her family) hard like it did for a lot of families,” Shingleton said. “To me, it’s interesting that this is coming out days before the election, and it’s disappointing; this had been such a positive race.”
Matt Scruggs, Johnson-Hostler’s opponent for the District 2 seat, said his campaign did not release the information.
A letter from Johnson-Hostler dated April 2010 said she didn’t know why her monthly payment of $105 from her bank account was no longer being automatically withdrawn. In her letter to the attorney for American Express, she offered to set up a new payment plan.
“They have been working hard to pay their debt,” Shingleton said. “They have been repaying as agreed to with the court on time since the judgment.”
