With just a few days until the election Paul Cheng is denying he is in violation of campaign funding rules.
The two time London mayoral candidate offered the claim at a news conference held Friday at his campaign office on Horton Street. But moments after issuing a statement, Cheng bolted out the back door of the office in a bid to avoid questions from reporters.
"For the second time in 72 hours, the London Free Press has printed unfounded allegations regarding my character and campaign expenses. These allegations are speculative and untrue," Cheng said during the news conference.
The London newspaper had reported that Cheng admitted to one of its reporters that he spent roughly $10,000 more of his own money on his campaign than the $25,000 that is allowed under the Ontario Municipal Elections Act.
"I would like to make it clear, I am within the legal limits of campaign expenditure and am in full compliance of the Ontario Municipal Elections Act," said Cheng. "Media news articles, as opposed to editorials and opinion pieces, are supposed to be objective and factual, not biased and misleading. Let the citizens of London choose the best candidate to lead our city based on facts, not innuendos."
Cheng also called out outgoing deputy mayor Paul Hubert, who earlier this week re-shared a blog he wrote in 2014 suggesting Cheng is an inexperienced leader with little knowledge of the community.
"Amongst all the unflattering words, the most untrue statement was that I do not respect city hall. I would like to state that I do in fact respect city hall and in turn, the citizens of London," said Cheng. "Contrary to what Councillor Hubert and the London Free Press believe, I have been a dedicated Londoner for 49 years, working with numerous community organizations and boards to better our community."
Cheng went on to say that as mayor he would work with city staff and the incoming council to end the "bureaucracy and red tape" at city hall.
Declaring the news conference over and not taking questions for reporters, Cheng slipped out the back door of the office. While some reporters followed him, others met him outside.
"We are within the legal limits of everything. We have checked with the lawyers and we are all within legal limit," was all Cheng would say when asked whether he had personally loaned the campaign money.
Cheng quickly went back inside the building where he went into a room and again avoided questions from reporters.