Another ugly episode from Bob Ehrlich and Michael Steele’s Maryland tenure is coming back to haunt them. This time it’s a state audit finding that while Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele were in office, Steele's close friend and advisor, Washington lawyer Sandy Roberts, who is black, posed as an independent airport retail business owner so that airport retail giant Hudson News could meet minority participation goals at Baltimore Washington International Airport.
The same Sandy Roberts owns Allied Berton LLC, the inactive firm to which Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele paid $417,000 of their donors’ money without explanation in the final weeks of their last campaign. Mr. Roberts’s website depicted the firm as an importer/exporter and commodities trader, not a campaign services business, and no other candidate or campaign ever reported payments to Allied Berton.
Here’s what the Maryland Aviation Administration said about Olympic News, Mr. Roberts' firm that claimed to independently operate six prime storefronts at BWI airport:
"This DBE firm was given an initial finding of noncompliance as it was determined to be operating in a manner that demonstrated that the DBE owner was not operating independently or managing and controlling its business ....
"Although [Mr. Roberts] indicated that his company is operating independently and that he is in control of the company, the information and documentation provided during this review did not support that statement...."
What’s most troubling is Mr. Steele’s denial of any involvement, according to the Baltimore Sun:
"Steele has said he was not involved in any airport deals, though he had worked to improve the prospects for minority businesses in the state.
and,
"Hudson [News] said it recruited Roberts from a list of business people approved as disadvantaged businesses.
No Retail Experience
Does anyone believe Hudson News simply picked Mr. Roberts from a list and his selection had nothing to do with his ties to the then-governor and lieutenant governor of the state that owns the airport? Mr. Roberts reported no prior retail experience, and court records show Mr. Roberts' small home- based on again/off again wholesale business accumulated a long list of judgments for failing to pay suppliers right up to the time he entered the relationship with Hudson News. His wife and business partner was under Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection (which was cured after their "lucrative" deal with Hudson News began to pay off).
Despite these deficiencies, the Ehrlich-Steele administration fast-tracked minority retail certification of Mr. Steele’s friend’s business so that he could enter the lucrative hands off partnership with Hudson News at the airport owned by the state they controlled. Hudson News could have partnered with many certified minority owned businesses with retail experience and without such baggage, but instead they claim they picked Mr. Steele’s friend "from a list."
A Pattern of Favoritism
We might believe Mr. Steele’s denial if Sandy Roberts was the only Ehrlich-Steele friend to gain state business during their tenure, but he was not:
Longtime GOP strategist Carol Hirschburg, pursuing a $110 million state computer contract, obtained fast-track minority certification during the Ehrlich-Steele administration that was later found to be improperly awarded and was withdrawn, as reported in the Baltimore Sun.
Joanne Vatz, the wife of Mr. Ehrlich’s close advisor, the commentator and Towson University Prof. Richard Vatz, started a computer business nine months after Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele were sworn in, obtained minority certification, and landed several no-bid state contracts, as reported in the Baltimore City Paper. [NOTE: Ms. Vatz continued to do state contract work through the O'Malley administration.]
Maryland GOP activist and Ehrlich-Steele campaign website designer Aaron Kazi similarly secured minority business certification soon after Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele were inaugurated, leading to a number of state contracts and participation in the same $110 million deal with Ms. Hirschburg, according to the Baltimore Sun. [NOTE: A trusted friend told me Mr. Kazi was exonerated.]
Alan Fabian, Mr. Steele’s senate campaign finance chairman and a top contributor to both Mr. Steele and Mr. Ehrlich, didn’t need minority certification to land a state computer contract from the recipients of his largesse. The Washington Post reported the same Mr. Fabian told federal prosecutors that Mr. Steele paid his sister, a pediatrician, $37,500 of his donors’ funds for "web design and catering." At the time, Mr. Fabian sought leniency for an unrelated $32 million fraud conviction. He is presently serving 9 years in federal prison, but this is far from the last word on Mr. Fabian.
Voters might tolerate a measure of favoritism from their elected officials, and it had been a long time since Maryland Republicans controlled the state, but Mr. Steele and Mr. Ehrlich would have a hard time denying they treated the minority contracting program and state procurement in general like a candy store for their political allies.
Why is this relevant now? For one, because in his present position, Mr. Steele controls the Republican National Committee’s checkbook and chooses which insider Republican consultants will be paid millions of donors’ dollars to lose yet another round of elections. Already his hiring of staffers and longtime associates (and their spouses and children) have raised eyebrows, as have the sums he has been paying to the Republican consultants who helped get him appointed RNC chair, Blaise Hazelwood and Curt Anderson.
For another, because a woman who ran a successful certified minority retail business with four storefronts at BWI for many years contends she was squeezed out to make way for Mr. Steele’s friend. Ironically, Mr. Ehrlich’s new law firm is defending the Ehrlich-Steele administration appointed airport management firm that she has sued for damages. It's an account that Mr. Ehrlich's best friend and campaign finance chair, David Hamilton, signed at the time the Ehrlich-Steele administration selected the airport mananagement firm to develop the "Air Mall" at BWI.
Several political associates of Michael Steele and Bob Ehrlich secured minority contracts during their tenure, but Sandy Roberts is particularly scandalous because a state audit revealed that he was acting as a front for a non-minority firm and not independently running a business. Then Steele and Ehrlich paid another firm Sandy Roberts owns $417,000 in their last campaign without satisfactory explanation.
Put this all together and it’s a dirty rotten scandal that merits serious attention because the United States has only two major political parties, and the chairman of one of them is at the center of this mess.
- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis
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