Large payments of campaign cash to a commodities firm owned by a Bob Ehrlich/Michael Steele friend warrant prosecutors' attention.......
Especially since new information suggests a different firm was paid for the 2006 Philadelphia busing/fake ballots ploy.
When the election fraud indictments of top Bob Ehrlich aide Paul Schurick and campaign consultant Julius Henson were announced last week, no one questioned the Ehrlich campaign paying Mr. Henson's firms $111,150 for his services.
Like it or not, Mr. Henson is a campaign service provider, and $111,150 isn't an unreasonable payment to a campaign consultant who has collected some $1.2 million from Maryland candidates since 1999.
State and federal election law permits candidates to spend their donors' money for campaign purposes only, and no matter what we make of Mr. Henson's fraudulent robocalls approved by the Ehrlich campaign, they were placed for campaign purposes.
But if the Maryland State Prosecutor meant business when he said, "the investigation is continuing," he shouldn't overlook earlier Ehrlich campaign payments totaling a lot more than $111,150 to a firm owned by an Ehrlich/Steele friend who never had anything to do with campaigns...
Two years ago, Baltimore's WBAL TV senior investigative reporter Jayne Miller uncovered $417,000 in mysterious payments from campaign committees controlled by then-Gov. Ehrlich and his Republican ticket mate, then-Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, to Allied Berton, LLC, a commodities firm registered to their friend, the Washington lawyer, Sandy Roberts, who has never been in any kind of campaign services business. See the firm’s website as it appeared before and after Jayne Miller’s story broke and judge for yourself whether or not it is a legitimate enterprise.
The Allied Berton payments were spread over 28 transactions in the final weeks of Mr. Ehrlich's and Mr. Steele's unsuccessful 2006 campaigns from four state and federal campaign committees they controlled, including the Maryland Republican Party's federal account:
Bob Ehrlich for MD 09-07-06 $34,241 food, transportation
Bob Ehrlich for MD 09-11-06 $11,646 transportation
Bob Ehrlich for MD 09-15-06 $40,000 salaries and other compensations
Bob Ehrlich for MD 09-29-06 $2,870 rent and other office expenses
Bob Ehrlich for MD 10-09-06 $30,000 salaries and other compensations
Bob Ehrlich for MD 11-01-06 $100,000 salaries and other compensations
Bob Ehrlich for MD 11-01-06 $10,721 rent and other office expenses
Kristen Cox for MD 11-03-06 $73,101 media (radio, tv, newspaper, billboards)
Steele for MD (FEC) 10-08-06 $15,000 political consulting
Steele for MD (FEC) 10-23-06 $30,000 political consulting
Steele for MD (FEC) 11-04-06 $13,600 political consulting
Steele for MD (FEC) 11-07-06 $6,000 political consulting
MD GOP Fed Acct 11-01-06 $50,000 vehicle rentalsvolunteers
An Ehrlich spokesman suggested to Jayne Miller the payments "might have" been for Mr. Ehrlich's and Mr. Steele's 2006 racially-targeted election day ploy involving filling six buses with indigent men recruited from a Philadelphia program for ex-offenders on the promise of three square meals and $100 each, delivering them to Maryland where Mr. Ehrlich's wife, Kendel Ehrlich, gave them a pre-dawn pep talk before sending them into predominantly African American precincts to pose as Ehrlich/Steele volunteers handing out sample ballots suggesting popular African American Democrats endorsed Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele. Later on, Mr. Ehrlich refused to answer when Jayne Miller asked directly if the Allied Berton payments were for the 2006 Philadelphia busing/fake ballots racially targeted election day ploy.
Maybe Mr. Ehrlich refused to answer because the Allied Berton payments were not for the Philadelphia busing/fake ballots ploy.
Information exposed here for the first time shows the same Ehrlich, Steele and Maryland Republican campaign committeespaid $976,000 to firms of legitimate campaign service provider Delphine Hall Anderson Mobley, including these payments that look very much like the Philadelphia busing/fake ballots ploy...
MD GOP Fed Account 11-02-06 $10,000 GOTV-food expense-generic
MD GOP Fed Account 11-02-06 $6,650 Food expense/staff
MD GOP Fed Account 11-02-06 $6,500 Election day lit drops non-candidate
MD GOP Fed Account 11-02-06 $55,000 Election day lodging&travel-vols
MD GOP Fed Account 11-02-06 $8,200 GOTV calls generic
Bob Ehrlich for MD 11-06-06 $21,857 Printing and Campaign materials
When I asked her by phone in 2009, Ms. Mobley said she was not involved in any manner with the Philadelphia busing/fake ballots ploy, and I have no basis to question her word. She is a credible campaign consultant specializing in direct mail, which would explain the bulk of the $976,000 that the Ehrlich, Steele and Maryland Republican committees paid her. Ms. Mobley said she did not work with volunteers, lodging, transportation, phone banking, or GOTV (Get Out the Vote) activities. So why did Bob Ehrlich and the Maryland Republican party report the payments listed above?
The peculiarity of reporting payments to a direct mail specialist like Ms. Mobley for work she says she didn't do is overshadowed by the mystery of the Allied Berton payments.
State and federal election laws sensibly prohibit campaigns from using their donors' money for non-campaign purposes, and federal law prohibits campaigns from paying proxies to conceal the true purpose and recipients of campaign expenditures. Mr. Ehrlich, Mr. Steele, and the Maryland Republican Party would be hard pressed to explain what legitimate campaign purpose was served by paying $417,000 of their donors' money to a commodities trading firm owned by a friend of theirs who has never been paid for any services by any other campaign before or since.
We can only hope Maryland's state prosecutor and the federal prosecutors reportedly probing the robocall matter finds answers to these questions as their investigations continue.
- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis
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See Bob Ehrlich and Michael Steele's Widening Airport Scandal for more on their curious relationship with Washington lawyer Sandy Roberts.