Strange Bedfellows

Del. Jon Cardin, a proponent of campaign finance reform, said he will continue to accept corporate donations leading up to the 2010 election even as he presses for approval of a bill that creates a publicly financed campaign option that would prohibit such contributions.

Cardin was one of two legislators who participated in the telephone news conference Wednesday morning touting the release of a poll that he said shows public support for campaign finance reform. Both Cardin and Sen. Jamie Raskin were asked during that news conference if they would promise not to accept campaign contributions from corporations beginning now. (You can read the full poll results here.) (more…)

Remember the dust up back in the mid-1990s about an allegedly math challenged Barbie? That’s the doll some claimed said, “Math is hard.”

Meet her counterpart, the Campaign Finance Ken doll.

OK, he doesn’t really exist. After all, what kind of kid would want to play with him? (Other than maybe political reporters, that is.) (more…)

County Executive Jim Smith is out of the comptroller’s race, and the conventional wisdom is that he’s going to use his war chest of more than $1 million to set himself up as a king maker.

If he does, Steve Bailey, a Republican state’s attorney candidate in 2006, thinks influencing the 2010 election and Smith anointing his own successor would violate the rules of fair play.

“It’s not a Republican or Democratic issue,” said Bailey, who acknowledged that if Republicans were in power they would use the laws to their advantage. “It’s a good government issue.” (more…)

County Executive Jim Smith’s recent announcement raised questions pertaining to his future and what might happen to the more than $1 million he has raised since being re-elected in 2006.

Smith’s statement (you can read it here) is all we have to go on officially. The county executive declined to be interviewed on the subject before leaving town to visit a daughter (who was expecting to give birth this week).

But sources within the Smith campaign were willing to shed some light on the subject. (more…)

Councilman Ken Oliver’s trial Tuesday marks the first time a Baltimore County Councilman has been charged with a crime while still in office. If convicted of any of the charges, which include two felonies and six misdemeanors, Oliver could be forced to resign or be removed from the position he has held since December 2002 — which would also be another first in Batimore County. (more…)

Mike Gimbel, the former longtime substance abuse czar for Baltimore County, appears to be looking at a return to county government — this time as a county councilman.

Gimbel confirmed his interest after being asked about a campaign account he registered last year with the Maryland State Board of Elections. (more…)

Sometimes a reporter writes a story and gets the facts right but unintentionally opens the possibility for a misunderstanding.

Such is the case in a Feb. 19 article about several councilmen who are raising money for a possible run for county executive. Councilman Kevin Kamenetz left me a voice mail to say that the language in the story could lead the casual reader to believe he raised money this year during the comprehensive rezoning process. (more…)

Indicted Councilman Ken Oliver’s campaign finance troubles continue.

Oliver’s campaign account is now frozen after his campaign treasurer, Robert Gregory, who is also a member of the county planning board, quit. State law requires that each campaign account have a treasurer before it can raise or spend money. (more…)

It was reported here last week that Ronald Lipscomb, through four companies he controls, donated $11,000 to County Executive Jim Smith on Dec. 9, 2005.

The question is: Why?

Lipscomb is the Baltimore developer and former boyfriend of Mayor Sheila Dixon. A state prosecutor’s investigation of Dixon appears to be centering around the pair’s relationship and gifts that she may have received while she was City Council president and votes she may have made on city contracts that went to Lipscomb’s companies.

In Baltimore County, Lipscomb’s relationship (if one can use that term) with Smith is less clear.

Lipscomb and Doracon, his company, didn’t donate a dime before that time and haven’t donated anything to Smith since, according to state campaign finance records.

Rachel Rice, a Belair-based consultant, organizes fundraisers for both Smith and Dixon. Lipscomb donated to both, but Rice said she never shares donor lists of one client with another.

No county contracts have been awarded to Doracon or related companies, according to Don Mohler, a Smith spokesman.

There appear to be no special connections with the 2005 date of the donations either.

In 2005, Smith attended his first International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas. The convention is billed as the place to see and be seen if you’re a developer or government official looking to woo a developer.

Again, nothing. Mohler said he did not know if Lipscomb or other representatives of Doracon attended. If they did attend, no one met with Smith or other county officials.

The best Mohler could come up with was that the two had met at an event of some kind and hit it off.

“It’s probably casual meetings,” Mohler said. “(Smith) would be at an event and meet and chat.”

“Ronald Lipscomb is a well-known leader,” he said. “I think it would be hard to move in those circles and not meet him. It’s probably impossible to find someone who didn’t know Ron. That’s really about the extent of it; he’s around.”

Lipscomb was not immediately available. A message left by a reporter seeking comment was not returned.

Ronald H. Lipscomb, a Baltimore developer who is tied to an investigation of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, donated $11,000 through four companies to County Executive Jim Smith.

Smith’s campaign received a $1,000 donation from RHL Strathdale, $2,000 from Arizona Crossing, and two donations of $4,000 each from RHL Development and Doracon Development LLC on Dec. 9, 2005, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Maryland State Board of Elections. All four companies list an address at 3500 E. Biddle Street, the headquarters of Doracon Contracting, the company founded by Lipscomb. (more…)