Ehrlich & Md GOP need to return $144,000 from convicted felon
If you think Bob Ehrlich doesn’t listen to Maryland Democrats, you’re wrong: In 2006, when the Maryland Democrats asked Bob Ehrlich to return $16,000 contributed to his campaign by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Mr. Ehrlich honored their request the very next day.
Today we’re going to find out if Mr. Ehrlich only returns felons’ dirty money when he’s flush with cash and it’s not enough money to hurt his campaign, because yesterday the Maryland Democrats asked Mr. Ehrlich to return the $60,000 of stolen money that convicted felon Alan Fabian contributed to Mr. Ehrlich’s campaign. The Maryland Democrats also asked the Maryland Republican party to return $84,500 contributed by Mr. Fabian, who is presently serving 9 years in federal prison for stealing $40 million from businesses in a computer sale-leaseback scheme.
Why do contributions from Mr. Ehrlich’s last campaign matter today, and why should he return them?
Because Mr. Ehrlich never faced the music on his dangerously cozy relationship with the criminal Mr. Fabian.
A state traumatized by the recent resignation of Baltimore's mayor over a corruption scandal cannot be kept in the dark about the way Mr. Ehrlich conducted the peoples' business when he was governor. We've had four years to watch Mr. O'Malley, and nothing remotely resembling Mr. Ehrlich's cavalier ethics has emerged. On the issue of favoritism, cronyism, and corruption, there is a clear difference between Mr. Ehrlich's conduct and his successor's.
Maryland’s press dutifully reported when Mr. Fabian was indicted, pled guilty, and was sentenced, but largely ignored Mr. Ehrlich’s relationship with Mr. Fabian, and the little bit that was reported missed key facts. At the time, the press incorrectly perceived Mr. Ehrlich as a has-been, not worthy of their attention.
Meanwhile Mr. Ehrlich quietly continued his relationship with Mr. Fabian, collecting at least $55,000 in fees for his law firm from one of Mr. Fabian’s fraudulent businesses, all hidden from public view under a court imposed seal secured by former Ehrlich administration staffer turned Womble lawyer, J.P. Scholtes.
Altogether, Mr. Ehrlich and his former lieutenant governor, Michael Steele, collected $387,000 in direct and bundled contributions from Mr. Fabian, his wife, his businesses, and his employees and associates. Mr. Fabian divided his contributions between Mr. Ehrlich’s campaign, his running mate Kristen Cox’s campaign, Mr. Steele’s various state and federal campaign accounts, the Maryland Republican party’s accounts, and the Republican Governors Association.
A contribution to the Maryland GOP was as good as a contribution to Mr. Ehrlich’s own campaign because the party illegally paid the salary of Mr. Ehrlich’s campaign spokeswoman from the Maryland GOP's federal account, among other illegal payments, as the Sun’s John Fritze reported, and Mr. Ehrlich allowed the Republican Governors Association to run TV ads trashing Baltimore.
What did Mr. Fabian get in return for his contributions?
A $2.2 million no-bid state contract awarded under suspicious circumstances while Mr. Fabian was flying Mr. Steele around the country in his private jet.
A ‘culture of corruption’
Mr. Ehrlich won his first gubernatorial contest in 2002 campaigning against what he called a "culture of corruption" in Annapolis, but after he won he presided over Maryland’s most corrupt administration since Spiro Agnew. His closest friend and personal lawyer, David Hamilton, quickly set up a "government relations" practice selling access to Mr. Ehrlich to corporations like BAA, the British airport management giant that won a $300 million BWI contract from Mr. Ehrlich over the Bethesda based Marriott affiliate and longtime BWI concessionaire, HMSHost.
"We didn't have a government relations practice before he [Mr. Ehrlich] was elected," Mr. Hamilton told the Washington Post, "But clients started coming to us and saying, 'Can you help us?' And it's worked out pretty well."
Mr. Ehrlich’s wife drew a $50,000 annual salary from Comcast for playing the part of Maryland’s first lady on a series of half-hour PSAs that can best be described as never meant to be watched by anyone. Tellingly, the job disappeared as soon as her husband lost his re-election bid and was no longer of value to Comcast, and it was suspiciously omitted from her otherwise complete career history on the Ehrlichs’ campaign biography earlier this year.
A series of Ehrlich friends, GOP insiders, and their spouses secured state business by abusing minority set-aside programs, one of whom was also paid $417,000 in donors’ money from four different campaign accounts Mr. Ehrlich and former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele controlled, as WBAL senior investigative reporter Jayne Miller revealed.
But Mr. Ehrlich’s politically toxic relationship with Mr. Fabian tops them all.
- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis
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