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Election 2022 Government & Politics

O’Malley Seeks to Capitalize on Report Brown May Have Used Federal Campaign Funds on AG Race

U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown (D) spoke at a Baltimore news conference in support of The Reconnecting Communities Act in May 2021. Photo by Hannah Gaskill.

Rep. Anthony G. Brown may have violated Maryland’s campaign finance law by using his federal campaign account to bankroll his bid for state attorney general, according to a Time magazine report published on Monday.

Brown’s campaign manager denied any wrongdoing, but the congressman’s rival in the July 19 Democratic primary, former Baltimore City District Court judge Catherine Curran O’Malley, seized on the report almost immediately.

Brown launched his campaign for state attorney general in late October, hours after incumbent Brian E. Frosh (D) announced he would retire rather than seek a third term. But his federal campaign committee continued to run up expenditures for many months, primarily for the salary of the person tasked with raising money for his aborted congressional re-election bid.

That staffer immediately became a fundraising consultant to Brown’s A.G. bid. Campaign manager Dylan Liau-Arant said in an interview the staffer was wearing two hats, “winding down” the re-election bid and raising money for the new race, an arrangement he described as commonplace.

Time’s analysis of Brown’s federal campaign report included nearly $40,000 in expenditures supporting his A.G. bid between November 2021 and March 2022, the months that followed his decision not to seek a fourth term in Congress. The single largest expense was more than $24,000 paid to his fundraising chief. Brown’s most recent state campaign finance report, filed on Jan. 12, showed “$0.00” in staff salaries for the previous year.

Other federal campaign expenditures went for catering, office space and “compliance services.”

The congressman’s apparent use of federal campaign funds for a state race “may be illegal,” Time reported. Under Maryland law, contributions to state-level campaigns are capped at $6,000 per election cycle.

Ann Ravel, a former Federal Elections Commission chair, told the magazine Brown’s use of money from his federal campaign funds represented “a credible violation, since it’s clearly, under the law, a contribution.”

Brown declined to speak with Time about its investigation.

Liau-Arant said the fundraiser’s salary was not listed in Brown’s most recent state report because “he did not invoice the campaign before the January report.”

“His compensation for the AG race will be reflected in the next Maryland finance report,” he added. Reports detailing state candidates’ first six months of campaign spending this year are due to be filed with the Maryland State Board of Elections in mid-June.

It’s not unusual for fundraising staff to defer salary until late in a campaign, to help their candidate show robust cash-on-hand numbers. O’Malley’s chief fundraiser, Colleen Martin-Lauer, is not listed as having drawn a salary in the former judge’s most recent finance statement, even though Maryland Matters reported in November that she had joined the campaign.

Liau-Arant said Brown’s campaigns have “followed all state and federal rules.”

O’Malley’s campaign sought to spotlight the Time article as a reason why Democrats should support the former judge.

“The allegations in the Time story raise serious issues that call into question Congressman Brown’s judgement as he pursues the top law enforcement job in the state,” said campaign manager Catherine Larsen. “The people of Maryland deserve an Attorney General who holds themselves to the highest legal and ethical standards.”

This is not the first time Brown’s campaign financing practices have made news.

Late in his unsuccessful 2014 campaign for governor, the then-lieutenant governor personally guaranteed a $500,000 loan from the Laborers International Union of North America. The funds were needed because his once-large lead over Republican opponent Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. had shrunk significantly. It would take Brown over three years to repay the loan.

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O’Malley Seeks to Capitalize on Report Brown May Have Used Federal Campaign Funds on AG Race