Editor&Publisher/AP: Baltimore 'Sun' Scoop: Governor Had to Return Half a Million in Campaign Funds
Published: November 03, 2006
BALTIMORE -- Gov. Robert Ehrlich returned more than $540,000 in political contributions to the Republican Party after state elections officials discovered that a federal account was used to funnel funds to his re-election campaign.
A letter from the State Board of Elections, obtained by The Sun newspaper, said use of the federal account to pay for the governor's re-election effort allowed Ehrlich to receive large sums of in-kind contributions from the state party by bypassing the $4,000 donation cap set by state law....
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The federal account, controlled by the state Republican Party, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions in the days leading up to a $1 million fundraising event in May featuring President Bush.
The state party spent money from the account on behalf of its candidates, Ehrlich and U.S. Senate candidate Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, for salaries, cell phones, mailings, postage and other services, state election records show. The in-kind contributions allowed the Ehrlich campaign to direct its own vast resources elsewhere, such as toward television advertising.
Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver said the campaign returned the money in response to the letter. State campaign finance records released Monday indicate the campaign transferred more than $540,000 to the party over several weeks from the end of September through mid-October....
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003351015
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