MD GOP Candidate Recruits Homeless to Pass Out Deceptive Flyers

[Oilwellian]

Misleading flyers were handed out at several Maryland polling places by men and women recruited by the GOP governor's campaign from out-of-state homeless shelters, the Washington Post reports. The flyers, given to voters in a heavily Democratic area, showed GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich as a Democrat:

Erik Markle, one of the people handing out literature for Ehrlich, who is seeking reelection, and Steele, the current lieutenant governor who is campaigning to replace retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D), said he was recruited at a homeless shelter in Philadelphia.

After a two-hour bus ride to Maryland, Markle said the workers were greeted early this morning by first lady Kendel Ehrlich, who thanked them as they were outfitted in T-shirts and hats with the logo for Ehrlich's reelection campaign. Nearly all of those recruited, Markle said, are poor and black. Workers traveled to Maryland in at least seven large buses.


Ehrlich's GOP ticketmate, Senate candidate Michael Steele, is also listed as a Democrat on the flyer.

Update: Maryland's Gazette newspapers have more. "We’re just down here trying to make some money," one Philadelphia homeless man tells a reporter. Then, pointing to a picture of Ehrlich: "I don’t even know if this cat’s a Democrat or Republican."

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001960.php

[LiberalEsto]

1. How much were they paid?

Does anyone know?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. $100 plus two meals were "promised". Click through the Washington

Post link at the URL in your OP.

This is an Ehrlich-Steele limbo directly involving Ehrlich's wife--they'll never live this down IMO.

[hootinholler]

3. Is that legal?

From the WaPo article, page 3:

"Baker said he was one of about 300 people who boarded buses at Broad and Oxford Streets in Philadelphia, bound for Prince George's County. The bus was supposed to leave at 3:30, but didn't pull out until about 5 a.m."

Oh, GOD, Look at the response:

Terry Lierman, chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, said he has spoken with "a couple lawyers" about the legality of the fliers.

"We're going to iron that out after the election -- to see what can and can't be done," Lierman said Tuesday morning outside the polling station at Leisure World in Silver Spring. Lierman said he's going to speak with Maryland's attorney general after the election.

"Obviously, it's too late for this election," Lierman said, "but I want to see what rules and laws we can establish for the next election." He called the fliers "incredibly deceitful."

BULLSHIT! You should have gotten your ass before a judge with a cease and desist order, and this should have been on every radio and tv in the state.

A pissed Md. Dem.
-Hoot