Rival campaigns for Baltimore City Council president traded barbs Thursday over newly released campaign finance reports.
Officials from the campaign of Michael Sarbanes raised questions about the fundraising report filed by City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake showing a negative balance.
“The $64,000 question is: What is going on with Stephanie Rawlings-Blake?s account? It was negative, and 17 days later she opens up a new account,” Keisha Carter said.
“There are 17 days unaccounted for, the last check that was received.”
The questions were raised after the Rawlings-Blake campaign filed a report showing an unexplained negative $64,000 balance in a closed account. Rawlings-Blake campaign officials attributed the report to an accounting “discrepancy.”
“We?ve closed it and [are] aggressively looking at [it] and [trying] to figure what has caused the discrepancy. We?re figuring that out now,” said Luke Clippinger, Rawlings-Blake?s campaign manager.
“There?s no money missing; it appears to be an accounting discrepancy that caused this problem,” he added.
Sarbanes reported $248,000 cash on hand for the period ending Aug. 7, giving him a lead over Rawlings-Blake, who reported a combined balance of $155,000 between the closed account and a new account.
“Stephanie has a greater amount of support in Baltimore; almost two-thirds of Sarbanes? money came from outside the city and half from outside the state,” Clippinger said.
Councilman Kenneth Harris, another candidate, has raised $44,000 and has $11,000 on hand, the report released Tuesday showed.
