The election committees of Gov. Martin O?Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown have returned almost $100,000 in contributions from a Hollywood producer who lives in Baltimore ? nearly one year after a government watchdog complained the contributions violated campaign finance laws.
O?Malley?s campaign treasurer, Martin Cadogan, sent producer James Robinson ? chief of Morgan Creek Productions ? a letter last month along with returned checks totaling $34,000 for O?Malley?s campaign and $62,000 for Brown?s. Cadogan said he recently learned Robinson is the sole stockholder of the various corporations that made the contributions, binding him to the state?s $4,000 cap per individual per campaign.
“We regret that there was confusion regarding the ability of corporations to make campaign contributions,” reads the letter, dated Aug. 13.
But both the campaigns and the state?s election board were made aware of the possible infractions days after Robinson made the contributions in November 2006, when government watchdog group Common Cause asked state prosecutors to investigate. At the time, a spokesman for Robinson and O?Malley told The Examiner a computer glitch with the state?s campaign finance database erroneously linked all the corporations to Robinson.
On Monday, O?Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said he believes the database was incorrect, but that violations took place as well.
“I think both things happened, quite frankly,” Abbruzzese said. “But once we realized these contributions were made in violation of campaign finance law, we moved quickly to correct it.”
Officials at the state?s board of elections said recent reports about the returned contributions were the first they heard of the infraction. Jared DeMarinis, director of the board?s candidacy and campaign finance division, said the agency has no investigative authority but reports suspected violations to state prosecutors. Common Cause, he said, went directly to prosecutors, removing any obligation to report the complaint.
O?Malley?s campaign identified the returned contributions in a report filed with the board Aug. 31. Brown?s committee has not reported any returned contributions this year.
