You've got mail II
The very same day the Maryland Republican Party criticized Gov. Martin O'Malley for e-mailing several state workers to solicit campaign donations, a Republican used his own federal e-mail account to solicit volunteers for former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
Both are no-nos, and both candidates' campaigns say they're working to make sure such inappropriate e-mailings don't happen again. Here's more on the O'Malley e-mails to state employees.
News of the federal e-mailing emerged yesterday on former Ehrlich employee Joe Steffen's "Darkness Rising" blog. Steffen included the e-mail itself, from David Nawrocki, a volunteer with Ehrlich's campaign. The e-mail came from an official federal e-mail account that is not supposed to be used for political purposes. It includes instructions to reply to Nawrocki's private account. An excerpt:
From: "David Nawrocki mailto: David.Nawrocki@ssa.gov To: Undisclosed recipients:; Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 4:16:21 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern To All: Governor Ehrlich informed me that you would like to volunteer on his campaign. Please click on the Forward button first - (do not reply because we will lose your information) Copy and paste my email below into the “To” area of this email.If you haven't guessed, the "e-mail below" is a private account.
When asked about the e-mail incident, Andy Barth, Ehrlich's campaign spokesman, said, "We never have and never will condone the use of government resources for political purposes. We are reaching out to him and reminding him of what is and isn't appropriate and that this was inappropriate. We are directing him not to repeat it."
Ryan Mahoney, the Maryland Republican Party political director who alerted reporters to the O'Malley e-mails, has not responded to an e-mail I sent him yesterday seeking comment on Nawrocki, said it was more appropriate for the Ehrlich campaign to comment on Nawrocki.
"I do realize we just sent out a complaint about O'Malley doing it, but I think it's apples and oranges," he said. O'Malley is their boss, and it was sent to his employees.
Editor's note: This blog posting has been revised and corrected from an earlier version to clarify that the email sent by Nawrocki was soliciting volunteers, not donations, and to omit a reference to Nawrocki's intentions and knowledge when sending the email.
Comments
When did Andy Barth, who ran for Congress in 2008 as a Democrat, start working for Ehrlich? And if Ehrlich has campaign staffers, has he declared his campaign yet with the state?
Will the SSA employee face any punishment? I have to assume that he sent his email while at the office, so he may have been campaigning while he was being paid by the feds.
Posted by: Randy | May 20, 2010 10:02 AM
There is a BIG difference here. In O'Malley's case it was his campaign knowingly e-mailing state employees at their state employee addresses and not just one isolated incident, but over the course of months and some cases, years.
In the Ehrlich citation, it was an overzealous volunteer who probably mistook which e-mail account he had open. And there has not been one other example given.
Posted by: JoAnne | May 20, 2010 4:09 PM
Ah!, the hatch man and the ice skater live.
Posted by: John F. Kestler | May 21, 2010 6:58 AM