March 29, 2024
Annapolis, US 46 F

Maryland’s GOP chief calls for Pittman to withdraw ethics complaint

The Maryland Republican Party learned today that on September 24, 2018, a complaint was filed at the State Board of Elections against Democrat candidate for Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman’s campaign. The complaint alleges 22 violations of COMAR 33.13.07.02 for distributing email communications without an authority line over the period of March 27, 2018 to August 21, 2018.

According the Maryland Republican Party Chairman Dirk Haire: “From the information I’ve reviewed, it appears that Mr. Pittman has been sending campaign emails without the required authority line. I am less bothered by this standard type of violation, and more bothered by the fact that Mr. Pittman filed an ethics complaint against County Executive Schuh two weeks after he had a complaint filed against him. Given the meritless claims of the Mr. Pittman’s ethics complaint, this has all the hallmarks of retaliation.” Mr. Pittman’s campaign reportedly filed a county ethics complaint against County Executive Schuh yesterday, alleging that Mr. Schuh should not be communicating with county residents on county government matters during a campaign.

Chairman Haire continued: “More to the point, I think voters are plainly sick of all this tit-for-tat over obviously trivial matters. I’ve read County Executive Schuh’s four-page memorandum and it discusses in detail several Crofton area school and development concerns. It is squarely within his official duties. There is no violation. Mr. Pittman appears to have committed a very minor election law disclosure violation, for which he could be subject to a small fine. I’ll make a deal with Mr. Pittman right now – if you withdraw the meritless ethics complaint, I will publicly support a waiver for any fine that might result from the authority line violation.”

Chairman Haire continued: “As Chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, I am publicly taking the lead right now on ending this destructive game of tit-for-tat. It has gone on for too many years in politics, and someone needs to break this unproductive cycle. Mr. Pittman and County Executive Schuh each have competing visions for Anne Arundel County. Let’s have them each make their best case to the voters on policy and issues, without unnecessary distractions.”

Dirk Haire is the husband of Anne Arundel County Council Republican Candidate Jessica Haire who is running for the District 7 seat.

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