Governor hit for speaking at political event

Delegate rapped for letter gauging support for judge’s impeachment

The fundraiser, to be held in the Miller Senate Office Building, will be emceed by Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr., one of O’Malley’s close political allies.

Sponsorship for the event costs $50 to $250.

‘‘It’s our normal rally that we always have,” said Wayne E. Definbaugh, fundraising chair for the central committee.

The reception has been held in past years, and Gov. Parris N. Glendening was a featured speaker, Definbaugh said.

The committee expects between 300 and 400 people, but there will be no fee to get in the door, he said, ‘‘because you can’t charge anything to get into a government building.”

The sponsorship ‘‘helps pay for the food” and ‘‘helps build our party in Baltimore County,” Definbaugh said.

‘‘We’re not taking names of donors,” he said. ‘‘There’s no money changing hands there. That’s a government rule.”

As for O’Malley, ‘‘He’s just my guest speaker, he’s not actually doing fundraising,” Definbaugh said. ‘‘That’s that fine line.”

House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell said Thursday that he thinks O’Malley may be walking too close to that line.

‘‘The governor should not be involved in even the appearance of impropriety in regard to fundraising during the legislative session,” said O’Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby. ‘‘Of course this administration seems to always want to walk as close to the edge of the cliff of impropriety as possible. Some day they might just fall off.”

A member of Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s administration said the former governor once considered holding a unity breakfast around the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in 2003.

There was a consideration of charging $10 to defer costs, said Henry P. Fawell, who served as a spokesman for Ehrlich (R) and now works for the law firm Womble Carlyle, in the Baltimore office that Ehrlich opened.

‘‘It was a very embryonic discussion that didn’t make it very far because of the appearance issues,” Fawell said. ‘‘The idea was put aside because we did not want there to be even the appearance of fundraising during session. Instead, the governor held a very simple reception in the governor’s residence to honor the MLK holiday.”

State campaign finance law bars the governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller, attorney general and members of the General Assembly from raising money during the regular 90-day legislative session unless it is for a federal or local, but not state office, for which they are filed to run.

Del. Saqib Ali (D-Dist. 39) of Gaithersburg has introduced a bill to outlaw fundraising during a special session as well. Lawmakers reportedly raised $500,000 during the 22-day special session held last fall.

‘‘There’s a perception that it’s needed,” said Ryan O’Donnell, executive director for Common Cause Maryland. ‘‘When you have a special session like we just had when so much money was raised, people wonder why the same rules don’t apply as applied during the regular session.”

Definbaugh said O’Malley is avoiding violating the law because any reception sponsorship money will go to ‘‘the Baltimore County Democratic Central Committee and the fundraising effort done by the central committee rather than any elected official.”

On a different ethics question, Del. Patrick L. McDonough planned to send a letter today in response to a Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics decision on his use of a General Assembly letterhead.

Earlier this month, McDonough sent a survey to each member of the legislature asking their position on a case in which Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Katherine D. Savage dismissed rape charges against a Liberian immigrant because the court could not provide an interpreter who spoke the man’s language.

The survey asked members whether they supported impeaching Savage; McDonough has introduced legislation to impeach the judge.

‘‘No response will be placed and considered in the ‘do not care’ category,” the survey said. ‘‘This survey will be placed on a website for the public to review the position of the legislators on the issue. The results will be released to the media and the press.”

On Feb. 14, the joint committee voted unanimously that the survey McDonough (R-Dist. 7) of Middlesex sent using his official General Assembly letterhead and e-mail ‘‘constituted an improper use” under an Ethics Counsel opinion against correspondence related to a ‘‘political campaign.”

The committee chose not to take disciplinary action against McDonough, but found that ‘‘although [the] communication did not relate to a specific political campaign, it was coercively political in nature,” committee co-chairs Norman R. Stone Jr. and Brian K. McHale wrote in a Feb. 19 letter to McDonough.

‘‘The last paragraph was undeniably designed to bring political pressure on those legislators who disagree with your position by threatening to list their names on a political website in a completing misleading way,” the letter said.

McDonough said he would send a letter today to the joint committee and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis calling for a public hearing into the matter.

In the letter, McDonough alleges that because he was not present for the joint committee’s review of the issue his due process rights were violated.

‘‘I believe your decision is establishing a precedent that diminishes free speech, due process and fairness not only for me, but for other legislators in the future, enhancing the need for a public hearing,” he wrote.

Staff Writer Alan Brody contributed to this report.