By Josh Kurtz
The Democratic primary for governor took a nasty public turn Tuesday, when author and former nonprofit CEO Wes Moore filed a complaint with two state investigative agencies, accusing “an unidentified party” of anonymously disseminating “false and disparaging information regarding Wes Moore via electronic mail and social media in an orchestrated attempt to disparage Mr. Moore and damage his candidacy.”
The complaint suggested that another candidate for the Democratic nomination, former U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr., “may be responsible for this smear campaign” — a charge the King campaign denies.
Moore and King are among the 10 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in the July 19 primary.
For weeks, an investigative dossier into Moore’s background has been circulated anonymously by email to Democratic activists, media members, union leaders and others, accusing Moore of fabricating parts of his from-the-bootstraps personal history, which he has described in books, interviews, social media posts and on the campaign trail.
The information has been delivered from the email address [email protected]. Maryland Matters sent an email to the address two weeks ago seeking to learn the identity of the sender. There was no response.
In a complaint filed Tuesday with the Maryland State Board of Elections and with the State Prosecutor’s office, Amanda S. La Forge, counsel for Wes Moore for Maryland, alleges that the individual or individuals disseminating the opposition research on Moore have violated campaign finance law because they have used email and Twitter to pass along campaign “misinformation” without a proper “authority” line that’s required on official campaign documents and social media accounts.
The Moore campaign tracked emails and tweets associated with Honest Dems over a period of months. A March 24 communication from the shadowy organization to delegates to last weekend’s Maryland State Education Association convention serves as an example of the message the group has been promulgating about Moore.
The group sought to dissuade the teachers’ union from endorsing Moore, questioning elements of his personal narrative, claiming he supported school voucher programs and that he “sought to enrich himself” by selling his autobiography, “The Other Wes Moore,” to Maryland public schools.
“I hope you will seriously consider the implications of all this and how Republicans will use this to win another general election here in Maryland, since this is where that research came from,” the missive to the teachers’ union delegates said. Read more at WTOP.
