Campaign 2024
Nick Mosby lists nearly $10,000 from Baltimore Gas & Electric, the company he denounced during last year’s conduit debate
UPDATE: BGE says the contribution recorded in Mosby’s latest financial report is inaccurate; only $450 was given by the utility.
Above: Nick Mosby at a City Council hearing on the BGE conduit deal. (CharmTV)
A year ago, City Council President Nick Mosby injected himself passionately into the underground conduit controversy, denouncing the deal struck between Baltimore Gas & Electric and Mayor Brandon Scott as “nothing more than a power grab” by a private company and boycotting the Board of Estimates meeting where Scott muscled through the measure.
But running now for re-election in next month’s Democratic primary, Mosby’s campaign committee reports accepting nearly $10,000 from the utility’s political action committee.
The $9,281.94 contribution – substantially more than the $6,000 legal limit for a PAC in a single election cycle – popped up in an amended finance report released online by the Maryland Board of Elections.
Mosby’s original report, dated April 9, did not include the BGE donation.
Instead, the donation was hidden among tens of thousands of dollars attributed to Paragon Solutions, a Tempe, Arizona-based credit card processor.
When notified that he had listed electronic bank deposits from Paragon rather than the actual donors, as required by state law, Mosby pledged to correct the error.
One of many media tweets last year announcing Nick Mosby’s opposition to the conduit deal.
Only $450 was donated, BGE says
4/22 UPDATE: The donation amount reported by Mosby is wrong, BGE spokesman Nick Alexopulos said tonight.
“I confirmed with our PAC manager that BGE has donated $450 to Mr. Mosby in 2024. We’ve reached out to the state elections board as well as his campaign to ensure that this is corrected.”
The Brew requested documentation of the payment. BGE has not yet responded.
Other Contributors
According to the report submitted to the elections board, the BGE money came, via an electronic fund transfer, on February 23.
On the same day, Lisa Harris Jones, the City Hall lobbyist for BGE and other companies, handed over another $6,000 to Mosby.
The incumbent’s main primary rivals, City Councilman Zeke Cohen and former City Councilwoman Shannon Sneed, report no contributions from BGE over the last year.
The amended report, covering the period January 11 – April 2, lists $7,611 more in contributions ($78,664 versus $71,053), but $29,940 less in Mosby’s campaign bank account ($200,295 versus $230,235).
It discloses over 100 contributors who were not named in the original report.
They include A. Scott Bolden, a lawyer who represented Mosby and his ex-wife during the federal investigation that resulted in Marilyn Mosby’s conviction on perjury and mortgage fraud charges; Robyn Murphy, the couple’s former legal defense fund trustee whose donors remain concealed; Wheelabrator Technologies, the controversial operator of the South Baltimore trash incinerator; and city sewer and recycling contractors R.E. Harrington and Jackson Haden.
The report further amended a $10,000 contribution from The Home Depot PAC.
The actual amount was $1,000, the report, submitted by campaign treasurer Erika A. Dorsey, now says.
Mosby did not respond to requests for comment.
BGE’s donation to Mosby, disclosed in the “Friends of Nick Mosby” updated report filed with the Maryland Board of Elections BELOW: Some of the donations attributed to Paragon Solutions in Mosby’s original finance report.
