Campaign 2024
Elections Board orders Nick Mosby to return “excessive contributions” from BGE and correct other errors
EXCLUSIVE: In a letter sent to his campaign committee, Baltimore’s second highest elected official is told to fix an array of inaccuracies in his finance reports
Above: Nick Mosby poses in his ceremonial chair at City Hall. (Office of the President)
The Maryland Board of Elections has ordered City Council President Nick Mosby to return potential “excessive contributions” from Baltimore Gas & Electric and correct the street addresses of more than two dozen contributors, some of them prominent names in Baltimore’s donor world.
The rebuke by the elections board is the latest setback for Mosby, who is running for a second term in the May 14 Democratic primary.
Earlier this month, The Brew reported that Mosby repeatedly failed to pay his city water bill (the amount was paid within hours of the story’s appearance). At the January trial of his former wife, Mosby testified that he had failed to tell her about a $40,000 tax lien and had lied to the media that the lien was paid.
Marilyn Mosby, who served two terms as Baltimore state’s attorney, was convicted of three felonies in connection with lying under oath on government documents and mortgage forms in order to buy two vacation homes in Florida. She is awaiting sentencing in federal court on May 23.
State campaign finance reports include the proviso that “under the penalties of perjury” the information submitted is “true to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.”
In a letter sent yesterday to the Mosby campaign obtained by The Brew, the Elections Board says a reported $9,281.94 electronic transfer from BGE’s political action committee to Mosby was “identified [as] a potential excessive contribution” in violation of state law, which limits corporate and PAC donations to $6,000 per election cycle.
The contribution was disclosed in a Brew story on Monday.
After the story was posted, BGE disputed the amount cited, saying the utility had contributed only $450 to Mosby in 2024. “We’ve reached out to the state elections board as well as his campaign to ensure that this is corrected,” a company spokesman told The Brew.
Yesterday’s letter from Allen Norfleet, state director of campaign finance, does not mention BGE’s assertion of incorrect information. Instead, it tells Mosby to return any contributions by BGE over $6,000 by May 4.
Campaign reports require an affirmation of their accuracy. Mosby’s campaign treasurer, Erika Dorsey, signed the April 9 report whose accuracy is now under dispute. (Maryland Board of Elections)
Turn Over the Receipts
Potentially more serious for Mosby was the election board’s demand that his committee send to its Audit and Enforcement Unit “all receipts, disbursements and bank statements to support report filings” within 30 days of its filed reports.
In his latest amended report, Mosby lists $7,611 more in contributions than what was listed in his previous report that covered the same time period, but $29,940 less in the campaign’s bank account, The Brew reported on Monday.
The nearly $30,000 gap has not been explained by the candidate or his campaign manager, who have not answered emails and phone messages from this website.
The Norfleet letter also cites “Friends of Nick Mosby” for reporting the wrong addresses of 29 contributors.
Among those cited with incorrect addresses are:
Developers Mark Sapperstein and Douglas Schmidt, Atlas Group restaurateur Alex Smith, lawyer Warren Brown, KO Public Affairs executive Steve Kearney, Robyn Murphy, former trustee of the Mosby legal defense fund, Howard Perlow’s Residential Title & Escrow, and former Deputy Housing Commissioner Jacqueline Cordish.
“Political committees must report the accurate addresses of its contributors,” Norfleet wrote, but in the examples listed in the letter “many contributors appear to have the same addresses with different cities.”
Referrals to State Prosecutor
Typically, the elections board requires that erroneous information in finance reports be amended.
But it can assess fines for noncompliance and refer violators to State Prosecutor Charlton T. Howard III for further action, such as in the case of William “Chris” McCollum in Baltimore County.
Online records show that five of Mosby’s last 15 finance reports were referred to Howard’s office by the elections board. But none has so far resulted in criminal prosecution.
Over the same period, Mosby faced $9,060 in administrative fines from the elections board, mostly for sending in reports far behind filing deadlines.
Many of those fines were subsequently waived.
In February, Mosby said he spent $4,207.50 in campaign funds to clear up compliance issues with the board.
Letter to Mosby Campaign
