THE NASTINESS that marked last year's state Senate race between incumbent Frederick Republican Alex X. Mooney and former Democratic Del. Sue Hecht has extended well past Election Day.
For the past year, Hecht campaign staffers have waged a struggle with the Maryland State Board of Elections to compel Mooney - the victor in a race marked by a campaign office burglary and Web-address squatting - to correct error-riddled campaign finance reports. They say that the state elections board has dragged its feet in its responsibilities, and that Mooney has attempted to intimidate Hecht's campaign treasurer into abandoning her questioning.
Mooney alleges that Hecht's complaints are politically motivated, and that the elections board "moved the goal posts on us" as he tried to correct the mistakes.
Since August last year, Hecht and her campaign treasurer have pointed out a host of problems with Mooney's reports. Numbers didn't add up. Scores of expenditures were categorized as "other," with no explanation. Some donors gave more than $100 in cash (rather than by check), violating state law.
The state Board of Elections forwarded the complaints to state Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli, who washed his hands of the matter in January after a review of the allegations. The prosecutor told the board in a letter that "we have found no evidence of fraudulent practice or intent to circumvent the election law."
Ross Goldstein, director of the division of candidacy and campaign finance for the elections board, then demanded in March that Mooney correct his filings dating to January 1999. But by last month, Hecht campaign treasurer Kathy Rossen had reached her limit. Not only did it seem that Mooney was refusing to fix the mistakes, but she was deeply disturbed that the senator had called her and her boss at work, trying to get her to drop her questioning.
"I feel that Senator Mooney's call was completely inappropriate and was an obvious attempt to intimidate me," Rossen wrote to the elections board last month. "Senator Mooney apparently feels that without my inquiries, the Board of Elections would drop the whole matter. Unfortunately, I think that he is probably correct."
In an interview, Mooney said the telephone call was an attempt to establish a dialogue with Rossen. "For her to continue to try to create trouble for her senator, it's bad for Frederick County," he said. "They're sore losers. I don't know how else to say it."
