OH BOY: The conservative bloggers over at Red Maryland have a scorching blog post regarding Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker. They published an investigative piece about the politician's financial disclosures from Marta Mossburg, a fellow at the rightwing/libertarian oriented Maryland Public Policy Institute, an anti-regulatory/"free market" think tank in Rockville, MD. The piece is beginning to spread among Maryland politicos.
The article is basically a compilation of a series of purported inconsistencies in Rushern Baker's public financial disclosure documents. Every story has two sides, but taken at face value, the allegations could prove embarrassing for Mr. Baker. He is, after all, in the midst of pushing for a controversial new casino in his County, and he has also been working to try and turn around public impression of Prince George's politicians, after a series of high-profile scandals involving public officials.
Take note, this is not an instance of theft or misuse of office, or anything like that. The Republican activists are making hay about Mr. Baker's reporting of his sources of income and discrepancies or oddities on his financial disclosures. These are similar allegations to those that dogged State Senator Rob Garagiola in the District 6 Democratic Congressional Primary last Spring.
We'll have to see what his response is, and whether the accusations prove to hold water, but take a look for yourself at Red Maryland. We provide a couple excerpts below:
What do you think? Big deal or no?
The article is basically a compilation of a series of purported inconsistencies in Rushern Baker's public financial disclosure documents. Every story has two sides, but taken at face value, the allegations could prove embarrassing for Mr. Baker. He is, after all, in the midst of pushing for a controversial new casino in his County, and he has also been working to try and turn around public impression of Prince George's politicians, after a series of high-profile scandals involving public officials.
Take note, this is not an instance of theft or misuse of office, or anything like that. The Republican activists are making hay about Mr. Baker's reporting of his sources of income and discrepancies or oddities on his financial disclosures. These are similar allegations to those that dogged State Senator Rob Garagiola in the District 6 Democratic Congressional Primary last Spring.
We'll have to see what his response is, and whether the accusations prove to hold water, but take a look for yourself at Red Maryland. We provide a couple excerpts below:
RED MARYLAND: Public documents show Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker did not answer county financial disclosure forms accurately....
On the 2010 financial disclosure form, Mr. Baker checked “No” to a question asking if he had outside income during the calendar year. The first line under the title on the form, which Mr. Baker signed under penalty of perjury, is the date of the reporting period....
For part of that year Mr. Baker worked for a then Lanham-based nonprofit, Community Teachers Institute (CTI), according to an IRS Form 990 filed by the group, which is now based in New York. It lists him as executive director, working 40 plus hours per week and earning $60,000....
CTI is not the only potential source of income for Mr. Baker. His campaign biography says, “He became a Senior Partner at Baker & Perry LLP in 1998, where he worked until his swearing-in as County Executive in 2010.” The website also cited his work at CTI....
Also odd is the fact that Mr. Baker notes on both his 2010 and 2011 financial disclosure forms that his mortgage is exactly $350,000 each year. How is that possible?....
What do you think? Big deal or no?
