Steve Burns
WMAL.com
ROCKVILLE – (WMAL) David Trone, owner of the Total Wine liquor store chain and newly-announced Democratic candidate for Congress in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, told WMAL in a statement he is terminating two campaign volunteers after they “surreptitiously volunteered” for his Democratic competitors’ campaigns early this week.
“I called Kathleen Matthews and Jamie Raskin to apologize and to assure them that this activity is unacceptable and contrary to how my campaign will operate,” Trone’s statement read.
“It’s not exactly Watergate from what I can tell,” Raskin told WMAL. “There were some acts of amateur espionage and surveillance that were undertaken by some employees of the Trone campaign.” He said the suspect volunteer asked “odd questions” after entering their campaign office looking to volunteer.
“It’s a silly waste of time and it just spreads paranoia. It’s not the Democratic Party way. I would expect better from Democrats,” Raskin said. “We don’t want to fall for dirty tricks. I hope this is the end of it.”
The Matthews campaign delivered a “cease and desist” letter to the Trone campaign Tuesday morning, saying the action was “unethical.”
“A young man came into our office, offering to work as a volunteer for our campaign,” Matthews Campaign Manager Ethan Susseles told WMAL. After he was handed a canvassing packet, “he returned to our office about 45 minutes later with a completed packet, and that’s about two to three hours shorter than it usually takes.” He said they quickly determined he had not knocked on the doors he claimed he had. The young man also tried to enter a senior staff office but was stopped and then left, Susseles said.
“A colleague recognized him from college, and he was able to look him up online to his LinkedIn page, and determined he was, in fact, a staffer with the David Trone campaign,” Susseles said. “Mr. Trone has virtually unlimited money and he said he’d spend whatever it takes to win, so we’re not sure why their campaign would turn to dirty tricks.”
“Everyone in my campaign understands that they are expected to meet the highest standard of behavior when acting on my behalf,” Trone’s statement concluded.
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