By Adam Pagnucco.
Seven members of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee, the governing body of the MoCo GOP, have given the Nine Districts for MoCo group money, in-kind contributions or both. So have other leaders of the county Republican Party.
The Nine Districts campaign finance reports reveal the following transactions between GOP Central Committee Members and the organization.
County GOP Central Committee Members Who Gave Money
Greg Decker (Legislative District 39) made two monetary contributions of $100 each on 6/1/20 and 7/10/20.
Paul Foldi (Legislative District 16) contributed $100 on 2/5/20.
Lorraine Jaffe (At-Large) contributed $100 on 2/5/20.
Reardon Sullivan (Legislative District 15) contributed $200 on 6/6/20.
County GOP Central Committee Members Who Gave In-Kind Contributions
Martha Schaerr (Legislative District 19) made three in-kind contributions totaling $132.77 for an outdoor banner and printing petitions on 8/12/19 and 8/14/19.
Gail Weiss (Legislative District 16) made a $120 in-kind contribution for hats and caps on 1/15/20.
Reardon Sullivan (Legislative District 15) made a $20 in-kind contribution on 2/25/20 for “proportional use of PC video editing software.”
Ann Hingston (At-Large) made four in-kind contributions totaling $499.43 for office supplies, printed materials and U.S. Post Box rental.
Hingston also wrote this piece on the county Republicans’ website advocating for Nine Districts and asking for financial contributions to the group.
Other party leaders have helped Nine Districts. Sharon Bauer, president of the Montgomery County Federation of Republican Women, gave $50 to the group on 2/13/20. Ryan Gniadek, the contact for the Montgomery County Federation of Teenage Republicans, gave $15 to the group on 1/23/20. And Ed Amatetti, the Republican nominee for County Council District 2 in 2018, gave $25 to the group on 12/26/19. The checks are small but the dots to be connected are many.
Nine Districts is not a solely Republican group. Developers are paying the vast majority of its costs, county employee unions are providing thousands of dollars in in-kind support and lots of people beyond those groups support the concept. But the presence of this many Republican party officials among its supporters as well as the use of the county GOP’s website to raise money for Nine Districts is not a coincidence. Passing the 9 district charter amendment is a big priority for county Republicans.
And soon, I’ll explore exactly why that is.
