GOP Lieutenant Governor candidate Mary Kane has run for office twice before in Montgomery County. On both occasions, she used campaign funds to pay her family-owned firm, The Kane Company.
The Kane Company is a furniture moving and installation firm headed by John M. Kane, who is Mary Kane’s husband and a former Chairman of the Maryland Republican Party. Mary Kane is a former director of the company. She denies owning company stock, but acknowledges that she would take full ownership of the company if John passes away and would be entitled to half of the company if the couple divorces. The firm is currently being sued by the federal government for wage and hour violations.
Mary Kane was a candidate for the Montgomery County Council’s District 1 seat in a 2000 special election. She lost in the Republican primary to former Senator Howie Denis, who won the general election. She also ran for a District 15 House seat in 2002, losing in the general election to Democrats Brian Feldman and Kathleen Dumais. On both occasions, she used campaign funds to pay The Kane Company.
Here is a complete list of payments from Mary Kane’s campaign account to the firm. All of these payments occurred during the time that Kane was a member of the company’s Board of Directors (1997-2003).
In 2000, Kane made one payment of $2,992.50 to the company for “media” in February that was not cashed and was credited back to her account. In 2002, Kane made five payments to the company totaling $32,007.12. Four of them totaling $26,016.84 were made on 12/30/02 – after she had already lost the general election. The 2002 payments were made for “salaries and other compensations,” “printing and campaign materials” and “field expenses.”
The Kane Company is not a political consulting firm – it’s an office mover. So why was it being paid for “salaries,” materials and field expenses? Did any of these payments of campaign money generate a profit for the company? If so, does that violate the state’s prohibition on campaign funds being spent for personal use?
One last footnote: Bob Ehrlich’s campaign paid The Kane Company too: $349.42 on 10/1/10 for “supplies for signs.”
Monday, October 25, 2010
Mary Kane Used Campaign Funds to Pay The Kane Company
Monday, October 11, 2010
Women for Doug Duncan, 1994
Both gubernatorial campaigns have held events emphasizing women recently, and they have good reason for doing so. This is nothing new, of course. Here is a Washington Post ad placed by Doug Duncan's first County Executive campaign in 1994 listing his prominent female supporters. There are a lot of famous and soon-to-be famous names on this list. One of them appearing in the fourth column from left is none other than current GOP Lieutenant Governor candidate Mary Kane!
Friday, October 01, 2010
Kane Pulls Out of Debate with Brown – in Her Own Community
GOP Lieutenant Governor nominee Mary Kane has ducked out of a debate with incumbent Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown – even though it was to be held in her own community of Potomac!
On Wednesday, Congregation Har Shalom of Potomac sent out this solicitation for a debate between Kane and Brown to be held this Sunday.
Kane had confirmed participation prior to this notice, but upon learning that Brown had also confirmed, Kane pulled out citing a “scheduling conflict” the day after the notice was sent. Kane lives 3.5 miles away from the synagogue.
Brown released this statement:Marylanders deserve an open and honest conversation between the candidates. I am prepared and excited to engage Mary Kane on the issues important to all Marylanders and was looking forward to sharing a stage with her on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, Mrs. Kane canceled her participation in a debate that is taking place just a few minutes from her home.
This is a true pity. Your author was considering attending this debate to hear Kane defend her running mate’s plan to pay for his sales tax cut by cutting funding specifically intended for Montgomery County Public Schools.
Marylanders are asking real questions about how Bob Ehrlich and Mary Kane will pay for the hundreds of millions of dollars of promises they’ve made. I had hoped Mary Kane would have been willing to join me to answer these questions and others. I’ll be prepared to join Mrs. Kane for a debate at her earliest convenience. In the meantime, I look forward to joining the congregants of Har Shalom on Sunday morning to talk about the important issues we face – including public education, transportation and biojobs – and the O’Malley-Brown commitment to move Maryland forward.
Perhaps Bob Ehrlich will consider elaborating on his reasoning for that position in his upcoming debate with Governor O’Malley – assuming he does not also pull out.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
O'Malley Campaign Mocks Kane Over Purple Line
Martin O'Malley's campaign has released a video mocking a comment about the Purple Line made by Mary Kane, Bob Ehrlich's running mate, that she could see the need to travel from Silver Spring to Bethesda but not vice versa.
Ehrlich devoted a lower percentage of the transportation budget to transit during his term than has O'Malley, conspired with the Columbia Country Club to build the Purple Line as a bus route and is sticking with that position today.
