Like Members of the U.S. House, congressional candidates are required to file financial disclosure forms. Kim Klacik, who made quite a splash as the Republican sacrificial lamb against Rep. Kweisi Mfume, never filed one according to the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Financial Disclosure Reports include information about the source, type, amount, or value of the incomes of Members, officers, certain employees of the U.S. House of Representatives and related offices, and candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.
These reports are filed with the Clerk of the House as required by Title I of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, as amended. 5 U.S.C. app. § 101 et seq.
Klacik touts herself as a “Republican strategist” and the founder of a nonprofit, Potential Me, but her sources of income remain unknown and vague. Her failure to file the legally required report tends to confirm the impression that she intends to remain in the limelight and earn a living based on her failed campaign.
Campaign finance watchdogs will also want to watch carefully where the nearly $1 million in unspent funds in her campaign account goes. Unusually for a serious congressional challenger, not all of her impressive fundraising went to the campaign.
Look, this all comports with an effort by Kim Klacik to continue to keep her profile high so she can take in more money by riding the Trump train. She was never in any danger of winning Mfume’s seat, so why not see how much more money she can raise from the gullible.
At least Klacik realized that it had better be a doozy, Otherwise, how can she compete Giuliani’s tale of a long dead Venezuelan dictator organizing a national conspiracy with Democrats to steal the presidential election? Klacik claims the Republican governor is working to steal the election for a liberal Democrat who was going to win anyway by about this amount.
It all makes sense. Or rather, it’s so clearly bonkers, that Mike Ricci, Gov. Hogan’s Communications Director, retweeted it with a shrug above it.
Don’t forget, however, there’s a sucker born every minute. Based on the 2016 presidential election, Klacik is probably our next governor.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has provided a refreshing bit of sanity and leadership by refusing to join the chorus of his fellow Republicans claiming that Democrats stole the presidential election and congratulating President-Elect Joe Biden.
Unfortunately, Maryland Republicans are not following his lead. As the Washington Post reported, U.S. House Rep. Andy Harris (R-1) is propagating unsubstantiated allegations:
Secret unobserved vote counting in the swing states means that we will have to wait until a court unravels what really went on. When that thorough investigation is over, and we know that only legal votes have been counted then we will know who the real winner is – and then and only then we need to move on.
All of Trump’s claims regarding observers have been dismissed around the country. Just a reminder of what happened in the Philadelphia case:
during a hearing for a federal version of that suit on Thursday, Judge Paul Diamond of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania pressed a lawyer for Mr. Trump on whether the campaign’s observers did, in fact, have access to the facility. The lawyer said, grudgingly, that there were “a nonzero number” of people in the room.
There is voter fraud whether people want to admit it or not. Just so you know, there are people looking into my race as well, and as soon as I have information, I’ll share that.
More on Twitter:
Yes, Kim Klacik is alleging that people were stealing votes for Kweisi Mfume in her race. She’s also claiming that people are looking into it, which sounds equally fanciful. I bet the gumshoes on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? were more active. Mfume beat Klacik by over 130,000 votes or 43% in this heavily Democratic district.
Meanwhile, as I look around Twitter and Facebook pages of Republican members of the General Assembly, I keep coming up empty in my search for someone who echoes the Governor’s thoughts in congratulating President-Elect Biden. (Hope springs eternal, let me know if I missed someone.) I found plenty who touted Republican gains–funny how there was never any fraud mentioned in those elections.
Del. Justin Ready impugned Philadelphia elections without any basis even though he admits it probably won’t change the outcome:
Except there is no evidence of any “irregularities” or “shenanigans” beyond the deep abnormality of the failure to concede the election and invented claims of a stolen election designed to delegitimize the President-Elect and our democracy.
Sen. Steve Hershey is looking to help elect the two Republicans to the U.S. Senate in Georgia–the same two with corrupt stock trades who have now demanded the resignation of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State at Trump’s behest because he ran an election in which Trump lost.
Though Hershey is clearly more interested in golfing:
Republican Kim Klacik sure garnered a lot of attention and money for her longshot bid to unseat Kweisi Mfume in the Seventh Congressional District. But she has been far more focused on building her national brand than on Baltimore.
Klacik may have become the first congressional challenger in history to refuse free local TV time when she wouldn’t sit down for a standard candidate profile interview with WBAL at the end of October. As WBAL reported:
Klacik declined an invitation to sit down with 11 News for this election series. A spokesman said Klacik would agree to a live TV interview or nothing.
Klacik doesn’t live in the Seventh District. As she notes, it’s not a legal requirement, and says she’ll move if she wins. Klacik has spent an unusual amount of time outside the district for someone claiming to have a genuine interest in winning it. Klacik traveled to Arizona to take part in rallies with President Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. — not the usual stomping grounds for voters in the Seventh District (at least of Maryland).
Republican blogger Brian Griffiths and I rarely agree on anything political. Seems like he got this one dead right though:
Kim Klacik doesn’t actually give a damn about winning the election. Kim Klacik doesn’t give a damn about the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee, of which she ostensibly remains a member. She doesn’t give a damn about the Maryland Republican Party or even the city of Baltimore. All she cares about is continue to parlay her unearned fame into continued speaking fees and media appearances. Hey, she wouldn’t be the first internet celebrity Republican to follow the money. But for Kim Klacik to do it now, mere days before her election, is an insult of the highest order and she is making a fool out of everybody who has ever supported her or gave her money.
Generally, it’s great for any community to have strong choices and to be courted by both parties. But that’s not what Klacik’s campaign has been about. Maryland voters of all political stripes ought to remember that when she launches her next vanity project.
