Like any incumbent politician running for re-election, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold had to strike a delicate balance last year between running his administration and spearheading a campaign.
He relied on volunteers, including some top aides, in his successful campaign, according to campaign finance records and interviews, and did not hire any paid staff — a strategy that some experts and politicians caution against.
Leopold is the subject of an investigation into whether he used county police officers on his security detail to do campaign work, but the struggle to manage political and official duties is familiar to many in Maryland politics.
To avoid the appearance of a conflict — public employees working on a campaign — Baltimore-area officials said it was necessary to have at least some paid workers on a re-election bid. Some used volunteer labor from their staff to help with campaign activities, but also hired outside help. Others moved key advisers out of the government and into campaign jobs.
"If I were a county executive, there's no way I would have volunteers from my staff working for me. I would be inviting an ethics inquiry," said Todd Eberly, the interim director at the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary's College of Maryland. "Just the appearance of impropriety can really erode public trust in government."
All local, state and municipal employees have the right to participate in political activity, but they can't be required to do so, and can't do the work during their work day, according to Maryland law. For example, Eberly said, a county employee would be prohibited from using county phones or computers to conduct campaign business during the work day.
Steve Reigle, the volunteer treasurer for Leopold's re-election campaign, said several county staffers, including Erik Robey, Brenda Reiber and Mark Chang, also volunteered on the campaign. But the campaign work always came after regular work hours, according to Reigle.
"We'd meet at like 8 o'clock at night a couple of times a week," said Reigle, who works in purchasing for a private company. "If it was during the day, I did it, because I'm not a county employee."
Leopold has said he may have directed a member of his security detail to pick up a campaign donation, without much thought to the implications. But he has denied any wrongdoing, and said he believes the complaints that led to the ongoing investigation are politically motivated. He declined to comment for this article.
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, a Democrat, who also won re-election last year, said he "felt strongly" about having paid staff that was "accountable." He said he employed a handful of paid employees and relied on hundreds of volunteers, including county employees, who participated only during nonwork hours.
"We worked really hard to keep them separate," said Ulman. "It was challenging at times. When you're in the office, you might be going to an event that's county-business related, and there's a political element to it, and a reporter's there asking you campaign questions. … It's something you have to be vigilant about and do your best to monitor."
Rick Abbruzzese, a long-time member of Gov. Martin O'Malley's communications staff, left state government to work for the governor's re-election campaign last year. After O'Malley's election victory, Abbruzzese returned to his job in state government.
Leopold's county spokesman, Dave Abrams, doubled as campaign spokesman last year. Abrams directed reporters to call him with campaign-related queries on a different cellphone from his county-issued one, in an effort to draw a distinction between the two roles. He also advised reporters that he would need to step outside his office in order to return phone calls.
Jared DeMarinis, director of the state board of elections, said the law is clear.
"If you're at your office, doing your government job, you can't be engaging in political activity," he said. "If you do it on your weekends, you're on your time. You can volunteer in political activities. No problem. You just can't do it on the job during working hours."
Harford County Executive David R. Craig, a Republican who was re-elected last year, set up a campaign headquarters a couple of blocks from the county office building and employed one paid staffer, who did not work for the county, said Craig's spokesman, Robert Thomas.
County employees who volunteered for the Craig campaign participated after work and on the weekends, and were required to take documented leave from their jobs in order to attend events if necessary, said Thomas. He said he occasionally received calls from reporters about campaign topics and referred the inquiries to the campaign spokesperson.
"If we were stuffing envelopes or putting up campaign signs, that was an after-hours type of event," said Thomas. "Those kinds of allegations that are focused on the Anne Arundel County executive's campaign, I can tell you, we're a lot smarter than that. We would not be foolish enough to do campaign work at our desk. That was not done in any way, shape or form."
The president of the Anne Arundel County police union and Leopold's Democratic opponent in the 2010 election said this month that they were contacted by an investigator from the state prosecutor's office about allegations that his security detail performed campaign work. Three of the five officers assigned to the detail were subpoenaed and testified before an Anne Arundel grand jury, their lawyers said this month, declining to comment further.
Leopold, whose public schedule was subpoenaed by the state prosecutor, has said that back surgeries left him unable to drive, and he relied more on his security detail to take him from place to place — including campaign events. The president of the county firefighters union has said a member of Leopold's detail picked up a $4,000 check from the firefighters' political action committee, an incident that he said investigators asked him about.
Reigle said he and Leopold worked closely together, and relied on a cadre of volunteers from Republican groups across the county to hang campaign signs and hand out literature.
"There wasn't much of a campaign needed because there wasn't a strong opponent who was well-known," said Reigle. "Myself and John would sit together late at night at John's house in Pasadena around the dinner table," and fill out campaign finance reports.
He added, "John's pretty much his own campaign manager, as I observed over the years."
Herbert C. Smith, a political science professor at McDaniel College, said any administration staffers who volunteered for the campaign should have been advised to keep a log of their campaign work, in case questions arose.
"Once you get to the county executive level, there's an expectation of scrutiny," said Smith. "If they're doing double duty, they really need to be able to demonstrate that they were doing it in their free time as a volunteer."
By comparison, Leopold's opponent Joanna L. Conti, who was relatively new to Maryland, employed six paid advisers at one point during the campaign. Campaign finance reports show she spent $93,000 on salaries during the campaign.
Leopold won the election by 7 percentage points.
"He apparently relied on county employees to run his campaign, supposedly working on their lunch hours," said Conti. "In any campaign, there's an awful lot that needs to be done. My people were working hard — 10 to 12 hours a day. And somehow he didn't need any campaign staff. It's just surprising."
Robey, Leopold's chief of staff, received two reimbursement payments —- $2,473.80 on Oct. 18 for "reimbursement for robo calls" and on Sept. 13, a $1,090 reimbursement payment, according to campaign finance reports.
Robey did not respond to a cell phone message seeking comment, and Leopold's spokesman said the other employees did not want to comment.
Days after winning re-election, Leopold gave Robey and Reiber, a community specialist, promotions and $10,000 pay raises. Robey, who was assistant to the chief administrative officer, was promoted to chief of staff; Reiber became director of constituent services.
Janet S. Owens, the former Anne Arundel county executive who served two terms before Leopold beginning in 1998, said the first time she ran, "I didn't have a single person paid on my staff." When she sought re-election in 2002, however, she rented a campaign office and hired a campaign manager, a must-have, she said, when trying to balance running for re-election and managing county business.
"For me, the day-to-day was so unbelievably busy, I needed someone to manage the campaign," said Owens, a Democrat. "It was enough to do the work of the county executive during the day, and then go to campaign events at night."