David Blair, a Democratic candidate for county executive, was recently fined $200 by the state Board of Elections for a campaign financing violation related to one of his prior campaigns.
The state Board of Elections did not discuss the fine during its Thursday meeting, but staff reports indicate that it was for “Disbursement by [an] unauthorized method.” The campaign name cited in the fine is the one Blair used during his 2022 campaign, but it wasn’t immediately clear what the fine was for.
According to campaign finance reports, Blair—who lost to County Executive Marc Elrich by 32 votes in last year’s primary election for the county’s top elected office—spent over $6 million of his own money toward his campaign. In total, he spent about $6.8 million during the 2022 primary.
That topped his spending in the 2018 campaign for county executive, which totaled about $5.7 million, and roughly $5.4 million of that was his own funds. He lost to Elrich by 77 votes in that election.
Jared DeMarinis, director of the Board of Elections’ candidacy and campaign finance division, could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Blair also could not be reached for comment.
Alongside Blair’s fine, the state Board of Elections fined Hamza Khan, a local Democratic political operative and former local candidate—most recently in the 2018 Democratic primary for District 15 in the House of Delegates. Khan was fined $1,000 for “Failure to report contributions, expenditures, Anonymous Contribution, [and] Lump Sum Entry” according to the state Board of Elections.
Khan finished eighth out of nine candidates in the 2018 House District 15 primary race, getting 3.4% of the vote.
