Drug Center Patients Bused In to Back Rales

A public relations firm working for Democratic businessman Josh Rales's campaign for U.S. Senate in Maryland paid a drug-treatment center in Baltimore to bus about 20 patients to a candidates forum last week to boost visibility for the political newcomer, the firm and campaign said yesterday.

The recovering addicts helped post signs around the University of Maryland's College Park campus before the debate and later wore campaign T-shirts and waved banners to support Rales.

The campaign hired the firm, 21st Century Group -- which it has paid $20,000, according to campaign finance filings -- to coordinate visibility at events. Rales communications director Alyson Chadwick said the campaign did not authorize the firm to bus the patients.

The Baltimore-based firm's president, Adrian Harpool, said he is a longtime donor to the treatment center, I Can't, We Can, and has recruited patients to volunteer for past events unrelated to Rales's campaign. Harpool said he calculated that his staff of about a half-dozen people was not large enough for a visibility campaign at the debate, so he paid to have the patients bused in.

He said he did not pay the patients stipends for their time. Harpool said the firm spent about $1,000 to cover the bus transportation and food expenses. The firm also provided the T-shirts and signs.

"The point is I have responsibility for getting the job done, and I sought to use these guys to help get it done," Harpool said. "This probably was an error in judgment on my part to do it to begin with."

Chadwick said Rales was not aware of Harpool's arrangement with the center. "We had nothing to do with that," she said. "This is something the campaign didn't know anything about until after."

The payment was first reported yesterday by the Washington Times.

Rales, a Montgomery County real estate developer and philanthropist, has given at least $1.4 million to his Senate campaign, according to his June 30 filing with the Federal Election Commission. Among the 29 Senate candidates in Maryland, Rales is third in fundraising behind Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R).

Despite his war chest, Rales was backed by 1 percent of Democrats in a Washington Post poll last month.

Some primary opponents said yesterday that the incident shows that Rales lacks genuine supporters.

"It became apparent that they were not at the debate on their own volition," said Ari Bazinsky, deputy campaign manager for Allan Lichtman, a professor seeking the Democratic nomination. "One woman informed me that she was a former drug addict who was canvassing for Rales under the direct instruction of her halfway house."

Cardin press secretary Oren Shur said the congressman "has the type of enthusiastic, genuine supporters that money can't buy."

Republicans, too, jumped into the fray. "This is actually a common practice of some candidates to use addicts, homeless people and otherwise downtrodden individuals to boost their campaign," said Audra Miller, spokeswoman for the Maryland Republican Party.

"Is it tasteful? Probably not. Is it appropriate? Well, that's for the candidates and the individuals to decide," Miller said.

FEC spokesman George Smaragdis said campaigns have "wide discretion" for spending. "If someone believes that a violation of law has occurred, they can file a complaint with us," he said.

It's not the first such incident in Maryland politics this year. When Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan was in the race for governor, his campaign recruited Baltimore residents critical of his Democratic primary opponent, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, and bused them to an O'Malley event.

Staff researcher Rena Kirsch contributed to this report.