Campaign Donation A Mix-Up, League Says

Snow Report Tied Gift To Youth Sports Group

Last week, parents signing up their children to play football for Dulles South Youth Sports sought out league commissioner Matt Curry to pose a question that doesn't usually come up on registration night.

Why had the youth sports league donated $1,000 to the campaign of Loudoun County Supervisor Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles)?

The campaign finance report Snow filed April 16 lists a $1,000 contribution from the sports group, a donation that would violate the federal law barring nonprofit organizations from giving money to political candidates.

Curry said Snow's report was wrong. The league did not donate the money and is not supporting anyone's campaign.

Curry said Friday that the confusion arose when Ronald Masci, a board member and head of fundraising for the Dulles South league, made a personal $1,000 contribution to Snow's campaign.

Masci acknowledged that he wrote a $1,000 check to the campaign in connection with a fundraiser Snow had March 2. Unable to attend the fundraiser, Masci said, he mailed the check and wrote "Dulles South Youth Sports" on it to identify himself as a member of that organization.

"Since I couldn't be there, I wanted them to know what organization I belonged to," Masci said, explaining that Snow otherwise would not have remembered him.

Masci said he and some of the sports league's other board members had met Snow in January at a political dinner at Snow's home. Snow is also a league board member.

Masci said it never occurred to him that Snow's campaign would list the contribution as coming from the league. He said he has since received several e-mails from residents questioning why a youth sports group would make such a contribution.

"This is what you would classically call a tempest in a teapot," Masci said. "All I'm doing is playing my role as a good citizen, and everyone's all over me."

Snow's campaign did not return a reporter's phone call Friday. Last week, his campaign submitted a correction to the Loudoun elections board listing Masci as the donor of the money.

Curry said he was concerned that the flap would hurt the youth football group, a league for ages 7 to 16.

"It's going to affect the kids and the legitimacy of an all-volunteer sports league and our ability to raise money in the community," he said.

One sponsor threatened to withdraw a $7,000 donation to the league last week after hearing about the political contribution, Curry said, until he explained the mix-up.

"The bottom line is we're not a political organization. It's a youth sports organization. The only reason we're going to get aligned with any politician is for field use. We need fields for these kids to play soccer, football and baseball," Curry said.

Snow's March 2 fundraiser, at Moore Cadillac Hummer in Chantilly, is also the subject of a complaint from his Republican opponent, A. "Jey" Jeyanathan, who contends the event was illegal because it included a raffle.

Jeyanathan said Friday that Loudoun Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Plowman has agreed to investigate the complaint. He said Plowman told him last week that he expected to complete the investigation before the June 9 Republican nominating convention and that Plowman has decided not to recuse himself from the probe, as Jeyanathan had requested.