Chuck Weikel Positions To Challenge Trudy McFall

Earlier today, Trudy McFall's campaign manager sent out a press release announcing the "July surprise" that we were promised, in the form of a big fundraising head start for Trudy. The point of such an exercise is to impress potential future donors--most politically involved people try to support the winner (regardless of ideals or policies), and interpret current cash as a sign of future success. I can't reproduce the press release here because Blogger doesn't support the format that it's in, but the email preface says enough:

Thought you all would be interested in the latest City campaign filings and
results. Attached is a press release announcing the substantial lead in fund
raising that Trudy McFall demonstrated in the recent July 1 City-wide campaign
filings. Also attached is a spreadsheet showing all of the other candidate
filings.

As indicated in the release, Trudy was not only the leading
overall fundraiser (raising over $56,000) since her committee was formed in
August, but almost more significantly, had a substantial lead in net funds,
after expenses and obligations. This by the way is the last filing until July of
next year.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.
Dennis Conti
Committee Chairman, Friends of Trudy McFall

Chuck Weikel, another purported mayoral candidate, quickly responded in an email blast:

All:

What isn't in this email:

1 - Trudy's number one
contributer is... Trudy. And her business
partner is a top contributer also:

Trudy McFall $1,500
Trudy McFall $1,200
Trudy McFall $2,000

Nancy Rase (business partner) $1,250
Nancy Rase (business partner) $500

2 - Why all the contributions that, on the surface, have no relation
to Annapolis? Take a look at the list of contributions $1,000 and over:

Annapolis Towne Center, Greenbelt MD $2,500
Rosemary Miller, Bloomington IN $2,500
Michael Miller, Cincinnati OH $2,500
James Humphrey, Annapolis, MD $2,500
Dworbell, Ind, Washington DC $2,500
Eugene Ford, Silver Spring, MD $2,500
John Manning, Boston, MA $1,000
Hamel Builders, Elkridge, MD $2,000
H&G Properities, Elkridge, MD $2,000
David Reznik, Potomac, MD $2,500
Gallagher, Evans & Jones LLP, Balto MD $1,000
Hankins Builders, Marriotsville, MD $1,500
Habitat America, LLC Annapolis, MD $1,000 (affiliated business?)
Mark Joseph, Baltimore, MD $2,500
M-B of Annapolis $1,000
Unit Construction LLC $1,500
Osprey Property LLC $1,000

Only one individual who is a
resident of Annapolis. Boston &
Baltimore? Annapolis Towne Center?

You can see it all on line on the city's website. Reports are all
posted there now.

Chuck

Weikel is an interesting case. He claims that he is not running for mayor, an assertion that would not be contradicted by the sub-$1000 balance in his city campaign account. Weikel, however, also has a county committee which took in some $14,000 in contributions last year. The devil, as they say, is in the details. Weikel's city committee was opened in November--why would he need to open a city committee if he didn't plan on running for office? Is he planning to transfer the balance of the county account into the city account? Is that even legal? It is already done?!

I have placed the odds of Chuck's candidacy at 1-55 (nearly a guarantee for you non-gamblers), and I stick to that. He has been all over the place, and for better or for worse, has been cultivating the persona of the heir apparent to the Mayor. He is a known political operative with ambitions, and the only reason why he would care so much about Trudy McFall is because she poses a big threat to him in the primary--he could have made the same criticism about nearly everyone else with money to spend. Rest assured that at this time next year, they will both have a lot of money, and will be spending it to combat each other.