Former Prince George’s county executive Rushern L. Baker III said earlier this month that he was pausing his bid to become Maryland’s next governor and would take a week to decide if he should officially drop out and endorse a rival.
Washington Post: Baker paused his bid, rivals sought his endorsement. Why hasn’t it come?
06.28.2022 / By Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post: Baker paused his bid, rivals sought his endorsement. Why hasn’t it come?
Baker, the only gubernatorial candidate participating in public financing, decided to suspend his campaign after reporting a little more than $11,000 in his coffers this month, facing the reality of having to ask staffers to go unpaid and accumulating additional campaign debt.
He has yet to say whether he will officially end his campaign in the tight race to fill the seat being vacated by Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who is term-limited. If he decides to bow out of the race, the choice would set up the state’s first legal test of whether a candidate who has received taxpayer money to run can endorse another candidate. …
Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, said Baker also faces another dilemma: If he withdraws, he would be required to return the matching funds he received. So far, he has received nearly $1 million from the state.
“That may be why he chose to suspend without shutting it down, because he would need to return that money,” said Antoine, whose group is a proponent of the state’s public financing program and has worked on legislation to strengthen it. Antoine said Baker ending his campaign and possibly endorsing another could be seen as a candidate being “given money and indirectly using their visibility and support to help someone who is not in the program. … I do think it’s unclear as it relates to endorsements and we urge against it.”