This article was originally published in the Baltimore Sun on September 18, 2o25.

When Steve Hershey, the top Republican in the Maryland Senate, said earlier this month that he would potentially run against Gov. Wes Moore, he said he was launching an exploratory committee to begin raising campaign money and engage with voters before making a final decision.

That was a slight misnomer, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. Hershey, instead, is in the process of creating the type of formal campaign committee that he could continue to use if he decides to run later this year.

The announcement reignited concerns about what one Montgomery County Democrat calls a “glaring hole in our election laws” – one where potential candidates can raise money in unlimited amounts without disclosing the donors.

No legal oversight of such exploratory committees exists under Maryland law. Sponsors of a failed bill to set legal guidelines say they’re planning on pursuing legislation again to provide more oversight and transparency.

“It is legal today for someone to establish an exploratory committee, raise literally millions of dollars, or have a donor give a million dollars or more, and spend it on anything they want,” said Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat who has sponsored reforms.

“They could buy a new car. They could buy a house. All of that is legal, and voters and the press would never know about it. They wouldn’t know the identity of the donors or the way the money is spent. That’s absurd.”

Hershey, by setting up his effort as a candidate committee, will have to abide by Maryland’s $6,000 maximum donation limit from individuals. He’ll also have to publicly disclose both the donors and his spending at the next reporting deadline in January.

He said in an interview that he described his announcement as an “exploratory committee” because it’s the terminology more voters understand when a candidate is considering their options.

As an incumbent elected official with a campaign committee, he was also legally barred from operating a separate, less-regulated exploratory committee, according to Allen Norfleet, the director of candidacy and campaign finance for the State Board of Elections.

Hershey said he would follow all the legal guidelines, including not accepting more than the $6,000 limit from individuals who donate to both his new gubernatorial committee and his existing Senate-focused committee.

“I’m going to operate within the rules that the State Board of Elections has in place for me,” Hershey said. “There’s enough donors out there, and people supportive of me running for governor, that we’ve set some goals by the end of the year and I’m not concerned that the limits in place are going to impede us.”

Sometimes called “testing the waters” activities, exploratory committees are currently nowhere to be found in Maryland’s election laws.

They’re governed instead by regulations that allow them to fundraise without limits and spend the money on polling, mailers, staff and other activities “to determine if the individual is a viable candidate.”

There are no penalties for not following those regulations, and individuals who launch the committees aren’t even required to tell state officials that they’ve done so.

Kagan’s bill, which came up short in each of the last three annual sessions, would set legal rules around exploratory committees for the first time. It would require them to register with the state, to spend money only on certain activities to gear up for a formal campaign and to either return leftover funds to donors or spend it in limited ways. It would not establish any donation limits, because of what Kagan said was a precedent set in court around free speech rights.

A version of the bill has passed the state Senate unanimously each of the last three annual sessions, including with support from Hershey, the minority leader.

It’s failed every time to get an initial committee vote in the House of Delegates, which is also controlled by a supermajority of Democrats.

Del. Julie Palakovich Carr, a Montgomery County Democrat who sponsored it in the House this year, said there have been some efforts to simplify the bill and that she was still working to educate her colleagues about it to get it through committee. She said both she and Kagan have already requested to reintroduce the legislation when the next session begins in January.

“It’s really important that our elections and our political candidates are operating in a transparent way and that there can be potential public accountability around how campaigns are run,” Palakovich Carr said.

She said Maryland “has done a great job” of trying to hold campaigns accountable. But “exploratory committees seem like the glaring hole in our election laws,” she said.

Morgan Drayton, the policy manager at Common Cause Maryland, said it was important for people who are actively raising and spending money to consider a formal campaign to be held to the same standards as declared candidates.

“This bill really shines a light on that really critical issue of big money in politics and our political system,” Drayton said. “More transparency and more accountability is critical.”

That includes donors who are considered “special interests,” Drayton said.

The Baltimore Sun found such interests – corporations and lobbyists who have a financial stake in decisions made by lawmakers and the governor – have notably increased in recent years. Businesses with government contracts or that paid lobbyists to influence them donated $10.2 million between the last statewide election in 2022 and the end of this year’s session in April, The Sun reported last month. That was $2.9 million more than the same period during the previous four-year term, according to The Sun’s analysis of campaign finance data.

Those kinds of donations to a candidate with an exploratory committee, or even the existence of such a committee, would not be subject to disclosure under current law.

It’s unclear if anyone running or considering a run for governor next year is using an exploratory committee. Moore, a Democrat, launched his reelection campaign last week and observers say it will be an uphill battle for any challenger to unseat him.

Besides Hershey, other Republicans who have started campaigning include businessman Ed Hale, Del. Christopher Bouchat, farmer Kurt Wedekind and law enforcement veteran John Myrick. Each of them have actively registered campaign committees with the state. Former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has also signaled he’s considering a run for a third, nonconsecutive term.

Supporters of enhanced rules for exploratory committees, meanwhile, said they will continue to push for the reforms as the campaigns heat up at the end of this year and during the 2026 election year.

“The time is right now with the election cycle coming,” Drayton said. “The time is always right for transparency and disclosure and accountability.”