Annapolis, MD—An attorney representing the Maryland Democratic Senate and House Caucuses sent letters to the United States Postal Service (USPS) urging the agency to investigate the Maryland Republican Party’s attempts to defraud the postal service.
The caucuses’ attorney, Joseph E. Sandler of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C., wrote in an October 31 letter that the Republican Party has “unlawfully used the Nonprofit USPS rate for material paid for in part by the Republican Senate Caucus Committee, which is an ineligible organization.”
In a September letter, Sandler wrote that the Maryland Republican House Caucus Committee and the Republican Party “unlawfully used the Nonprofit USPS rate for material paid for in part by the Republican House Caucus Committee, which is an ineligible organization.”
The Maryland Republican Party is the state committee of a political party, therefore eligible for nonprofit rates with USPS. The Republican Senate Caucus Committee is not a part of the Maryland Republican Party, therefore not eligible for nonprofit rates with USPS.
Sandler continued: “Clearly the Maryland Republican Party has made unlawful cooperative mailings…The Maryland Democratic Senate Caucus Committee requests that the USPS investigate this unlawful cooperative mailing; immediately take steps to warn the two committee not to send further unlawful cooperative mailings; and impose the appropriate penalties for the unlawful mailings already made.”
Maryland Democratic Party chair Kathleen Matthews issued the following statement on the letters:
“The Maryland Republican Party has likely defrauded the postal service out of tens of thousands of dollars by misusing their postage discount rates, and it is unacceptable. Democrats are calling for an investigation to get to the bottom of Maryland Republicans’ apparent attempt to defraud the postal service and demand that Republicans make the agency whole.”