Brinkley Ethics complaint filed against Brinkley for payment to staffer
By Bethany Rodgers, The Frederick News-Post, Md. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
In a posting last week, the conservative blog Red Maryland suggested that Brinkley personally benefited from a
The blog, which has endorsed Brinkley's opponent in the Republican primary election, posted numerous documents to support several of its allegations.
"I thought that it was rather convincing. However, I also believe that that's for the ethics commission to decide," he said in a phone interview.
According to the blog post, the staffer received the
The blog also produced a copy of a
The blogger claims that Brinkley received a bonus for the transaction but did not provide documents supporting the assertion.
Brinkley said he has not seen the complaint or the Red Maryland article but is aware that the blog supports Delegate
"I guess they're obviously in his camp, so they're doing his bidding," said Brinkley, R-District 4.
He declined to comment about the allegations made in the blog post.
Hough, Brinkley's rival for the District 4
Miller wrote in his complaint that the transactions described by Red Maryland could violate state code that bars elected officials from using their prestige of office for private gain.
State ethics guidelines indicate that this portion of the law forbids officials from using their legislative titles for private gain or invoking their elected position when endorsing a business or product. The law also directs officials to use legislative correspondence only for official business.
Miller said he decided to forward his concerns to the
In that complaint, an
If the birthday notes were worth a complaint, then the blog's claims certainly deserve a harder look, Miller argues.
At one point, Miller was running against Brinkley, but pulled out when Hough entered the race. He said he is a Hough supporter but felt comfortable that the ethics commission would take any bias out of the equation during its review.
An ethics violation could erode trust in Brinkley's leadership, Miller said.
"As far as an ethics breach, on every level, it causes the voting public to lose faith in their elected officials," he said.
Hough said he didn't tell Miller to send in the complaint and that his criticism of Brinkley has focused on the senator's voting record. However, he said the allegations in Miller's complaint were serious.
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