Ehrlich's Womble Carlyle: Law Firm or GOP Political Action Committee

Annapolis, MD – Evidence is mounting that former Governor Bob Ehrlich and his new North Carolina law firm’s Maryland-based staff are the driving force behind a totally anonymous and controversial smear website. The owners and operators of that website have gone to great lengths to both communicate their partisan attacks to the press and keep their identities secret from the voters of Maryland.

On July 9^th, Ehrlich claimed to the Baltimore Examiner that he and his staff at the law firm Womble Carlyle did not know who was behind the anonymous smear website www.omalleywatch.com, but “we certainly applaud their efforts.”

Once again, the man who sent his staff out to claim that his longtime political hit-man was “irrelevant to our world” – at the same time the dirty-trickster was communicating with Ehrlich’s wife via personal e-mail and using her nickname “Ken” – is not telling the truth.

The day after Ehrlich’s denial ran in the paper, his former press secretary Henry Fawell – who is now paid by Womble Carlyle - apparently, to attack Governor Martin O’Malley, sent reporters an email outlining alleged criticisms about a land conservation purchase going before the Board of Public Works the following day. [Click on this link: http://www.mddems.com/pdf/HFawell_email.pdf ] 

Hours later, the same details and identical criticisms were posted on www.omalleywatch.com. 

This raises and answers a number of interesting questions:

• First, who is behind www.omalleywatch.com?  Would the answer be: MDGOP@womblecarlyle.com?

• Second, note that Fawell’s email was sent during business hours on July 10, 2007.  Does this clear up the mystery of what exactly the law firm’s non-lawyers - Fawell, Greg Massoni and Paul Schurick - are doing at a law firm?  Answer: MDGOP@womblecarlyle.com.

• Third, in his email, Fawell writes: “We wanted [insert media outlet] to know.”  Who is “we?”  Is it Womble Carlyle?  Or Fawell and the former Governor?

• Fourth, is attacking long-established Maryland businesses, like Langenfelder Marine, Inc. – which employs 60 people on the Eastern Shore – really a good business development strategy for the new law firm in town as it seeks clients, particularly when that very business – and members of the Langenfelder family – donated more than $2,000 to the Ehrlich campaign?

• Fifth, do the Womble Carlyle partners in other cities sanction this behavior by their employees and partner?

• Sixth, given the confirmed connection, direct or otherwise, between Ehrlich, his fellow employees at Womble Carlyle and a partisan and political smear website, can the voters and members of the press trust anything they say, ever again?

• Seventh, is this a dignified way for a political figure to behave following his own defeat?