Cam Harris and Change Annpolis

Many of you have probably heard about the story regarding Cam Harris, former staffer for Delegate David Vogt. Harris was exposed as being behind a fake news site that was active during last year’s Presidential year election. Harris was swiftly and justifiably fired by Delegate Vogt for his involvement in this mess.

Unbeknownst to many is the fact that Harris was also involved with the PAC Change Annapolis. Harris had been involved as the group’s communications director.

From their website, Change Annapolis states:

We are a group of business owners, taxpayers, and hard-working Maryland citizens that are uniting to “Change Annapolis” for the better. We represent diverse industries and interests from every region of the state, and we are coming together to end the cycle of one-party rule and lopsided legislation that leaves Maryland’s businesses and taxpayers behind.

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We want a state government that works for ALL of Maryland, not just decision-makers in the Democratic leadership and the special interests that support them. We want to promote a common-sense legislative agenda that prioritizes tax relief, regulatory reform, and a smaller state government that puts All Marylander’s our businesses and taxpayers first.

A noble goal, to say the least. And to date, Change Annapolis has been moderately successful for a statewide PAC: the group had raised over $22,000 according to the most recent filing with the state, and had $15,000 cash-on-hand.

Of their expenses, $570 went to Harris for consulting fees.

Harris had contacted me last week about getting the organization’s chairman, Dustin Freas, on a future Red Maryland Network broadcast. I reached out to him to work on this project, however the story broke he next day and I have not heard back from Harris or with anybody associated with the organization.

I reached out directly to Freas to ask him if Harris was still involved with Change Annapolis. I have not yet received a reply.

Obviously a group like Change Annapolis can do a great deal toward helping Governor Larry Hogan’s re-election as well as toward electing more members of the State Senate and the House of Delegates. However many donors and activists would have an issue with the involvement of Cam Harris in the organization after the fake news revelations. Harris’s continued involvement would create a credibility gap for any information, mailer, commercial, or other material coming from Change Annapolis and it would undermine the mission of the organization and the candidates it would support. Given the fact that it is predominately the left-wing in Maryland that is spreading fake news, this is a distraction that conservatives do not need.

I hope Change Annapolis is successful at its mission, however Freas and the rest of the organization’s leadership is going to need to clarify the involvement of Cam Harris going forward in order to maintain its credibility, especially its credibility for conservatives.