Adam Wood Gets a Bizarre Party in His Honor
Nicolee Ambrose decided her boyfriend needed a going away thank you party when most Maryland Republicans just wanted him to go away.
In one of the weirder episodes in Maryland Republican Party history, a “thank you” party was held on Saturday in honor of recently fired Maryland Republican Party Executive Director Adam Wood. The party was organized by Wood’s girlfriend, Maryland Republican Party National Committeewoman Nicolee Ambrose.
While the event was not sponsored or hosted by the Maryland Republican Party, it was treated almost like a campaign event by party planner Ambrose, who even had a host committee for the event (complete with a Dan Cox-style spelling gaffe).
Photos of the event certainly made it appear to be more of a campaign-style event than a “thank you” party. It even included speeches from politicians like State Senator Johnny Ray Salling and Delegate Ric Metzgar.
Even stranger, there was an event guest book to write notes in, like this was a wedding.
What’s truly odd and bizarre about this “Thank you” party is that it was held in honor of an Executive Director who was fired from his job for trying to double-dip as a party hack and a candidate for office after three years of total incompetence on the job. What’s even more galling is the number of competent and successful Executive Directors like Joe Cluster, Patrick O’Keefe, and Corine Frank, who left for new opportunities, but did NOT get a thank you party on their way out the door.
Then again, this entire escapade?
So is it even legal to have this kind of event with sponsors at a time when the guest of honor is a candidate for office? Did the proceeds go to Wood’s Senate campaign? Will these donations be listed on Adam Wood’s campaign finance report? Will any of the funding left over from this event be used to seed Wood’s actual campaign kickoff event on January 14th?1 These are all questions that I am sure nobody in the Ambrose-Wood orbit actually wants to hear, but they are questions voters might want to know the answers to, so they can make an informed decision in a contested primary.
More on this as it develops, but we’ll have our eyes peeled on the upcoming campaign finance reports.
Who schedules a campaign kickoff event on the first day of the General Assembly session? Absolute clown show campaign already.