Delegate Accidentally Solicits Money During Session; Blames Mass Email on Technology 'Glitch'

Del. Kirill Reznik of Germantown said the company he contracts to handle mass emails mistakenly sent a message yesterday to thousands of people soliciting donations for a future campaign.

Maryland lawmakers are forbidden to solicit campaign contributions during the 90-day legislative session, which ends April 11.

In a follow-up email to the "Friends of Kirill Reznik" email list, Reznik apologized, calling it an "electronic error" and a "glitch" and urged recipients to ignore the message, which was originally intended to be sent nine months ago, he said.

Reznik (D-Dist. 39) wrote, "Please disregard this e-mail and DO NOT send any campaign contributions as it is ILLEGAL for me to solicit campaign contributions during the legislative session."

In a phone interview with Patch, Reznik said he immediately contacted William Somerville, the General Assembly's ethics adviser, to alert him of the mistake made by Washington-based Salsa Labs, the company that manages and organizes the delegate's email lists.

"It was an unfortunate situation, but when you’re dealing with technology sometimes you have to deal with these things and move as fast as you can to correct it," Reznik said.

Somerville said Reznik responded appropriately to the mistake.

"The fact that he sent out a follow-up email before he contacted me — that cures it," Somerville said. "Unless someone asks the ethics committee to follow it up, we will, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a settled matter."

The district Reznik represents includes parts of Gaithersburg, Montgomery Village, North Potomac, Darnestown, Derwood, Flower Hill, Forest Oak and Washington Grove.

The electronic bug also affected some of Salsa Lab's other clients, said Justin Nemmers, the chief operating officer of Salsa Labs.

"Yes, there was a small glitch," Nemmers confirmed. "The overall impact of this was tiny ... less than one hundredth of a percent in terms of total email volume."