Conservative Investigative Journalist Matthew Foldi Targets Democrat David Trone
Rarely have the political stakes been as high for a Maryland congressional election as this year’s Sixth district race. Multiple independent analysts have identified it as one of fewer than two dozen evenly matched districts that could decide control of the House of Representatives.
The political website FiveThreeEight rates Maryland Six as a “Republican plus one point” district. [i] Alternatively, the Cook Report ranks it as a “Democratic plus one.” [ii] In the jargon of political handicappers, this means that in an average election year, a party’s candidate will win by a single percentage point.[iii] Unlike most congressional districts designed to favor one party, in purple-hued Maryland Six, neither party can rely solely on party loyalty to win. Instead, support from independents and ticket-splitters is required.
Political challengers seldom face as target-rich an incumbent as Rep. David Trone. Usually, repeated legal scrapes with regulators and law enforcement effectively disqualify a candidate from public office. Not so this far with Trone.
Earlier in his business career, David Trone faced 23 criminal counts, including nine counts of tampering with public records, four counts of criminal solicitation, four counts of operating a corrupt organization, two counts of perjury, and single counts of conspiracy, dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity, deceptive business practices and obstructing the administration of justice. [iv] After several years of litigation, he eventually beat the charges, although not until after being required to pay the government $40,000.
Perhaps if Trone’s legal history stopped there, his excuse that he was the victim of over-zealous regulators would warrant consideration. However, it reflects just one example of a distinct pattern of Trone’s behavior and only one in a series of cases. Two prior arrests occurred in 1989.[v] Afterward, another group of regulators concluded, based on Trone’s testimony before them and his personal history, that he “reflected a predisposition towards lawlessness.”
Going further, they noted that their conclusion that Trone’s “disrespect for law” is premised on the following: [vi]
- that Trone’s minimized his law violations as not ‘earth-shattering,’
- that Trone was emphatic that enforcement actions against him had resulted in “no change” in his business practices;
- that Trone claimed that the government is being used by his competitors to manipulate the system against him, rather than his taking appropriate responsibility for his prior wrongdoing.
Minnesota regulators were especially troubled by:
- Trone’s testimony that a $1 million fine in New Jersey was “insignificant, and
- his attempts to explain away his criminal indictment by claiming that a grand jury was liable to indict a ‘ham sandwich’ and
- his statements about the insignificance of all his past violations because he could afford to pay the necessary fines.
However, incredibly, David Trone’s tawdry legal history has gotten a free ride so far from his Republican opponents. Collectively their websites give Trone’s history a pass.[vii]
Their only criticism is confined to Trone’s being part of Nancy Pelosi’s majority. In fact, Duckpin readers would be better informed about David Trone than visitors to his Republican opponents’ websites. (See our September 2020 piece, “David Trone: The Swamp’s Very Own Congressman,” https://theduckpin.substack.com/p/david-trone-the-swamps-very-own-congressman)
Frustrated by the lack of a Republican campaign focused on David Trone, Maryland Six attracted conservative investigative journalist Matthew Foldi as a candidate on the final day for candidate filing. He most recently wrote for the Washington Free Beacon, where his reporting exposed corruption in the Biden administration and Congress.
Foldi has appeared on Fox News with Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo, Mark Levin’s radio show, and is a Newsmax regular. He previously worked as rapid response director for the Congressional Leadership Fund, American Action Network, and Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner. Since joining the campaign trail, Foldi has benefited from the recognition that national television gives him because of his appearance on Fox News with Tucker Carlson where he exposed the Biden Administration’s “Green Grift” scandals. [viii]
Republicans will need more than political “surfing” to win Maryland Six, hoping that a red wave will be enough to carry them to victory. Matthew Foldi’s candidacy now gives Democrat incumbent David Trone’s record the attention it deserves.
[i] https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/redistricting-2022-maps/maryland/
[ii] https://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/house-race-ratings
[iii] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-only-16-districts-voted-for-a-republican-and-a-democrat-in-2020/
[iv] https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/five-things-to-know-about-david-trone/2016/04/03/6840b384-f754-11e5-8b23-538270a1ca31_story.html
[v] https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/politics/david-trones-path-to-business-success-included-three-arrests-involving-disputes-with-state-authorities
[vi] https://www.fitsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Total-Wine-Finding-of-facts-in-Bloomington-Brief-Sept-2014.pdf
[vii] https://www.neilparrott.org/; https://vote4jenkins.us/; https://rocaforcongress.com/
[viii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6KbDbKmvvU