CAMPAIGN FINANCE VIOLATION COULD CAUSE ST. MARY’S COMMISSIONER OSTROW JAIL TIME

“All I ever got was this lousy shed.”

SAINT MARY’S COUNTY COMMISSIONER SCOTT OSTROW MAY BE TAKEN TO THE WOODSHED OVER ELECTION LAW VIOLATION

BY KEN ROSSIGNOL
THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY

Willful violations of Maryland Election Laws count just as much as violations that occur due to not bothering to follow the complex requirements of candidates for office. St. Mary’s County Commissioner Scott Ostrow recently filed his annual statement with the Maryland Election Board and showed an expenditure of over four thousand dollars for a shed that he said was for storing election campaign signs.

The shed was listed under Expenditures on the 2025 Maryland State Board of Elections filing of the Committee to Elect Scott Robert Ostrow paid to Gehmans Utility Barns LLC of Mechanicsville, MD, for $4,125.84 on February 7, 2024.

Ostrow won the 2022 GOP primary election for the district, including the Lexington Park area, against fellow Republican Dawn Zimmerman and, in the General Election, prevailed over Democrat Steve Tuttle. This was the first attempt to win elective office in St. Mary’s County for Ostrow, who lives in Town Creek and purchased a home on East Quincey Terrace in 2016. 

When Ostrow bought the property with his wife Jennifer, real estate sales listings showed photos with two sheds already on the lot.  The shed that Ostrow lists on his campaign finance statement could be to replace one of the old sheds or to add a new one.

Maryland Election Law expressly prohibits the use of campaign funds for personal expenses, as was detailed in the Delegate Twanna Gaines of Prince George’s County, who among the many election law violations that caused her to resign her post and be sentenced to prison, was to buy a new pool cover for her swimming pool.

As Prince George’s County has a roster of nearly two dozen Democrats, including newly elected U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks, who have been bribed, cheated on taxes, wrecked official county cars in drunk driving escapades, taken bribes from developers and caused many of them to be given taxpayer provided accommodations in jail cells, finding crooked politicians in PG County is like fishing in a barrel. St. Mary’s County history included two commissioner presidents who found themselves in jail and another who was sentenced to jail for sixty days for DWI but had his sentence suspended.

Maryland State Prosecutor Charleton Howard told THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY that he couldn’t comment on an investigation should one be undertaken and his office always looks at potential violations of election law.

While the Maryland Election Law can be complex, Commissioner Ostrow stated on his campaign website in 2022 that he has extensive education in business management, finance, and leadership and has a degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance, which ought to give him a leg up on Delegate Gaines inability to figure out that buying stuff on Amazon and ordering a new pool cover from her campaign funds was a bad thing to do.

Ostrow works as a federal contractor’s purchasing agent and has a retail grocery store manager background.

Ironically, Ostrow would have been within the law had he rented a commercial storage space to store his campaign signs and equipment as he prepared to run for reelection next year. He could have rented space in one of his sheds for his campaign, but when he bought a shed as personal property, that triggered campaign finance law. 

One St. Mary’s Commissioner hired a Lexington Park resident to set fire to his small office building on Rt. 235, triggering the commissioner’s indictment, which was later dismissed when the new state’s attorney allowed two witnesses, both of them Maryland fire marshals, to appear at the same time before the Grand Jury, thereby violating the secrecy of the Grand Jury.

Commissioner Ostrow has not responded to two requests for comment by THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY. If he does provide a comment, this article will be updated.

Ostrow was heavily funded by realtors and developers in his out-of-the-gate start in the 2022 campaign. He may find more such support in 2026 as St. Mary’s County rushes into a new Comprehensive Plan, which could cause St. Mary’s to explode with more development.

Questions for Commissioner Ostrow. At such time as answers are forthcoming, this article will be updated.

St. Mary’s Commissioner Scott Ostrow

Scott;

• I am doing a series of articles on campaign finance reports and noticed on yours that you used campaign funds to purchase a shed for storing signs.
• Campaign finance rules say that such an expenditure is illegal. 
• Did you obtain a ruling from the Maryland Elections Board to allow this purchase?
• Where is the shed located?
• Why didn’t you rent a storage unit instead of using campaign funds for a personal expense?
• Where were your signs stored before buying a shed?
• If you fail to win another term and end your time as an elected official, does the shed simply become your personal property?
• Why do you have so many contributions from developers?

Thanks for providing answers to these questions.

Ken Rossignol

THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY

Campaign signs were stored somewhere else following the 2022 General Election before the purchase of the shed on Feb. 7, 2024.

Illegal Use of Campaign Funds for Personal Expenses by
PG County Delegate Twanna Gaines

Prince George’s County Democrat Delegate Tawanna Gaines Pleads Guilty to Federal Wire Fraud; Resigns Seat in Maryland House of Delegates

Campaign Finance Report Filed by Scott Ostrow

CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND
ARTICLE XV ON REMOVAL OF ELECTED OFFICIAL

SEC. 2. Any elected official of the State, or of a county or of a municipal corporation who, during the elected official’s term of office is found guilty of any crime that is a felony or which is a misdemeanor related to the elected official’s public duties and responsibilities and involves moral turpitude for which the penalty may be incarceration in any penal institution, shall be suspended by operation of law without pay or benefits from the elective office. During and for the period of suspension of the elected official, the appropriate governing body and/ or official authorized by law to fill any vacancy in the elective office shall appoint a person to temporarily fill the elective office, provided that if the elective office is one for which automatic succession is provided by law, then in such event the person entitled to succeed to the office shall temporarily fill the elective office. If the finding of guilt becomes a final conviction, after judicial review or otherwise, such elected official shall be removed from the elective office by operation of Law, and the office shall be deemed vacant. If the finding of guilt of the elected official is reversed or overturned, the elected official shall be reinstated by operation of Law to the elective office for the remainder, if any, of the elective term of office during which the elected official was removed, and all pay and benefits shall be restored. Any elected official of the State, or of a county or of a municipal corporation who, during the elected official’s term of office, enters a guilty plea or a plea of nolo contendere to any crime that is a felony or which is a misdemeanor related to the elected official’s public duties and responsibilities and involves moral turpitude for which the penalty may be incarceration in any penal institution, shall be removed from the elective office by operation of law and the office shall be deemed vacant (originally Article XV, sec. 3, renumbered by Chapter 681, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7, 1978. As sec. 3, it was amended by Chapter 879, Acts of 1974, ratified Nov. 5, 1974. As sec. 2, amended by Chapter 147, Acts of 2012, ratified Nov. 6, 2012).