By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
Editor’s Note, April 8, 2026: This article has been updated to reflect federal campaign finance records obtained from the Federal Election Commission. FEC filings show that Jawando’s U.S. Senate committee — “Will Jawando for Maryland” — paid The Maccabee Group $14,000 for research services and SB Digital $6,000 for digital fundraising during his 2023 Senate campaign, prior to his withdrawal in October of that year. The shared vendor relationships between Jawando’s federal, state, and public financing committees now span three campaigns. No other factual claims in this article have been changed.
Editor’s Note, April 8, 2026, updated: This article has been further updated to reflect additional federal campaign finance records. FEC filings show that Jawando’s federal leadership PAC, Will of the People PAC, received a $5,000 transfer from his Senate campaign committee in February 2025 and contributed $5,000 to his state traditional committee in March 2025 — the same month the traditional committee paid The Maccabee Group and SB Digital. FEC records also show SB Digital has received payments from Jawando’s Senate committee, his leadership PAC, his state traditional committee, and his PEF committee. No other factual claims in this article have been changed.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Jawando’s traditional committee, “Jawando, William (Will) Friends of,” was left over from a 2022 gubernatorial campaign. That was incorrect. The committee was established for his 2022 Montgomery County Council reelection race. The “2022 Gubernatorial” label in state filings refers to the election cycle, not the office sought. All other facts in this article remain unchanged.
Will Jawando is running for Montgomery County Executive as a public financing candidate, pointing to more than 1,200 small-dollar donors as evidence of broad grassroots support. His campaign finance filings tell a more complicated story.
While Jawando has raised over $400,000 through Montgomery County’s Public Election Fund (PEF) — and received a $161,755 disbursement of county matching funds in February — a second committee bearing his name has operated alongside it, spending $409,000 fueled in part by maximum $6,000 contributions from wealthy donors. The two committees share at least two vendors. And the traditional committee carried unresolved financial obligations on its books well after Jawando signed a certification requiring it to cease campaign activity.
Neither the Jawando campaign, the Maryland State Board of Elections, nor the Montgomery County Public Election Fund liaison responded to detailed questions from MDBayNews.
A Program Built to Reduce Big-Money Influence
Montgomery County’s Public Election Fund was established in 2014 and first used in the 2018 election cycle. Its purpose, as stated in county law, is to encourage broader voter participation, increase opportunities for more residents to run for office, and reduce the influence of large contributions from businesses, political action groups, and other large organizations.
To participate, a candidate must create a new committee separate from any existing account, refuse contributions from PACs, LLCs, and large-money donors, and raise a minimum number of small-dollar qualifying contributions from county residents. In exchange, the county matches those contributions with public funds.
When a candidate certifies into the program, they sign a document under penalty of perjury. That document states: “All other political committees affiliated with the candidate may not receive any public contributions and must cease campaign finance activities.”
Jawando signed that certification. His traditional committee kept operating.
Two Committees, One Candidate
Jawando entered the county executive race with a pre-existing campaign apparatus — “Jawando, William (Will) Friends of” — raised during Jawando’s successful 2022 Montgomery County Council reelection campaign. That committee carried money raised under Maryland’s standard campaign finance rules, where individuals can give up to $6,000 per four-year cycle.
Rather than closing that committee, Jawando opened a new one — “Jawando, Will for Montgomery County” — to participate in the PEF program. Both committees have been active during the 2026 race.
The financial contrast between them is stark.
The PEF committee raised $407,856 from 1,338 individual contributions through the end of March 2026, with an average donation of roughly $62. More than 60 percent of donors gave $50 or less. On February 13, 2026, the committee received a $161,755 disbursement from the Montgomery Public Election Fund — the county’s largest single contribution to his campaign from any source.
The traditional committee, meanwhile, raised $48,932 in a single month — March 2025 — including five contributions of the $6,000 legal maximum. Among the max-out donors: a construction company executive, a Sullivan & Cromwell attorney, and a Houston-based sales executive.
That money was spent almost immediately. By early April 2025, the traditional committee had paid $13,000 to a research firm and $21,824 to a digital media company. Then it went largely dormant — until its vendor payments created questions about the PEF committee that came later.
Over the full course of the race, the traditional committee has spent $409,598. The PEF committee has spent $169,314. By that measure, the legacy big-money operation has outspent the public financing campaign by more than two to one.
The Vendors That Appear on Both Committees
In March 2025, the traditional committee paid an entity listed in state filings as “The Maccabee Group” at 8907 Melwood Road, Bethesda — $13,000, described only as “Research.”
Seven months later, in November 2025, the PEF committee paid an entity listed as “Maccabbee Group” at 8801 Transue Drive, Bethesda — $5,000, described as “Research and Consulting Services.”
Both are residential addresses in Bethesda’s 20817 zip code. The vendor name is spelled differently in each filing. Whether these represent the same entity — and the same research work informing both committees — is a question MDBayNews put to the Jawando campaign. The campaign did not respond.
The Maccabee Group is a well-known Democratic opposition research and political consulting firm founded by Brett Di Resta, based in Bethesda, with a client history including U.S. senators and governors.
The relationship predates the county executive race. Federal filings show Jawando’s U.S. Senate committee — “Will Jawando for Maryland” — paid The Maccabee Group $14,000 across two payments in August and October 2023 for “Research Services,” just weeks before he ended that campaign. The same committee paid SB Digital $6,000 in October 2023 for “Digital Fundraising.”
SB Digital then appears in the state filings. The gubernatorial committee paid SB Digital $21,824 in March and April 2025. The PEF committee paid SB Digital $8,000 in November 2025. The two committees are legally required to be financially unrelated. Whether they were operationally coordinated through shared vendors is a question the PEF program’s rules do not clearly answer, and one the campaign declined to address.
Federal records reveal an additional financial link between Jawando’s committees. In February 2025, his dormant Senate campaign committee transferred $5,000 to Will of the People PAC, Jawando’s federal leadership PAC. Three weeks later, in March 2025, that PAC contributed $5,000 to the state traditional committee — “Jawando, William (Will) Friends of.” That same month, the traditional committee paid The Maccabee Group $13,000 and SB Digital $21,824. The leadership PAC has also paid SB Digital directly, making the firm a common vendor across four of Jawando’s committees: his Senate campaign, his leadership PAC, his state traditional committee, and his publicly financed county executive committee.
Across three campaigns — a federal Senate bid, a state gubernatorial run, and the current county executive race — the same two vendors have appeared on Jawando’s payroll. The PEF committee that received $161,755 in county taxpayer matching funds is the latest to write them checks.
An Obligation That Didn’t Go Away
The PEF certification Jawando signed requires affiliated committees to cease campaign finance activities. But the traditional committee’s 2026 Annual report, covering activity through January 14, 2026 — filed February 18, 2026 — shows $5,500 in outstanding obligations that remained unpaid at the close of the reporting period.
That means a committee legally required to be dormant was still carrying unresolved financial obligations months after Jawando certified into the public financing program.
MDBayNews asked the Jawando campaign whether it considers an unresolved outstanding obligation to constitute ongoing campaign finance activity under the PEF rules. The campaign did not respond. MDBayNews also asked Maurice Valentine, Montgomery County’s designated PEF liaison at the Office of Consumer Protection, how the county interprets that requirement in practice. Valentine did not respond.
What the Program Was Designed to Prevent
The PEF program prohibits direct money transfers between a candidate’s publicly funded committee and any other committee. Jawando has not transferred money between his committees — the financial walls the law requires appear to be intact.
But the program was designed to do more than prevent direct transfers. It was built on the premise that a candidate who opts into public financing is choosing a different kind of campaign — one less dependent on large donors and high-dollar consultants.
Jawando’s filings suggest a candidate running both kinds of campaigns at once: one funded by small-dollar donors and matched by county taxpayers, the other sustained by $6,000 checks and shared with the same political vendors.
The county matching funds Jawando has received — $161,755 — represent the largest single contribution to his campaign from any source. That money came from Montgomery County taxpayers, through a program explicitly designed to reduce the influence of large contributions.
Whether Jawando’s parallel operation of both committees is consistent with the spirit of that program — or its letter — are questions his campaign, the State Board of Elections, and the county’s own PEF liaison declined to answer.
MDBayNews sent detailed written questions to the Jawando campaign, Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis, and Montgomery County Public Election Fund Liaison Maurice Valentine. None responded.
Campaign finance data cited in this story is drawn from filings with the Maryland State Board of Elections, publicly available through the Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System (MDCRIS).
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