I'm just trying to relay what has been reported. I usually let other FReepers arrive at conclusions.
Ryan O'Doherty claimed to the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun that the e-mail purportedly sent by him is a forgery. I have no independent way of verifying that, absent full header information. Although his mddems.org e-mail address appears to be on it, the contact info included in nunya bidness' write-up doesn't match his known cell phone number from previous press releases. It's off by one digit. Whether the number is correct in the
version Jervis Finney sent to the state legislative committee is unclear because the print quality is really bad.
O'Doherty also claimed he wasn't working for the MD Dems on February 8, when the e-mail was sent. I've found nothing in the
MD Dem Party's FEC financial disclosure statements indicating that they paid him a cent in 2005, and no reference on the Internet to him as affiliated with the Democratic Party after a January 9 press release and a January 23 Washington Post article. Whether he was working there may be irrelevant, though. Even if Mr. O'Doherty were working someplace else, his old e-mail account could have remained active.