SALISBURY, Md. - Wicomico County Executive Candidate Julie Giordano, a Republican, sent a campaign email using her Board of Education e-mail address on Monday.
By Wednesday, the James M. Bennett High School teacher sent out an apology e-mail from her Gmail account, saying it was a mistake and a "misuse of public resources."
"It was definitely an innocent mistake - just sending an invite and introducing myself - so I quickly tried to resolve it," she said.
Giordano says she reached out to the Wicomico County Board of Education's Human Resources Department to determine what steps needed to be taken to remedy the error.
"I just wanted people to know that I did use the right terminology from the HR department and I do recognize those policies are in place for a reason," she said.
"We are going to schedule a meeting just to go over the policy again and that's just standard protocol," she continued.
The Wicomico County Board of Education tells WBOC it cannot comment on personnel matters.
But a board official pointed us to its "Political Solicitation Policy," which states school system resources cannot be used for any political campaign activities "including email accounts."
How Giordano got the email addresses is another story.
Giordano says she paid the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce $150 for the list of chamber member email addresses.
Chamber President & CEO Bill Chambers said it is standard practice for the chamber to sell member email addresses to businesses, organizations, and political campaigns that are members of the chamber.
"I'm sure that candidate Giordano wishes she had put that out on her campaign email I'm sure of that," Giordano said. "But at the same time, I'd tell the business community you're going to get a lot of correspondence from candidates for this county executive race."
Chambers says the Chamber of Commerce strives to be apolitical and offer the same benefits to all members, regardless of political affiliation.
The Wicomico County Board of Elections tells WBOC Giordano's email does not violate any election laws.
But whether this would amount to a campaign ethics violation remains an open question.
Giordano beat Acting County Executive John Psota in July's Republican primary. She will face Democrat Ernest Davis and Libertarian Muir Boda in the November General Election.