Why Ticketmaster can scalp in Baltimore while lowly citizens are forbidden from making a profit on tickets they legally purchased

From the Baltimore Sun:
“City Council approves bill allowing Ticketmaster’s service fees”

Carl Stokes sponsored this legislation. This is the same Carl Stokes who uses the anti-mayor/for the common man gimmick to get his name into the paper.
Below is another quote from the Sun article, I made one important word and phrase bold:
“Stokes said the Ravens, Orioles and concert, entertainment and cultural venues asked for the bill, concerned that Ticketmaster and other ticket vendors might refuse to handle events in Baltimore. The legislation would exempt ticket sellers from a 1948 law that bars businesses and citizens from charging fees in excess of 50 cents on top of a ticket’s stated price.”

Below is a post of mine from 12-5-2011 that I think will shed some light on the current situation…

(It is also interesting to note that Mary Pat Clarke, Jim Kraft, and Bill Henry were the only members of the city council to vote against this legislation. Those same three members of the city council were also the only members to vote against nominating Pete Welch to his mother’s old seat in early 2011.)

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It is no secret that Peter Angelos supports Carl Stokes and that he likes to play a role in Baltimore politics. The Baltimore Brew wrote about the Stokes connection in September and way back in 1999 the City Paper wrote about some of the Angelos associated limited partnerships that made large campaign contributions. The full extent of his financial support during the 2011 campaign has yet to be revealed though. Today I was trying to find various candidates’ most recent campaign finance reports. The report that should have come out on November 29, 2011 has yet to be published online so I decided to explore some older campaign finance reports.

The Citizens for Carl Stokes’ October 28, 2011 campaign finance report shows that the Stokes campaign received quite a bit of money from LLC’s. This is not exactly a shock although there are some pretty large amounts of money listed. Closer analysis reveals that in 2011 quite a few people and entities associated with Peter Angelos gave a lot of money to the Carl Stokes campaign.

Below is a chart that lists all of the entities that gave $1500 or more to the Carl Stokes campaign in 2011. I have colored the Angelos associated contributors red.

Candidates Account	Contributor Name(Address)	Amount	Date Received	Contribution Type
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Charlesview, LLLP (100 N Charles St STE 1730 , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	11/15/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Friends of Bernard Jack Young (326 N. Charles Street, Suite 301 , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$1,500.00	10/15/2011	MD PAC
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Samuel Bates (9307 Pent Angel Way , Baltimore, MD, 20236-1759)	$1,500.00	10/15/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Ross Valley Farm, LLC (100 N Charles St , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	10/15/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	120 West Layette Street, LLLP (100 N. Charles STE 1730 , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	10/15/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	CCA Air Charter, LLC (100 North Charles St , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	10/15/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	PGA 210 North Charles St, LLLP (100 N Charles St , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	10/15/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	PGA Rossville, LLC (100 N Charles St Suite 1730 , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	10/15/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Louis Angelos (7 Meadow Road , Baltimore, MD, 21212)	$4,000.00	10/15/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Georgia Angelos (16450 York Road , Monkton, MD, 21111)	$4,000.00	10/15/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Thomas Minkin (6 Red Cedar Court , Baltimore, MD, 21208)	$4,000.00	10/15/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Armand Volta (17 Naborly Ct , Catonsville, MD, 21228)	$4,000.00	10/15/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Thomas Pappagallo (2031 Sue Creek Drive , Baltimore, MD, 21221)	$1,500.00	09/16/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (8403 Colesville Rd #370 , Silver Spring, MD, 20910)	$2,500.00	08/17/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Bal (333 West Camden Yards , Baltimore, MD, 20201-2435)	$2,500.00	08/17/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Artemis Properties, Inc (100 North Charles Street , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	08/17/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	222 Holding, LLC (222 N. Charles St Garage , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	08/17/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Artemis Texas, LLC (100 North Charles Street , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	08/17/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	PGA Court Towers LTD Partnership (210 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 110 , Towson, MD, 21204)	$2,500.00	08/17/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Forest City Enterprises, INC. (50 Public Square Suite 1600 , Cleveland, OH, 44113)	$4,000.00	08/17/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	CJZ Investment (3000 Waterview Ave , Baltimore, MD, 21230-3510)	$2,000.00	08/07/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters (8500 Pennsylvania Avenue , Upper Marlboro, MD, 20772)	$3,000.00	08/07/2011	MD PAC
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Thomas Pappagallo (2031 Sue Creek Drive , Baltimore, MD, 21221)	$2,500.00	07/25/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Samuel Bates (9307 Pent Angel Way , Baltimore, MD, 20236-1759)	$2,500.00	07/14/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Friends of Bernard Jack Young (326 N. Charles Street, Suite 301 , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$3,000.00	07/12/2011	MD PAC
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Patrica Handal (66 James Ln , East Hampton, NY, 11937-2722)	$3,000.00	06/14/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	German Hill Retail Center PTRN (8801 Kelso Drive , Essex, MD, 21221)	$2,500.00	05/31/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	PGA One Charles Center, L.P. (100 North Charles St , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	05/31/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Peter Angelos (100 North Charles St , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,500.00	05/31/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Clift Briscoe (113 Howell St , Alexandria, MD, 22301)	$4,000.00	05/18/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Carl Stokes (2411 Guilford Avenue , Baltimore, MD, 21218)	$4,000.00	05/06/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE, BALTIMORE CITY LODGE#3 (3920 BUENA VISTA AVE , BALTIMORE, MD, 21211)	$2,000.00	04/27/2011	MD PAC
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	H Scott Peaker (4219 Old Milford Mill Road , Pikesville, MD, 21208-6032)	$1,500.00	04/21/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Dave Brown Communication (3331 Shrewsbury Road , Abington, MD, 21009)	$1,750.00	04/04/2011	Business Entity
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	Calman Zamoiski (2 Hopkins Plaza Ste 805 , Baltimore, MD, 21201)	$2,000.00	02/03/2011	Individual
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	COMMITTEE TO ELECT JIM BROCHIN (670 MILITARY AVE , PIKESVILLE, MD, 21208)	$2,000.00	01/05/2011	MD PAC Remarks: Citizens for Carl Stokes, Campaign Event held 16 Dec 2010
Stokes, Carl Citizens For	FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE, BALTIMORE CITY LODGE#3 (3920 BUENA VISTA AVE , BALTIMORE, MD, 21211)	$2,000.00	01/05/2011	MD PAC Remarks: Citizens for Carl Stokes, Campaign Event held 16 Dec 2010

Some of the above Angelos connections are not as obvious as others. I will elaborate on some of the less obvious ones below:

• The Baltimore Brew says Samuel Bates ran Angelos’ Perring Place restaurant in Parkville.
• Thomas Minkin and Armand Volta are lawyers at the Law Offices of Peter Angelos.
• You can tell when an LLC is associated with Angelos because its Principal Office is usually listed at 100 NORTH CHARLES STREET, 22ND FLOOR.

The Angelos related grand total of $55,000 was almost as much as competitors Odette Ramos ($66,819.30) and Jason Curtis ($61,569.22) raised during their entire campaigns!