Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer Carroll Foy’s campaign said a firm it hired to raise money inappropriately used data from a Democratic National Committee donor list.
Carroll Foy’s campaign manager said the campaign had let the vendor go before learning of the infraction, which Carroll Foy takes “extremely seriously.”
Campaigns are not allowed to use another campaign’s donor list without buying it or getting permission.
“It recently came to our attention that a company that was briefly hired to assist with fundraising utilized a list from the DNC inappropriately and without our knowledge,” Foy’s campaign manager, Garrick Delzell, said in a statement.
“The list and data were never integrated into our campaign files. Their services were engaged for about a month and we severed ties with the firm due to performance issues. News of this inappropriate use of a DNC list was brought to our attention on Tuesday.”
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The vendor, Blue Wave Political Partners, used the data in an email to potential donors asking if they were interested in setting up a phone call with Carroll Foy.
The firm issued a statement of apology:
“Last month, a staffer from our firm mistakenly merged a list of approximately 800 names for a scheduling request email on behalf of the client that should not have been used,” the statement said.
“As soon as the mistake came to our attention, we apologized for the error, we put in additional safeguards to make sure something like this does not happen again.”
The campaign had not identified any donations stemming from the email, said spokeswoman Kaylie Hanson Long.
Carroll Foy, a former delegate from Prince William County, is vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination with four others: state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond; Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax; Del. Lee Carter, D-Manassas; and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe.