People’s Book in Takoma Park, Maryland, says it has donated more than $7,000 from sales of US Senator Dave McCormick’s book Who Believed in You to the nonprofit CASA, which advocates for immigrants .
“Senator McCormick’s lobbyists asked us to buy 500 copies of his recently published book,” Matt Bormet, the store’s co-owner, says in a press release. “While we don’t want to be in business with someone who is partially responsible for the current crisis, we also don’t support banning books. So we filled the request. But in order to live our values, we’re taking his money and giving it to folks who can do some good with it.”
Bomet tells Washingtonian in an email that lobbyists Marty Obst and Jeff Miller purchased the books, “a common tactic amongst these types to goose their sales numbers.” Neither Obst nor Miller’s office have replied to a request for comment, and McCormick’s spokesperson hasn’t replied to a request for comment yet, either. We’ll update this post when we hear back.
People’s Book calls McCormick “a human rubber stamp for the Trump agenda” and said it encourages the senator to “buy additional books from us so we can give more of his massive piles of wealth to other worthy causes.” This isn’t the first time McCormick has found himself at odds with a small business: During his campaign last year, Max’s Steaks, a cheesesteak purveyor in Philadelphia, asked McCormick not to return after he held a campaign event at the shop without alerting its owners.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
