BALTIMORE — Maryland’s Republican candidate for governor is demanding that school officials remove a book written by his opponent from classrooms, libraries and reading lists.
Republican Dan Cox accuses Democrat Wes Moore of misleading voters about Moore's background.
Cox says school kids should not be lied to. Moore stands by the book entitled “The Other Wes Moore”.
The bestselling book is a contrast of the young lives of candidate Moore, a Rhodes Scholar and Afghanistan war veteran, and another man with the same name from Baltimore who is serving a life sentence after being convicted of the murder of a police officer 22 years ago.
“This is the story of two boys from Baltimore with similar histories and an identical name,” the book's introduction reads.
But Moore, the candidate, grew up in Takoma Park, Maryland and Bronx, NY and was away at military school when his single mom moved to a Baltimore suburb.
He became a Baltimore resident while in college at Johns Hopkins University
Moore explains in the text of the book and on a campaign website designed to respond to the controversy.
Monday Cox appeared at Baltimore City School Headquarters to demand that the book be taken out of city schools.
"It's inappropriate to be presenting material that is really fictional campaign material as part of a curriculum, particularly this fall," Cox said.
Cox was joined by Daren Muhammad who says he is the uncle of the “other” Wes Moore, who’s in prison.
“The book is based on lies," Muhammad said.
"The book starts off saying essentially that it’s a story of two boys that grew up in Baltimore. And nothing could be further from the truth. Only one grew up in Baltimore. The other grew up outside of Maryland and New York."
Muhammad said his family was exploited by the book and has not been compensated.
According to reporting by Baltimore TV station Fox 45 Baltimore City Schools has paid more than $15,000 for copies of the books and made it required reading for 9th graders.
Baltimore City Schools did not immediately respond Monday to Cox’s demand to remove the book from schools.
In a written response, Moore’s campaign said:
“This is a desperate attempt to distract from today’s poll results that show Dan Cox’ values are dangerously out of step with Maryland families by doing what Dan Cox does best – peddling baseless conspiracy theories.”
Moore has a 22-point lead over Cox according to a new poll by Goucher College in Maryland.
Gov. Hogan has not said no.