IT’S POTEMKIN VILLAGES ALL THE WAY DOWN: Perez ally secretly wrote 2013 endorsement.

Tom Perez, the labor secretary who is bidding to head the Democratic National Committee, received a crucial boost in 2013 when he was seeking Senate confirmation to be in President Obama’s Cabinet after the Maryland Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter endorsing him.

Perez was a controversial choice to be labor secretary. The letter, which was widely cited by Perez’s defenders to refute criticism against him, was part of a secret arrangement between Maryland Chamber President Kathleen Snyder and a close Perez ally, Scott R. Jensen. Jensen was assistant secretary at the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, the agency that monitors state businesses and labor issues.

Jensen, who was also coordinating a Senate lobbying campaign on Perez’s behalf, actually wrote the Chamber’s endorsement. Snyder attached her name to it without making any substantial changes, emails show.

Emails sure have shown a lot this season.