Julie Brewington, candidate for the GOP nomination to replace the late Page Elmore in Maryland District 38-A has a “unique” approach to running for office.  While her opponents (Crisfield attorney John Phoebus, Wicomico councilman John Cannon (R-AL), and Somerset County farmer Charles Otto) are out meeting voters and getting signs put up Brewington is taking a somewhat bizarre approach to electoral politics.

Hypocrisy At Pecan Square

According to Brewington’s own blog, she attended two events for other candidates yesterday evening.  The first event, a fundraiser for 37-A candidate Dustin Mills, was also attended by Cannon, District 2 councilwoman Stevie Prettyman, and SbyNEWS publisher Joe Albero.  She attacks Cannon for a variety of fictional offenses and then plays the victim card:

… John Cannon, was sitting with, and yucking it up with a certain blogger that has personally attacked me, my family, and my gender in the most vicious and vile of ways. It has been nothing short of true candidate intimidation. Not good form Mr. Cannon. It makes you look like you condone such behavior. The question is, do you?

This puts me in a somewhat awkward position.  I’ve previously noted that Cannon won’t be getting my vote for the 38-A House seat.  That said, my differences with Cannon are substantive; we disagree over certain policies and a core political philosophy.  John Cannon treats others well and with respect.  I have never heard Cannon speak an unkind word about Brewington or anyone else.  Why does Brewington think that she can get away with attacking Cannon and then wrapping herself up in some kind of pseudo-feminist victimhood?

I fully expect something of this nature from what I have experienced in the recent past, and the way John was yucking it up over the pictures on the bloggers [sic] camera. Is this the type of campaign you’re going to run Mr. Cannon? An endorcement [sic] of  vile attacks against a female for being a female? A regular citizen running for the house of the people?  If not, you need to say so now. Very loud and very strong.I am not seeing that thus far. Speak out Mr. Cannon against candidate intimidation. I can’t imagine I could be that much of a threat to you. This goes for you as well Mr. Phoebus, are you going to stand for this type of attacks?

Where is Camile Paglia when we need her?  The Eastern Shore is blessed with many strong women in government; among them Del. Addie Eckardt (R-37B), Del. Jeannie Haddaway (R-37B), Wicomico councilwoman Stevie Prettyman (R-2), and Wicomico councilwoman Gail Bartkovich (R-3).  I’ve never known either lady to attempt to deflect an issue by whining about anti-woman bias.  BTW – what was John Phoebus’s crime other than to emerge as the early front-runner for the seat Brewington covets?

Wait!  Is 38-A REALLY the seat Julie is running for?

Which District Are You Running in Julie?

Addie Eckardt already has a Democrat opponent for her 37-B seat.  Does she have a primary challenger as well?  Not according to the State Board of Elections, but in Julie Brewington’s mind…?

In Brewington’s own comments on her attendance of an event for Wicomico Council District 2 candidate Michael Calpino:

Next, I headed to Bivalve to the Westside Community Center for Michael Calpino’s Freedom Event. He is running as a challenger for District 2 on the Wicomico County Council. He invited all candidates who attended to speak and since it is my district, I felt obligated. (my emphasis)

Julie, I thought that you were running in 38-A.  I know that you live in 38-A.  Why do you think that Bivalve is in YOUR district?  If you go down to the Wicomico GOB and take the elevator up to the Planning Department (it’s on the 2nd floor), they will sell you a Wicomico County map that shows every precinct and what legislative and council district it is in.  According to both the county and state, Bivalve is in Legislative District 37-B.

Does Julie Want to “Divide America”?

I think Brewington needs to take a ride to Annapolis first thing Monday morning.  The State Board of Elections has her listed as running for the GOP nomination.  Yet, according to Brewington, political parties are disgusting, nasty things:

One thing I can say about the event was it was bi-partisan and freedom knows no party. These labels only aim to divide Americans.

Should we infer from Julie’s comments that persons who run under a party label want to divide America?  I guess we have to because political parties are simply organized associations of individuals.  I guess that would have to include Brewington, her husband Mike (a Democrat candidate for Wicomico Council) and her pal Calpino (the Libertarian Party IS a party, albeit smaller than the Dems or GOP).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

While I’m sure that Mrs. Brewington would disagree, I honestly don’t bear her any ill will.  I would just like to see candidates, particularly candidates running on my party’s line, who can put together a coherent sentence or two, know how to turn on spell checker, and aren’t paranoid that anyone who doesn’t explicitly support them is somehow out to personally destroy them.

In 2010 we are blessed to see a record number of candidates seeking office up and down the ballot in Maryland.  On November 3rd we will wake up and there will be only one winner for each office.  Between now and then, I can disagree with people like John Cannon or Frank Kratovil yet still be civil.  Contrary to the belief of some, neither I nor Joe Albero go home at night and stick pins in little dolls.  Some candidates need to either understand this or accept the fact that they simply aren’t emotionally secure enough to run for elected office.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney promised many of the same things to his voters regarding RomneyCare that the messiah promised to the rest of America.  Have they come true?

Health care costs continue to rise in the socialist paradise of Taxachusetts.  Emergency rooms are still overcrowded, despite promises from Romney, and now Obama, that this problem would disappear.

One problem faced in Massachusetts that the feds won’t have to face – at least in the immediate term – is the huge shifting of resources into health care from other programs.  The anointed one will simply borrow until US sovereign debt shares the same risk rating of Greece.

The problem is, it may be too late to do anything about it then.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) simply doesn’t know what to do.  Commenting after the first meeting of the House Tea Party Caucus, organized by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN):

Mr. Boehner, who said he has attended several tea party events throughout the country, acknowledged the gatherings typically include smatterings of "disaffected Republicans," Democrats and "a couple of anarchists who want to kill all of us in public office."

But "75 percent of these people who show up at these events are the most average, everyday Americans you’ve ever met," he said. "None of them have ever been involved in the political process, and I would guess half of them have never voted."

Mr. Boehner added that tea party activists represent "the tip of the iceberg" of Americans disenchanted with their government.

"They represent the same values, concerns, frustration, anger and fear that you see from tens of millions of other Americans who aren’t in the streets yet," he said. "They should not be dismissed, they shouldn’t be mocked."

75%?  The Tea Party movement is far more independent than Boehner believes.  Sure, the vast majority will vote for Republicans this fall, but that has nothing to do with the GOP’s lack of a genuine conservative message and everything to do with what they’ve witnessed since Barack Obama was sworn in.

Boehner and his buddies better understand that this fall is like a free pass.  If the GOP can’t show that they can actually lead, it’s game over.  Either it’s back to the minority or conservatives and libertarians in the GOP will be demanding that Republican candidates pledge to purge themselves of a leadership that simply cares more about power than philosophy and policy.

The time for pandering is over John.

Christine O’Donnell

To that end, O’Donnell is coming out swinging:

“Mike Castle’s voting record proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he is for special interests, against the free market, anti-Second Amendment, pro-abortion and he’s even for sanctuary cities.  It’s a preposterous record,” O’Donnell said. “Calling himself a Republican is borderline schizophrenic, confused about his own political identity.”

“Mike Castle is the most liberal congressman in the Republican Party,” said Yates Walker, campaign spokesman.

O’Donnell points out that National Journal, hardly a conservative organ, ranks Castle as the most liberal GOP House member.  To overcome the electability argument, O’Donnell can how point to a Rasmussen poll showing her with a 2 point lead over presumptive Dem nominee Chris Coons.

Given Castle’s length of service as Governor and Congressman, along with a huge fundraising advantage, will painting Castle as a RINO be enough?  Time will tell.  However, if it can be done, Delaware is a great state to do it in.  If O’Donnell is able to organize a real grassroots effort, you can easily contact just about every registered Republican in the First State.

It may just boil down to who wants it the most….  who will will work harder.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Georgia Right to Life.

Today, Georgia Right to Life attacked Georgia gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel for funding Planned Parenthood when Handel chaired the Fulton County Commission in Georgia.

The funding had actually been approved before Handel got there and the money was designated for cancer screenings with Planned Parenthood doing the cancer screenings instead of the county.

You can read more here and will note that Georgia Right to Life threw in some gratuitous and unneeded nonsense on Sarah Palin and her son with Down Syndrome.

Contrast this Nathan Deal, who Georgia Right to Life is supporting. The money that was spent by Fulton County while Karen Handel chaired the commission went to do cancer screenings. In Congress, Nathan Deal voted for Henry Waxman sponsored legislation to give $500 million to Planned Parenthood to pay for actual abortions.

In Georgia Right to Life’s world, Nathan Deal voting to fund actual abortions is better than Karen Handel presiding over a commission that had voted to use Planned Parenthood as a cervical and breast cancer screening provider for indigent women.

Pure speculation, but it sounds like the folks at the top of Georgia RTL are putting politics first, second, and third on the list while relegating principle to the bottom.

Former House Ways and Means chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) will finally face ethics charges for myriad offenses.  Rangel, who was forced to step down as committee chair earlier this year over other charges, is being investigated for filing false financial disclosures and income tax evasions.  The details of the charges will be made public next week.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called on Mr. Rangel to resign.

"Today’s action demonstrates that the notoriously lax ethics committee has found substantial reason to believe that Rep. Rangel has violated federal law, House rules, or both. Now the question is whether Rep. Rangel will resign or endure a public trial that promises to be filled with detailed and undoubtedly embarrassing revelations of wrongdoing," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog organization. "The time clearly has come for him to resign."

Republicans took no time to remind the public of Nancy Pelosi’s promise to “drain the swamp” and to end the “culture of corruption”.

"Today’s announcement is a sad reminder of Speaker Pelosi‘s most glaring broken promise: to ‘drain the swamp’ in Washington. Instead of presiding over ‘the most honest, most open and most ethical’ Congress in history, Washington Democrats have presided over a string of bailouts, job-killing government takeovers and other backroom deals," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

Statewide, Congressional, and Legislative Candidates

Local Candidates

Will Republicans make big gains in this deep blue state?  Too early to tell.  However, the number and depth of good GOP candidates could well be the beginning of a better future for Maryland.

I’ll leave it to my friend Michael Swartz at MonoBlogue to provide his usual (and excellent) blow by blow.  I’m going to focus on a few questions, and some of the surprising responses.

County Executive:

Incumbent Rick Pollitt continues with his normal fence straddling and platitudes.  GOP candidate Joe Ollinger is giving it the ole college try but continues to lack the red meat necessary to get conservatives to whole heartedly support him.  Democrat challenger Tom Taylor gave the best performance of the evening.

When asked if the candidates would commit to having a percentage of African-Americans in key positions that more closely reflected the community at large Pollitt actually said that he would “do his best”.  Ollinger fell back to the old GOP stand-by of “qualification is what matters”.  (true but a cliche).

Tom Taylor’s Response:

I don’t believe in quotas.  We are all one race – the human race.  If you want more people of color in key positions – run for them, apply for them, prepare for them.

Since I’m not a Democrat, I can’t vote for Taylor in the primary.  But I have to admit that Tom deserves the consideration of every Wicomico Democrat who likes to claim that he or she is a “conservative”.

County Council:

The county council section of the forum was broken up into two sections (really two and a half).  At-Large candidates were up first.  They were then followed by the two candidates for District 1 and then all of the other district candidates (together with the District 1 candidates).  This was logical given that District 1 is the minority / majority district and therefore is of special concern to the NAACP.

This was the first time that I’ve been able to hear Democrat At-Large candidate David Cowall speak.  I have to admit that he was pretty good.  Cowall was particularly good at straddling the fence.  He also appears to be the anointed candidate of the local enviro-lefty wing of the Democrat party.

On the revenue cap, Democrat Ed Taylor is opposed.  Cowall wants to “give the cap a new look”, but the citizens need to decide.  Republican Bob Culver is not in favor of repealing or modifying the cap unless the voters decide to do so.

In setting budget priorities, Taylor doesn’t want to cut any spending.  Somehow he wants to “make the wealthy responsible for filling the gap.”  Interesting, and not doable.  Forget the bad economics – Taylor either isn’t aware, or doesn’t understand, that O’Malley’s “millionaire surtax” has backfired in a big way – it can’t be done.  Wicomico County is already at the upper limit with the county income tax.  Even if the revenue cap was repealed, property values are whatever they are.  You can’t have a “rich guy’s” property tax rate.  Either Mr. Taylor was pandering or he genuinely has no clue.

Cowall’s response was pretty well measured.  He is the first candidate I’ve heard to explicitly note that equal percentage cuts across the board are a recipe for disaster.  I wonder if he bothered explaining any of this to his fellow Dem Pollitt.  Rick has had three budgets to re-structure Wicomico government and instead has chosen to nibble around the edges.

On creating jobs, I was most impressed with Bob Culver’s common sense response.  Under the current economic conditions it is unlikely that new, high paying jobs will be pouring into Wicomico County.  Instead, Culver argues that part of the solution is to actively encourage unemployed citizens to seek jobs that are entry level or minimum wage.  When the economy does rebound, it is these some individuals that will be better prepared to take higher paying jobs.  Taylor wants to spend more money on SWED (Salisbury – Wicomico Economic Development).  Cowall claims that he’s “excited about the future of Wicomico County”.  He also thinks that PRMC, SU, and “green jobs” are our future.  Sound familiar?

As noted above, a special emphasis was placed on District 1.  That’s fair.  Both incumbent Sheree Sample-Hughes and Dave Goslee, Jr. were asked what the most critical civil rights issue facing the people of Distric 1 is.  Sample-Hughes was up first and attacked the Wicomico County Sheriff’s office over the “barber shop” incident.  Rather than re-hash the details of this matter, suffice to say that Sheriff Mike Lewis came before the county council when asked and took questions from all comers.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t have been thrilled if I was sitting in that barber shop and a drug dealer (followed by police and deputies) ran in and the deputies made me hit the floor.  I also respect the need of law enforcement officers to protect the safety of innocent citizens and their fellow officers.  Personally, I’d rather have the drug dealer(s) locked up and endure a few minutes of inconvenience.  This is one issue where Ms. Sample-Hughes has truly shown her left-of-center stripes.  The revenue cap is another.

When all the district council candidates fielded questions, the first was on Wicomico’s revenue cap.  Sample-Hughes wants to see the cap “modified” (code for a tax increase).  District 4 incumbent Dave McLeod was honest enough to admit that, “I have to learn to live with the cap until the people express themselves in a referendum to change it”.  Everyone else fell back on “let the people decide” except for the council’s two most conservative incumbents – Stevie Prettymand (District 2) and Joe Holloway (District 5).  While both stated that only the voters should be able to change the cap since they enacted it by referendum.  Prettyman also noted that it was income tax and recordation tax revenue that was drastically down.  Property tax revenue was up.  Holloway came away with quote of the evening:

The only way to control how much money the government spends is by how much the government takes in.

Well said Joe.

The issue of land use regulation may have been the most telling of the evening.  When asked if they would support ag land down-zoning – the great Rick Pollitt-Bill McCain-John Cannon land grab – the responses told us who were the straight shooters in the room.  Goslee, Prettyman, District 3 incumbent Gail Bartkovich, and Holloway all stood firm that they would not support stripping farmers of their property rights without compensation.  They also were adamant that no new down-zoning bill should come forward to council until AFTER the adoption of the county’s new comp plan.  McLeod and Sample-Hughes, who both supported some form of the last attempt to strip farmers of their property rights, straddle the fence.

Between now and November 2nd, the citizens of Wicomico County should have ample opportunity to see these, and other, candidates in action.  The Wicomico Branch of the NAACP deserves our thanks for hosting this forum and setting an example to the rest of our community.

The entire forum should be broadcast on PAC-14.  Keep an eye out for it.

"If there’s an invasion of Israel by the Netherlands, he will find a way to blame the NJEA for that," responds the union’s executive director, Vincent Giordano.

In a Fox News interview in the union’s building down the street from the statehouse, Giordano rejected Christie’s attacks, saying they "aren’t warranted."

He says teachers make an average of about $65,000 a year, and "when you put it all together, teacher salaries in New Jersey are still well below the average salary of the private sector. When you include all of the ingredients…I don’t think they are too high or too rich."

GIVE IT A TRY!  See how life is when you CAN be fired for not doing your job.  See how it is when you are compensated for PERFORMANCE rather than just showing up for work more years that someone who actually does a better job.  Enjoy a job where you are grateful if your employer picks up HALF the cost of your healthcare benefits and where you get NO health benefits in retirement.

Christie is right on target!  Americans are finally learning that public employees are actually earning more than their private sector counterparts.  When you throw in benefits and job security, the gap is HUGE!

Perriello, who defeated 6-term Republican Virgil Goode by 727 votes in 2008, today trails among most demographic groups. Among men, Hurt leads by 19 points. Among women, Hurt leads by 26. White voters back Hurt 2:1; black voters back Perriello 2:1. Twice as many Democrats cross over to vote Republican as Republicans who cross over to vote Democrat. Independents break Republican. Perriello runs most strongly among Democrats, African Americans, liberals, moderates, those who have unfavorable opinions of the Tea Party movement, among pro-choice voters, and among those who do not own guns … each of which is today a minority among likely voters in VA’s 5th district.

The composition of likely voters for this survey is 42% Republican, 27% Democratic. This composition reflects an energized Republican base and an enthusiasm gap for Democrats, evident in SurveyUSA polling from around the country. If the electorate is more Democratic than shown in SurveyUSA’s model here, the Republican still wins, though his margin of victory is less. For example, if hypothetically there were an even number of Democrats and Republicans in the likely voter model, Republican challenger Hurt wins today by 11 points, not 23.

H/T – Bearing Drift