THE SCHIZOPHRENIC APPROACH TO RUNNING FOR OFFICE

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).

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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.

The final reports are in as to who is running for office in the “Once Free State”.

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.

Every election cycle, the Wicomico County Branch of the NAACP hosts a candidate forum.  While it should be expected that a forum sponsored by the NAACP would, and should, focus on issues of particular importance to the African-American community the forum gave ALL in attendance an opportunity to see and hear local candidates under fire.

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.

Carolyn Elmore, widow of Del. Page Elmore (R-38A) was sworn in at noon today to complete the term of her late husband.

Carolyn Elmore, a Republican and longtime educator, will represent parts of Somerset and Wicomico counties until the new crop of 188 lawmakers takes over in January. Elmore is not running for the seat.

After Speaker Michael E. Busch administered the oath of office on the House floor, Elmore posed for photographs with friends and new colleagues and stood by her husband’s desk, which was adorned with a single white rose.

Elmore said it was her husband’s wish that she fill the seat in the interim between his death and the 2011 legislative session.

"I want to honor him and continue his good works on the Eastern Shore," she said. "This also helps my family make the transition, too."

CASA de Maryland, the organization funded by Maryland taxpayer dollars to help ILLEGAL immigrants, is venturing out into politics.  Wait a second; I thought they were already “political”.  They are, but now they will OVERTLY engage in partisan political activity.

Dubbed CASA in Action, the group sent out surveys to politicians in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and will endorse primary candidates who promote Hispanic causes.

Among the questions: Whether candidates support giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, whether English should be the official state language, and whether office seekers would push for more funding for Hispanic nonprofits.

"It allows immigrants and low-income people in Maryland to come together and express their political priorities," said spokeswoman Eliza Leighton.

Should this preclude CASA from receiving taxpayer dollars?  NO!  They shouldn’t have been receiving tax dollars before; but this twist really changes the playing field.  While not illegal, Marylanders should ask if CASA is a responsible use of taxpayer funds.

Organizers for CASA in Action expect to make serious political headway in local and state races, citing the "enormous unrealized potential of the Latino vote."

Given that election judges cannot demand ID, or that county electoral boards cannot demand proof of citizenship beyond an individuals say-so, groups like “CASA in Action” have to make Marylanders seriously question the validity of elections.

Outgoing Wicomico County councilman John Cannon (R-AL) is seeking the Republican nomination for the District 38-A Maryland House seat.  Cannon is a pretty sharp guy, as the video above will show.  Regardless, Cannon won’t get my vote in the primary; and probably not the votes of my fellow conservatives.

Life, Liberty, and Property

We all grew up hearing those famous words from the Declaration of Independence – “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”.  How many know that the original draft of the Declaration read, “Life, Liberty, and Property”?  (The term was changed to appease northern delegates who were afraid that such a term might imply their endorsement of slavery.)

Regardless, property rights are at the core of conservative values.  While some of us may be willing to overlook Cannon’s lack of conservatism, it is in this area that he abjectly failed as a member of the Wicomico County Council.  Cannon’s support of a “compromise” to steal the property rights of Wicomico County farmers was (at least) one step too far.

Flip-Flop to the Max

Cannon’s support of the great (and fortunately unsuccessful) land grab would be bad enough.  What saddens me the most is his hedging (some would say fibbing) when asked about this issue by Joe Albero.  Starting at around 4:50 in the video, Cannon ducks and dodges.  He claims that landowners need to be compensated.  Why, then, did Cannon support down zoning of county ag lands without ANY (forget about FAIR) compensation to the property owners?

The bottom line is that John Cannon is a great guy.  He’d fit right in with the Annapolis crowd.  That’s the problem.

H/T – Joe Albero @ SbyNEWS

Last week we informed you that the Federal government would begin funding abortions in Pennsylvania.  Maryland will become the second state to begin funding abortions through ObamaCare.

Maryland will join Pennsylvania as the second state to use federal tax dollars to pay for abortions under the new health care law signed by President Barack Obama in March, according to information released by Maryland’s State Health Insurance Plan.

Maryland will receive $85 million in federal funds for its federally mandated high-risk insurance pool, which will cover abortions. As CNSNews.com reported on July 14, Pennsylvania will receive $160 million in federal funds for its high-risk insurance pool, which will also cover abortions.

During the debate over the health-care bill, President Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress, saying: “Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.”

I wonder what Bart Stupak would say now?

According to a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) fact sheet published by MHIP, its new Federal Plan will offer the same benefit package as its state-funded plans. “The MHIP Federal Plan offers the same benefit package as other MHIP plan options,” that document states. All five of MHIP’s plans cover abortion, including one plan that requires no co-pay if the abortion is performed at an out-patient abortion clinic, according information found on page 53 of the 2010 MHIP Certificate of Coverage.

Conservative Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has called for Congress to pass legislation blocking the use of federal funds for abortion:

"This is one more example of a broken promise in ObamaCare,” said Pence. “It is morally wrong to end an unborn human life and it is reprehensible to take taxpayer dollars from millions of pro-life Americans and use them to pay for abortions.”

Pence urged Congress to enact new legislation to stop abortion funding through the health-care law.

"I call on Congress to act quickly on critical legislation by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) to stop the administration from using ObamaCare to fund abortions."

H/T – Joe Albero @ SbyNEWS

Red Maryland contributor Mark Newgent is IMHO the finest political blogger in Maryland.  He’s also a frequent contributor on radio.  Catch Mark’s discussion of social media and politics:

Watch the full episode. See more State Circle.

If you have the stomach, catch the battle between MD DEM chair  Susan Turnbull and MD GOP chair Audrey Scott.  While I was rooting for Audrey, objectively she was creamed.  Audrey needs to practice her debating skills.

The battle for who will represent Maryland’s First Congressional District continues to grab national attention.  CNN recently profiled the race:

Kudos to the Anne Arundel County Council for stripping department heads and assistant department heads of one of those sacred perks – TAKE HOME CARS.  Of course, the civil servants are trying to argue that the county won’t really save any money.  My faith is in county auditor Teresa Sutherland (who also turned in her county car).  According to Sutherland, less than half of the county cars taken back to the county motor pool drove more miles on county business than on personal business.