HarCoDem

Hiatus

2006-09-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

unfortunately, I haven't been posting very often. This is a sad consequence of my college schedule. There are a number a good campaigns going on, but I have my hand in a few of them so I feel it would be a conflict of interest.

In the meantime, I'll be posting about the MD Senate district 34 & 35 races on my www.dailykos.com diary (Spuchuu.dailykos.com) [I've been told this doesn't work, but this is all I can do for the time being]

DailyKos is a very good site for Progressive and/or liberal blogging and most of the regular people posting are well-informed. (Caveate: They tend to be a bit more aggressive than Harfordem, just warning you)

When I find time to post, I will. Do not feel as though you're alone in the cold. There's a new HQ opening up this Saturday.

Council Races

2006-09-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

I currently see this set up: [I'm mentioning races that are competitive, or what can be done to make them so.]
[Race: (potential voting pattern)
description]

Council A: (Dem)
Guthrie has exponentially more cash-on hand than Biggs. Unless Biggs can tear apart Guthrie topic-to-topic (and Dion WILL delcare everything he had a hand in), District A will stay blue. Dion has a great word-of-mouth campaign and an equally good amount of Republican support; enough to overcome the undecided all voting for Biggs.

Council B: (Toss-up/Likely Republican)
Val Twanmoh has gone against Chenowith twice and is hoping, "...third time's the charm..." [actual quote]. Interesting factoid: Val gained 4,000+ more votes in 2002 than in 1998. If she repeats and gains HALF of that, she wins. She has a serious financial shortfall compared to Chenowith. Also consider Bittner, but not as a winner. The Green party can consistently cannibalized the Democratic vote. After 12 years with little to show for it except, "I have unfinished business..." Chenowith might have a fight on her hands.

Council C: (toss-up/too close to call)
There was MASSIVE voter apathy in the 2002 general election. Little over 16K votes with over 22K possible voters. This ALL depends on the GOTV efforts. Word has come to me that Morrissey-Ward is hungry for victory. Such candidates have won on sheer will alone. McMahan has what I consider a 'minor' cash advantage.

Council D (Toss-up/Lean Republican)
I can not go so far as to say that Chad Shrodes has a cash advantage, but it could be the only one he has. If any election has an obligatory popularity contest, this is probably it. Republicans call Shrodes the, "...Ultimate Switch-o-Crat..." and I haven't seen someone YET come forward to say "I like Terence Cox". A good ground campaign and GOTV effort will win this seat.

Council E (Lean Dem)
I call this a 'lean Dem' race only because of registration figures (which badly need to be updated). If Wheeler can get a good GOTV and convince some 'undeclared' voters to side with him, the race will be Wheeler's, despite Slutzky's $15,000 advantage.

Council F: (Likely Dem)
More dems than repubs voted in the primary by almost 2 to 1. Lisanti is driven and has actual motivation to win. Lisanti also has an easy-to-find website. I tried for five minutes to Google a Correri webpage and I did not find much. Mary Ann has a strong ground campaign and good HdG support. Correri needs to get a message out if he wants to win.

Council President: (Republican)
Now that Boniface is the clear competitor, White presently has a clear target. If White wants to make the race competitive, he has to step up fundraising (no candidate for this position can win without it), get a solid ground campaign, or find the world's best GOTV effort if he wants the Council President job. This is liable to be a very uphill race for White. Meanwhile, if Boniface doesn't want to lose his foothold, he must not accept developer contributions...or open his mouth. Boniface can in theory not say anything at all, or even lift a finger, or spend money to win Council President.

Voting Day

2006-09-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

Cross-posted on FreeStatePolitics

I'm keeping this short and sweet...

Vote! The primary is more important than the general and here's why...

You actually get to choose the candidate you prefer over the ones you don't. So if you like Mfume or Cardin, vote for him and support whoever wins the nomination.

The more people in your voting precinct vote, the more attention you are given in future campaigns!

So, keep up the American tradition and vote! If you stay home because you don't like the candidates, then you're just lazy, and who likes lazy people?

The Aegis does it again!

2006-09-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

Cross-Posted on Maryland Federation of College Democrats and Diaried on Dailykos...

Many of you may not get the Aegis, the "Premiere" newspaper circulating in Harford county and parts of Baltimore and Cecil counties. The Aegis is published by Homestead publishing, owned by the Tribune Co., which also owns The Baltimore Sun. The Aegis is unapologetically Republican in nature. They aren't even in line with Neo-Cons, or the mainstream conservatives. They hate just about everyone that doesn't strictly act Republican.

Take yesterdays article, "An 'R' Needed To Win?" In which Executive Editor Ted Hendricks pretty much somes up, in-over a half-page of news, that Democrats suck. The venom is so fierce in this article that he assualts Republican Delegate Joanne Parrott because she isn't in the rank-and-file. Hendricks continues on by making the point that because Democrats only outnumber Republicans by little over 900, that Democrats amount to nothing county-wide!

This is probably one of the sickest attempts at "Journalism" I've seen since Fox News went on the air. With the accuracy of reporting and the frequent liberal-bashing coming from that paper, The Aegis makes Fox News look left-of-center! I run a private blog for Harford Co. Democrats, but the people who read that blog know what they're getting; an analysis of the news, local officials and some light advocacy. People actually go to the Aegis for *gasp* NEWS!

This outrages me more than I know. When I finished reading that it infuriated me. How dare a podunk, backwater, contrite, pedantic, and sad excuse for a newspaper attempt to feed me such garbage that just because this district is almost entirely represented by Republicans that Dems can pretty much be dismissed.

This is why I'm a Democrat. People are Democrats, that I've noticed, by choice. I know a guy who was Republican for 15 years and switched. I took him to a meeting with some other Democrats and, while he felt out of place at first, yet he quickly settled in and felt welcomed like he was part of the bunch. If the roles are reversed, you have to bear some harsh punishment from people calling you a switch-o-crat (which doesn't even roll off the tongue, c'mon people think of something better. Cut-and-Run was a so much easier to say!)

If this is how The Aegis treats Democrats, with a 900+ person advantage, just imagine how they treat the third parties!

reader feedback

2006-08-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

I would like to hear more from my readers! I have no idea how many people read this blog, nor how frequently they check. As a request from me, please post more often in the comments section. I'm not GOPerative, and I won't be critical of what anyone says.

Therefore, I'm opening a position here at harcodem for an additional blogger. If there are many good applicants, I will consider adding them also.

The duties are as follows...

At least one post a week.
Any post must be clear as possible.
The point of any post must be understandable. (There will be flexibility in this duty)
As little profanity as possible.
Obviously must be liberal, progressive or left-of-center in their ideology.
(This is a must and will be enforced...) Must stand by everything you say.

If you wish to be on the HarCoDem staff, please send a sample post to HarCoDem@Gmail.com.

what do I see?

2006-08-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

I look at the races pre-primary. I see Kane and Chenowith being the big contested race that gets my interest. Many are focusing on Council President, and I don't blame them; three contenders and all three say they're qualified. Harcodem will not speculate on the outcome of County Council President.

District B is Chenowith vs. Kane vs. Walters , with the general looking like Twanmoh(D) vs. (Repulican Primary Winner) vs. Bittner (G). Now I don't know abotu you all, but I look forward to seeing finance reports from everyone's respective camps and making a call based off of that.

Other interesting races?
District A- Dion Guthrie said he'd have a website for his campaign by June. Guess what? None.

That may have been something you could have gotten away with in the last election cycle, but that's just not something you ignore these days. If Guthrie wins the primary, he has a good chance of winning the general. He has enough support from both sides in district A to win, but if one of the other challengers wins the primary, I will swear to you that that person will be against the current the entire wayand would be lucky to win the general.

More later on... keep your eyes open

Harford Farm Fair

2006-08-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

Me and an associate of mine came to the fair. Hot...really hot.

onto the politics...

Val (district b) stood out. Jesse Bane really stood out...it appears that he's either got money to burn, or is afraid of his Terry Serago competition.

The NHDC had a decent showing, but it would have helped if someone at that booth knew a little bit of something on a majority of candidates. A few of the no-names got some good recognition.

short post cut even shorter, the dems had a decent showing at the farm fair. Republicans were too many to really care.

CDA Convention, Day 2

2006-07-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Whenever I go to these conventions, I always seem to wake up at least 30 minutes before my alarm goes off. I'm in the central time zone and I'm easily waking up at 6-6:30Am (alarm set for 7) when I can barely get myself stirred up by 8am my time. Oh well.

Senator Evan Bayh sponsored a breakfast...when I say "sponsored", I more mean, 'hired a caterer'. Lite stuff, met up with some people I saw get smashed the night before (all in good fun).

Friday was the day of workshops. I attended "The Democratic Message" and "Fundraising" I should have gone to the other two...and maybe I did go to one of them...I just can't remember without looking at an agenda.

I sat in on the Faith and GLBT caucuses (jumping in and out of both rooms...no, I'm not gay x_x) and observed a number of people who just really want to be active. I see so many people who are going to be future advisors/politicians/lawyers, etc and that pumps me up. (As if the Dean Machine didn't do enough of that already)

I attended the Wesley Clark speech and then snuck into the secret meet and greet with him. I had to fight tooth and nail to get to him and have a picture taken (it's up on Gen. Clark's Facebook account...when I get a copy, I'll be posting it here). I'm sure he didn't know think of me when we met up (..."Oh, here's a guy in sunglasses indoors"). It was worth the picture though.

Elections for CDA are on Day 3, which I'll post a little later.

And a thing for all the locals back home...I bring hope. I'm going to help out the local campaigns...Ann Helton will be my first stop.

CDA Convention, Day 1

2006-07-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

I arrived at the College Democrats of America convention in St.Louis, MO yesterday. The first day is really boring; there are only four members of the Maryland delegation here, myself included. The entire MD Exec. Board is nowhere to be seen.

The first day was filled primarily with training workshops for state exec board members (see above). I snuck in on the private Q&A with Howard Dean. The man, IMO, is transparent. I can see right through him. Not in the "I think he's bad for the Democratic Party" way. I see through Dean in the "I know how you think" kind of way. Let's put it this way; I'm quite confident in who I think he's privately supporting in the Connecticut Senatorial primary race (DNC will almost never endorse a candidate, with two exceptions...not to be mentioned here).

Then came Opening Ceremonies, where Gov. Dean made a commencement speech to every member. That man is incredibly inspirational. He passed by me on his way to the podium (I honestly thought he was like 6'2"...more like 5'7"). That man would probably have made a decent US President, but I'm glad he's DNC Chair.

There was/is still many people running for national exec board positions, and they're all whoring themselves out to whomever will listen. I keep trying to refuse campaign stickers. I don't like that level of endorsement when I barely know a candidate. When everyone was out on the bar scene (MO legislature passed a law stating one must be 21 to enter a place that serves alcohol...or something very close to that), there was still plenty of campaigning.

My roommate, who has the key never bothered letting me know when I could swing by and unload my stuff. I wanted to goto sleep by 10:30 (11:30 EST), I didn't get to do that for another three hours. Did I mention about half the town is without power from a tornado?

That was yesterday. Rest assured the other days of the convention will be chronincled.

Primary Election

2006-07-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

Cross-Posted on Free State Politics blog:

So the filing deadline passed. At least that headache is over...or is it?

According to the Aegis, the Democratic Central Committee can nominate someone to run against her even though no one filed...

This is three shades of a bad idea if they do it.

The person they choose will first have to explain why they did not originally file in the first place (I'm no polling expert, but I see that affecting at least 10% of the voting populous.
This person will be running against an incumbant that's on a slate. (by the way, these three people haunt my dreams at night, giving tax breaks with money that isn't there)
Doesn't it just seem a little undemocratic/unethical to give somebody a shot at a elected office when they didn't file? I'm bothered by this, but at present, I'm not able to change the system.

Why should they do it?

Heard of the Fifty-State Strategy? Read up on it! All we have to do is RUN Art Helton to make James spend her money (For the love of God, don't run A. Helton v Jacobs. This didn't work the last time, either)
because it shuts GOPerative up...or gives him something new to complain about...I can never tell with him [let the flame war begin]
You never know when you can get a win.

Do all of the uncontested races in Harford NEED a democrat running. I don't neccesarily think so. With many races being pretty much decided in the primary, it would be pretty funny to see whatever campaign monies these people have get spent on party in-fighting.

Wait, that's all the more reason to nominate people in these races!

Anyway, following the College Democrats of America convention, I will be endorsing primary candidates for Harford County races. Until then, I'll be paying attention

P.S. To those who have been paying attention, I filed to run for Dem. Central Committee. I refuse to use my blog as a campaigning tool. The furthest I will go will be saying that I write on this blog so that people can have a better idea on who I am; but I refuse to campaign from my blog. Doing so is not ethical (unless the purpose of this blog was a campaign center, which it isn't) and distracts the people who want to read this from the real issues. I'm here to better the county through awareness and advocacy.

BGE + Ehrlich

2006-06-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE has been spouting the rhetoric back and forth.

I will say this and everyone should agree with the logic; Ehrlich called a special assembly to deal with the BGE rates. Miller doesn't like him. O'Malley doesn't like him. Busch doesn't seem too fond of him.

What made Ehrlich think that these three would go along with Ehrlich or the plan he set up? I honestly don't know.

So here's the point; when Ehrlich vetoed the bill, did he propose a counter bill? Did he? No. The Governor had made a point or two, vetoed the bill and sent it back knowing that there are enough votes to override the veto.

So, that's my Ehrlich bit.

To Everyone Who Voted Against The Bill:

Did YOU have an alternative? I faintly remember watching a good part of the debates and saw no clear alternative. ("I like this bill, but not this line, I motion we scrap the whole thing"-mentality)

I understand voting your conscious. Lots of my friends do it, and I do when its called for. But I have never spoken against something, anything, without an alternative in mind. Maybe our Republican senators/delegates have forgotten that.

Ehrlich's running mate: I'm going to make this short and sweet. She was an appointee by President Bush, who favors blind loyalty BEFORE quality. I could say some pretty nasty things about how mormons and blind faith, but I will refrain. That's not how we do things at Harcodem. Unlike Steele, I don't think Cox has the skills to fill the shoes of Governor in case something happened to Governor Ehrlich.

My alternative to Cox? Jacobs! (yes, a Dem giving advice to the Repubs.)
Jacobs is a good choice, because no one is going to change their Governor vote JUST because of where the Lt. Governor lives.
(this would not sway my vote, for I have my own reasons for not liking Jacobs)

I lived in Baltimore City for awhile...people in that area have told me that O'Malley is the best thing that happened to Charm City in 20 years. On policy and governing style, I like O'Malley over Ehrlich.

Back in Action

2006-06-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

I've been away for the last few weeks, regrettably. This was due to Blogger.com updates, an out of town trip that didn't have internet access, and I've been speaking with some people about changing the site (new location, hosting options, additional bloggers, etc.).

The point is...I'm back. On with the blogging.

I made a stop by D.C. to talk with some congressional contacts I have. Congressman Ruppersberger has not been exactly pulling his weight. He is merely steps away from being the lease influential member of congress. No real legislation has been introduced by him and while he's on a the Government Reform committee, three hours of rooting around for info has shown me no real interest/activity on Rep. Ruppersberger's part.

If he would be more interested somewhere else, there are vacancies on other committees.

The most I've seen is an attempt to give tax-breaks to owners of Hybrid vehicles (good idea, why didn't someone jump on this sooner).

After that, Dutch is not very active. Solution: Find someone new, and I'm rooting around (it was part of my absence). I'm going to advocate a more active candidate for MD's 2nd district. I'm looking at some names currently, and almost ANYONE will be better than Dutch.

Honestly, the party needs strong individuals, willing to stand together and keep the message clear, 'We will not tolerate the conservative assault on the lower and middle class'. This won't happen with people in office who kowtow to the President, don't speak up, and pander to keep votes. MD 02 is a strong liberal base, and we can afford to move Dutch over as an advisor (because he is competent and well respected) to someone coming in.

Comments? Discussion?

Net Neutrality

2006-05-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

Action needs to be taken!

The Sensenbrenner-Conyers Net Neutrality bill is a bipartisan piece of legislation that will, in its present state, keep the internet the way it should always be; OURS! The telecoms have no business trying to squeeze even more money out of us in this unfair manner.

For those who aren't paying attention, here's what the telecoms want.
Verizon customers can get a quick load time for Amazon.com, but an unbearably slow load time for ebay.com, all because Amazon has a business deal with Verizon (I don't think this scenario is a real-life for instance, but Amazon and Verizon are very public faces and make for a good example).

Net neutrality, the way the bill currently is written, will prevent companies from doing this.

"Why is it bad?" you may ask...

1)To keep websites from having long load times, companies will most likely merger with one another until superconglomerates will form.
How would you like to see "Sprint-Johnson&Johnson-Toysrus-Pfizer-PopaJohn's" compete with "AT&amp;T-BurgerKing-Half.com-M&TBank-PizzaHut-Paramount-Disney/ABC"?

Yes, that's an over-exaggeration, but I guarantee it will happen and the only thing that results from these mega-mergers as of late is a Corporate "Fleecing of America" (coining an NBC phrase) where corporate board members are the only ones who come out ahead.

Call your Congressmen and our Senators and tell them to support the bill UNAMENDED. All numbers provided are phone numbers. (You can also use the toll-free congressional switchboard 1-800-839-5276 and ask for any one of the following)
District 01 - Wayne Gilchrest (202) 225-5311
District 02 - Dutch Ruppersberger (202) 225-3061
District 06 - Roscoe Bartlett (202) 225-2721

Senator Barbara Mikulski - (202) 224-4654
Senator Paul Sarbanes - (202) 224-4524

Together we can keep the internet ours!

Not surprised...

2006-05-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

Alright, so David Craig hired his sister-in-law awhile back and people started crying, "Nepotism!"

They may have had a point...

This article in the Sun makes note of another hokey hire by the County Exec. Now, I honestly believe that if an ethics board clears this, fine. However, this shouldn't go unregulated. How long do you blur the line before it doesn't exist anymore?

Let's face it, in politics there is cronyism, and that's usually on a small scale. Someone works hard to get to an office, he's going to put the people he knows into some cushy jobs. If person were myself and I did that, I'd put some people in low-profile, out of the way job that would challenge and reward them.

Enough about me though.

A conflict of interests (when regarding family) occur when the family member you place in somewhere above or below you in the chain of command. When you're the County Executive, you're it. That's the very top of the CoC. In those regards, no one is higher and that's where conflicts arise.

Mr. Craig can say what he likes to the charge, but I don't see way around the CoC at that level of Government.

County Budget

2006-05-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Like I'm sure many of you all do, I've been trying to follow the County Council's attempt to reconcile the budget with the 3/4 million increase by David Craig. Its a little confusing, so I'll see if my facts are straight.

-3 Council members are not present (District B- Medical, District C-Iraq, District F-Vacation)
-Craig wants over $750 million in budget increases; most notable are the monies for an executive staff, including a Chief of Staff, a Deputy Chief of Staff among others with budgets for the both of them.
-No explanation on how these positions will help the county has been offered. (The Agriculture position is quite self-explanitory to me, so no angry posts from farmers, please)

So, if I understand this correctly, the council cut over $460,000 of the proposed budget.

Then, according to the Aegis yesterday, the council put a lot what they cut back in unanimously.

I still see nothing that fully explains what the county gets out of the money put into this budget. Shame on every present Councilperson for not sticking to their guns. If the County Executive is promoting cronism, which he's been known for doing in the past, what makes anyone think that this won't be as bad as President Bush?

guthrie interview update

2006-05-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

The Guthrie interview...in part is here. Enjoy!

The "Almost final" draft is up in its entirety. I thank all of you for your patience. I had NO idea how long transcribing these things are.

If I do an interview again, which is probable, I won't do it the same way nor take nearly as long.

Councilwoman Chenowith

2006-05-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

In a recent article by Justin Fenton, it has been revealed that Veronica Chenowith has leukemia. This is a disastrous disease, and while I may disagree with her politcally, I wish her the best of health. Stating she's a fighter, Councilwoman Chenowith intends to seek re-election. I sincerely hope her health does not impact any votes on the council (but an absece will certainly end that nasty 3-3 tie ordeal).

I wonder how her primary opponent will work with that. Will he attack her (Chenowith isn't physically capable of representing her district)? Or will he leave it alone.

Same can be said for Twanmoh. What will/won't be done with this info...

Story as it unfolds....

Post comments

2006-05-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

I changed the comments section back to the way it used to be. Please feel free to post comments, as that helps me, but I would appreciate it if some of you would not be anonymous. Anyway, enjoy the blog!

Guthrie interivew

2006-04-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

Part of the Guthrie interview is up...here. Enjoy!

Cassilly makes up his mind...

2006-04-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

In this blogs debut post, I mentioned Councilman Robert Cassilly's reluctance to choose one way or another. In an article in today's Baltimore Sun, he officially says that he will not resign. I do not condone this willful neglect of his district.

However, he makes a point or two about not resigning: he was going to vote against the rezoning and in-district voting elimination anyway, so he feels the results were teh best in the county. He also hints at a disapproval of the candidates that may replace him, none of them named, of course...

"I am concerned that my resignation might result in a significant shift of the current balance of interests on the Council in a manner that would not be favorable to the citizens,"

This still leaves his seat unoccupied. The two tied votes were luck on his part. What if a bill comes the Council's way that he doesn't approve of that his vote would have made a difference. My great-grandmother always said that showing up makes all the difference.

People listen to others (in a more perfect union) and when hearing counter-arguments, would change their opinion. Keeping his seat when he's going to be away for a long time is negligent on his part. And before you pull his quote about how someone else being appointed to a post isn't fair to the voters, think about this: we didn't vote in David Craig, either.

to my readers

2006-04-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

I recently removed the option for anonymous posts. This wasn't to keep people from posting, but rather a name attached to a message?

Let's say a debate started in the messages section of a post. I would like an open discourse among people. This is difficult when both people are 'Anonymous'.

I've posted my email on my profile. This will stay up until next monday (5/1/06). I'm willing to meet people both ways on this (possibly moving the blog to livejournal or some other blog, not sure).

Please let me know; I wish to cater to my readers.

2006 elections, Part II

2006-04-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

District A has a nice election coming up!

Dion Guthrie (whom I have scheduled a tenative interview with) is running for re-election. His last four years has been quite inspiring and he fought for businesses and employees. He supports public health and education.

Opponents?

We have two!
Paula R. Mullis announced her candidacy first. Totting stronger police enforcement, immigration laws, the "blighted conditions" of the Edgewood area, and stronger faith-based initiatives.

She's running against...

... Christopher J. Biggs for the Republican primary. Biggs wants property tax cuts, gang training and an "increased presence" in the community. You can read more here.

I'm not going to tell the GOP who to vote for. My recommendation, obviously, will be for Guthrie. I will be interviewing him sometime in May. When I do, I'll put the transcript up as quickly as possible.

2006 Elections, Part I

2006-04-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

GOPerative was more than willing to give his two cents on who he hopes wins in the fall. Problem: He doesn't give a darn reason why. If you're going to give a synopsis on who's running for what in the county, for the love of all that's intelligent in this world, please back yourself up with fact, not fangs.

Todays focus is on the County Executive race.

David Craig was appointed to his position after James Harkin resigned to take a job as director of Maryland Environmental Services. Craig, along with a few other county members, haven't seen a development bill they haven't liked, and will forsake all common sense in the name of commercial expansion. Craig's cronyism is also familiar to a certain Chief Executive I know, giving his wife and sister-in-law some jobs. Yay. This guy needs to go. All he has is experience is Havre De Grace, which is a nice area, but is by no means an excuse to say, "Hey, I can run the county!"

Ann Helton has announced her candidacy a little while ago. Her campaign newsletter clearly drove the message home with "intelligent growth". Helton has had experience with organisations that affect the whole state of Maryland, not just one municipality. She has a pretty comprehensive plan to revitalize a good portion of the Rt.40 corridor, smart move, actually. Have you ever driven down Rt. 40? With the swampish areas aside, the corridor is an eyesore of unfettered growth.

Make your own choice. I'm going with Helton in the fall.

MD Assembly 2006

2006-04-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Maryland General Assembly session for 2006 has been over for almost a week now. In at least The Aegis, there are editorials blasting the Democratic members for blatant partisanship. The arguments fail to look at the source of the problem and instead blame the effect and not the cause.Lets take a look at a few, shall we?

1. The Assembly started out the session by overriding Gov. Ehrlich's vetoes of the "WalMart bill". That's a blatant slap in the face of the Governor's office.

*cough* Huh? Blatant? I'm sorry, did we forget something here? The Governor made a big show about how he was going to veto that bill. No real suprises when he did. It was an anti-worker veto. This was made apparant by the huge ceremony and the fundraiser Walmart held for Ehrlich in 2004. This veto was a slap in the face for the people of Maryland, and taunted the Assembly to override it.

Speaking of anti-worker, we have...

2. The Assembly overturned a veto to the proposed minimum wage bill sent to him last year.

Again, anti-worker. Let's do some math real quick. $5.15/hour*40 hours/week=$206/week x 52 weeks/year= $10,712. That number is way below the cost of living (this is before we even talk about the BGE rate hikes). $6.15/hour is not much better (comes out to $12K+), but its a good compromise. An extra $2k allows a person to pay rent on time. This is certainly not ideal, but the low-income workers have needed this for a long time.

3. All the vetoes the Assembly overturned kept them from the BGE deal.

Woah, pull the bus of overpretentiousness over right now! This would be the nine bills Ehrlich vetoed within a few days of the Assembly's end. The bills were...

Stop a restructuring of Baltimore schools. (1)
Mandate legislative oversight ofConstellation Energy-FPL Group merger. (2)
Force Constellation to return $528 million in deregulation transition costs. (3)
Replace the Public Service Commission members.
Establish an arbiter in state employee collective bargaining.
Require renomination of cabinet appointees by a second-term governor. (4)
Establish early-voting polling places. (5)
Ban political fundraising by University System of Maryland regents. (6)
Establishes a limit on copayments the state drug benefit plan may charge.

I placed numbers by each bill for each one I'm going to comment on.

I'd love to hear from the Governor's mouth as to why he thought a veto on this bill would stand up against the majority that voted for it. This was a ridiculous attempt to bog down a legislative session that already had too much on its plate with BGE to deal with.
When Ehrlich wants to get something done, he gets it done quickly. He was dragging his feet because he knew this was a hot button issue that, if vetoed, would keep the Assembly from the BGE issue.
Constellation got over $500 million when energy became regulated. E.J. Pipkin, an Eastern Shore Republican was one of, if not the, biggest proponents of this bill. No residential competition arrived, and BGE's plants grew in value. There is no logical reason this bill was vetoed.
I'd like you to think as a legislator real quick. A bus/rail system is vital for many of your constituents, and the Transportation Secretary is poorly restructuring the bus system and holding money back from highway construction. The people from your district would rather have the "old system" back and really dislike the people in charge of the changes. Now that you've entertained this...do you really think that the legislators won't attempt to get someone else to take the helm?
Whether you're for or against this, a Democratic majority will sweep this through an override. To veto this, even if you think you have a legit reason for doing so, is only an attempt (yes, I'm saying this again) to keep the Assembly from doing something on the BGE rate hike.
Wow, a guy you personally put on the University of Maryland Board of Regents is helping you raise funds. Well this would be cool if this weren't a gross conflict of interests.

Argue my points all you wish, but this all boils down to election year politics. Ehrlich is cutting himself on the double-edged sword of politics and is trying to bring down as many people down as humanly possible.

District B election

2006-04-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

Valerie Twanmoh has announced her candidacy for Harford County Council. This will be her third attempt to unseat incumbant Councilwoman Veronica L. "Roni" Chenowith. Its time Chenowith goes, too. Remember that she's the same Councilwoman who decided she didn't like business development and changed her vote on a rezoning issue that would have allowed a building owner to revitalize part of Rt.22. Most of this has been covered by GOPerative

Everyone in Harford County, Democrat and Republican alike should see that smart growth can keep the sites of HarCo beautiful and prosperous at the same time.

Ethics where?

2006-03-30T05:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the US Senate made its first lobbying overhaul in 10 years. Sounds good, right? Think again. Whatever is passed in this bill has no enforcement. Don't believe me? Chew on this! Some senators wanted to create an Office of Public Integrity, and it seems as though Bill Frist didn't care for this idea much...

"Trust is the foundation of our democratic government...With the public opinion of Congress at an all-time low, we have to do a better job of retaining that trust and that confidence."

This is the same Bill Frist who challenged Terri Shiavo's diagnosis from a video recording, and helped usher in the rubber-stamp senate we now know and hate today. There can only be one good reason Sen. Frist is against an enforcement of new lobbying laws, and that can only be that he has some incentive. I know this doesn't pertain to Maryland, but I hope this guy wins in TN this November.

Make up your mind

2006-03-28T14:10:00.000-08:00

Robert Cassily, the Harford County Councilman from District C, has yet to decide if he's going to resign his post. He's recently been notified that his Army Reserve unit is being mobilized to go to Iraq. Since he's been gone, the council has had a number of 3-3 ties. In Harford County, it takes 4 votes for a measure/bill/resolution to pass. The county has a big rejoining movement going on, and Mr. Cassily is over in North Carolina allowing many votes to be automatically defeated. According to Deborah Cassily, the councilman wife, "It's his intention to hold on until the end of April. Beyond that, it's his decision, and he'll do what's best for the county." If that were entirely true, Mr. Cassily should have resigned his post before he left for North Carolina. A rezoning amendment for Route 22 was met in a 3-3 tie and was defeated because Mr. Cassily can not seem to realize that he is performing a major disservice to District C.

Coucilman Cassily is about to do a great duty for his county by fighting in Iraq. Likewise, he should also do his duty to Harford County by deciding NOW, not at the end of next month, if he's going to resign. If he continues to wait, which is bad, or decides not to resign, he had better not decide to run again when he returns after his 18-month tour.