Shorebird of the Week – September 2, 2010
He’s been one of the ‘go-to’ guys for long relief all year, but when placed in a starting role Nick Haughian has showed his worth. The lefty has stymied Hagerstown over his last two starts and hopes to conclude things on a high note tonight in what may well be his final 2010 outing against Kannapolis.
Over his three-season pro career, the 9th round 2008 pick out of the University of Washington has bounced between starting and relieving roles. For Aberdeen in 2008 he made 9 appearances with one start, but in 2009 all but one of his outings opened the game (including 2 starts at the tail end of the season here.) This year Nick began in the bullpen but moved into the starting rotation on August 8 and has stayed since.
As a whole, Nick has proven to be just effective enough to pile up strikeouts but allows more hits than innings pitched, which suggests that a starting role may work better because it allows him to develop three or more effective pitches – if he can do that the batting average against him should come down (hitters are batting .289 against him for the year) and he can maintain the great ratio of ground outs to fly outs he currently boasts. For every fly out, Nick gets 1.95 ground outs, which is impressive and means that runners getting on base can more easily be erased by double plays.
Looking at the more common stats, the 23-year-old out of Marysville, Washington is 6-3 with a 3.77 ERA in 34 appearances (including the most recent 4 starts.) Haughian (pronounced ‘Hoy-an’) has only allowed 29 walks while famming 84 in 88 1/3 innings this season and is among team leaders with 6 wins – five of those came in relief with the sixth earned in his last start.
One would think Nick may have moved a little faster up the organization given a relatively high draft pick status, but if he can put up good numbers at Frederick next year it would probably align him back to where he is supposed to be. Left-handers who can get guys out are always in demand and Haughian may just have the tools to put himself on the Orioles’ prospect map with a good season in 2011.
Pushed back again
With getting the yard cleaned up and uploading some videos to my YouTube channel, the post I meant for today will need to be slotted tomorrow. It wouldn’t be right to push this below my final Shorebird of the Week this season and only have it on the top for a couple hours, so I’ll have it as a special edition of FNV tomorrow night. (Hopefully everyone will be recovered from Earl’s brush by then.)
The three videos I’m uploading come from last Sunday’s event and address a particular concern of mine, land use. But I want to address part of the premise of the question (which I didn’t record) regarding the two political parties working together.
Needless to say, I’m a Republican and by being in the party I adhere to a particular set of principles. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure the Democrats have their own set of principles but it can be safely presumed that theirs would be the opposite of ours; at least as opposite as one can get given our republican (small-r) foum of government. There’s not a lot of middle ground to be had without one side or the other compromising on their core beliefs.
Obviously there are situations where this doesn’t matter, but in the big picture if one side compromises too much we have things go too far in the opposite direction. In my estimation, Republicans compromise too much and have done so for most of the last eighty years. And while people in either party can have good ideas, I prefer the ones which minimize government involvement and maximize freedom. Government at any level should be limited.
So you get split party-line votes sometimes. I have to put up with being in the minority at the state and federal levels while the other guys are saddled with being the minority locally (not that it matters much in their top-down manner of thinking.) Understanding that there is a difference between parties – if they are proper in maintaining priciples – helps to understand the political system we have and why compromise isn’t always easy or desired.
One day delay
Yes, I was away again today so Candidate Wednesday will be delayed until tomorrow. I didn’t have a chance to upload a couple videos I wanted to add so that will be on my agenda.
I also missed the State’s Attorney forum, which hopefully wasn’t too much of a circus considering who was asked to provide some of the questioning. Maybe he came up with something decent. Anyway, back at full strength tomorrow barring the creek rising.
Political correctness run amok
If you haven’t been able to figure it out by now, I’m a big fan of the Shorebirds and try to make it out to all of the games as I can (perhaps 50 so far this season.) One of the fun things to watch is what goes on between innings and one of the promotions was a wheelchair race sponsored by a local home health care company. (Full disclosure: my significant other is one of their employees. They also put a large ad in the program so you can figure out who it is if you really care to know; that’s not my point.)
The premise was pretty simple: two teams of two players push a wheelchair while the other rides and they switch in the middle. A little harmless between inning fun, right?
Guess not. I had to bring back the wheelchairs from the stadium today because a total of FOUR – that’s right, four out of the nearly 200,000 fans the Shorebirds have drawn this season – complained. Apparently their gripe was that this event made fun of people who require wheelchairs to get around.
To them I say, get a life. Certainly I enjoyed watching the event, and I have no less respect for people who need wheelchairs. The point of the exercise was to play up the goal of the sponsor – to help people who are recovering from ailments return to their normal lives. Besides, there were only 8 games left in the season so why not let the event run its course? I wonder if these people whine about those athletes who compete in events such as the Boston Marathon in specially-designed equipment? Or, to pick a different promotion, how many people complain about the Maryland Lottery ticket contest – doesn’t that promote gambling?
A week ago Friday, the final wheelchair races featured several teams of local celebrities who were racing for their selected charities. Granted, not all of the races had such a noble cause but where does political correctness stop?
We worry about the perception given by people who are competing in an event for fun (and may find out just how difficult moving people around in such a fashion can be) while there are problems many times weightier affecting our way of life. Just live and let live and don’t sweat the small stuff, people.
I hope the sponsor brings back the races bigger and better next season (and while we’re at it, returning the Thursday night postgame concerts would be cool too.)
In the meantime, don’t let the four people who probably could never be happy anyway spoil things for the rest of us.
Being the press
For those of you on the western portions of Wicomico County you may or may not be familiar with Chris Jakubiak; he’s one of three Democrats trying to unseat longtime State Senator Richard Colburn in District 37. That unfamiliarity may well extend to a lack of interest from the press in his candidacy – his press conference in Salisbury last Friday apparently merited the presence of exactly one member of the media, and that was me.
But leave it to Jakubiak to somewhat mess up my exclusive by sending out a press release entitled, “Jakubiak Holds Press Conference on Fiscal Responsibility.” After going through the fact that he held the press conference, Jakubiak noted in the release that:
“Our State budget should reflect the values that we share in Maryland, and especially here in District 37,” said Jakubiak. The candidate outlined the budget’s everyday impacts on infrastructure, education, healthcare, and economic development/recovery.
Jakubiak once again drew attention to the startling structural deficit of the Maryland Budget. “The General Assembly finished 2010 without fixing the ongoing gap between mandated spending and revenue. They plugged the $2 billion hole in the current year’s budget with temporary fixes and federal funds. Every tax dollar borrowed or transferred to close the deficit is a dollar not invested.”
Jakubiak outlined the economic principles that he would encourage the General Assembly to follow. First, spending mandates must be tied to revenue. This is more commonly known as pay-go. Second, dedicated funds, such as those for transportation and farm conservation, must be protected. Third, the costs of pensions and health insurance must be reduced. Fourth, there must be dedicated revenues for K-12 education. For the Eastern Shore, this must also include changing the State allocation formulas to provide more funding for school districts that lack a supportive tax base. Fifth, cuts in discretionary spending, excluding veterans’ services and public safety, must be on the table. Finally, taxation and spending reforms must expand economic growth, not contract it.
“We must put this structural deficit behind us so we can look to build a better future,” stressed Jakubiak.
The Wicomico County event will be followed in next two weeks with events in the Talbot and Dorchester Counties, focusing on restoring the health of the Bay, and economic development and recovery/job creation.
Fair enough, although I personally would have slotted the economic recovery release first, followed by the fiscal responsibility one. Education and the environment are secondary issues to me, although education takes up a large share of the state’s budget. In my view, we definitely lack the bang for the buck in that department.
Having the opportunity to discuss the budget with Chris at some length, I focused in on a few areas of the statement he passed out Friday. One area was setting regional priorities, which Jakubiak saw as “critically important”; for example his statement discussed how “highway funds have been misappropriated and the Dover Bridge (between Easton and Preston) remains dangerous.” That bridge hasn’t received the attention it deserves because it’s not on a highway commonly used for tourism, Chris claimed.
Another priority item for Jakubiak would be putting money into the Rural Maryland Prosperity Investment Fund. Created in 2006 through bipartisan effort, the fund had the ”objective…to help raise the overall standard of living in rural areas to a level that meets or exceeds statewide benchmark averages by 2020, while preserving the best aspects of a pastoral heritage and rural way of life.” But Governor O’Malley has chosen not to fund this effort despite near-unanimous support in the General Assembly. Rather, Jakubiak claimed the state “is pouring millions of our tax dollars into bio tech business parks in the the metro areas.”
And the fact that Chris has (and presumably supports) a governor of his own party in power wasn’t lost on me because I pointed out his priorities seemingly weren’t in line with Governor O’Malley’s. Yet Chris replied, “a legislator will have the governor’s ear if he’s doing his job” and pointed out his “track record of consensus” in working with municipalities doing urban planning.
Another difference in opinion occurred when I asked him about prioritizing dedicated funds such as the Bay Restoration Fund, the Transportation Trust Fund, and Program Open Space. Obviously these money pots become piggy banks for balancing the budget and, aside from the TTF, given this repeated usage they may not be as much of a priority as people think. I especially disagree with the premise of Program Open Space because taking land off the tax rolls affects counties adversely.
More controversial may be two planks in the Jakubiak budgetary reform plan – increasing the pension-eligible age and retiree contributions for health insurance and dedicating revenues for K-12 education – an “essential priority” in Chris’s view. The former will likely raise the ire of state workers and their unions while the latter has been tried through a number of funding sources – even a proposal for confiscating the value of unused gift cards. And adding school days, part of Jakubiak’s educational wish list, won’t be done for free.
It’s obvious that fiscal responsibility is a prime issue when even a Democrat makes it a priority. Pledging that “cuts in discretionary spending, excluding veteran services and public safety, must be on the table” while simultaneously claiming that “tax increases that contract growth are counter-productive” makes me wonder how Chris can pull the Houdini act off. But given the apparent disinterest in his campaign we may never find out anyway.
A campaign weekend in pictures and text
I have a pair of slideshows on my Examiner page which detail the events of this weekend – part 1 is here and part 2 is here.
All in all, it seemed like the Crab Feast was a little flat. Perhaps some of the livelier people were at the Glenn Beck event in Washington, D.C. but it seemed awful subdued to me. Then again, perhaps this is the breather people need before the stretch run to the November election.
Some people questioned why we picked the Beck date, but honestly last winter when we picked the date we had no idea that event was being planned. Our reasoning for having the Crab Feast earlier than our normal late September date was to get the maximum number of candidates involved, and in that aspect we did really well – only a handful of candidates didn’t show.
Sunday’s event was fun in that it was freeform – too bad more people weren’t there. Chris had a good collection of candidates there – everyone from local to state-level people. It was interesting to see the disagreement between Dustin Mills and Rudy Cane when Mills confronted Cane with his own voting record, or lack thereof in that case. (I have the feeling Rudy will really dislike the monoblogue Accountability Project.)
One thing I didn’t mention in the slideshow was the St. Francis carnival on Saturday night. As one might expect, there were a number of political hopefuls there. In 3 hours there I saw both of the Brewingtons (with their kids), Joe Ollinger, Tom Taylor (working the dollar wheel), and Matt Maciarello. He’s a tall guy seeing that I’m 5′-10″.
Election Calendar: August 30 – September 12, 2010
The Election Calendar gets fairly sparse now as candidates prepare for the actual balloting. Most of the action over the next couple weeks is at the ballot box. But there are a few events, planned mostly by those assured of moving on through the primary along with ancilliary organizations.
Wednesday, September 1 – A Wicomico County State’s Attormey candidate forum is slated for 7 p.m. at the MAC Center, 909 Progress Drive in Salisbury (just behind Holly Center off Snow Hill Road.)
Friday, September 3 – Early voting begins at 10 a.m. Wicomico County’s polling location is the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center on Glen Avenue in Salisbury. Each day’s voting ends at 8 p.m.
(continued on my Examiner.com page…)
A jam-packed day
It was a day of hot and cold running politicians.
Obviously a lot of them made the scene at the grand opening and ribbon cutting for the local Republican headquarters, with most making their way to the Wicomico County Republican Club Crab Feast held this afternoon.
But quite a few made it a bipartisan event at the St. Francis carnival held in Salisbury. State’s Attorney Matt Maciarello was all over the event but also seen were Mike and Julie Brewington, County Executive hopeful Joe Ollinger, and fellow County Executive candidate Tom Taylor working the wheel for the church. That was just in the few hours I spent there tonight. Nice carnival, by the way.
I think I’m going to hold the pictures and text for tonight since I plan on attending Chris Lewis’s Sharptown event tomorrow. This way I can make it one nicely wrapped package.
I also have other political items on the back burner which will become posts, so don’t fret. I took last week off to some extent because of personal business, but I think next week I’ll be back to normal.
Guest column: Why Maryland needs Brian Murphy for Governor
I’m happy to lend my space to a friend for this important message.
I love my family. I love America. I love my freedom and the abundant opportunities to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I also love the great state of Maryland and I am a proud Republican.
In 2010, I fear for my children and grandchildren and what is being done to squash their opportunities for the same freedoms I have enjoyed all my life. I am saddened that Republicans need to identify whether they are conservatives, moderates, log cabins, fiscally responsible or whatever. But by the statements set forth in the 2008 Republican National Committee’s Platform, I am a Republican and not a subcategory thereof.
Marylanders have endured the decades of career politicians growing our government and wasting our family funds on entitlements we taxpayers don’t approve. In 1994, Republican Ellen Sauerbrey represented our ideals. As far as I am concerned she unofficially won the election for Governor. She did, however, lead the way for Republicans to be heard and simultaneously introduce conservatism for the first time in many years. We stayed down for another eight years – but, there was hope for victory. In the interim period, GOP Clubs were activated as were grassroots enthusiasm. There was a renewed energy. Voters registered as Republicans and our Party grew.
The stars were in alignment in 2002 and Bob Ehrlich, with his Republican values still intact, beat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend for Governor. This gave the boost needed to elevate our Party, our morale and our aspirations.
Today, friends ask me how I could direct Mr. Ehrlich’s campaign in Anne Arundel County knowing I was prolife and he was prochoice. Back then I looked at the two candidates and there was only one logical choice – Mr. Ehrlich. I did not abandon my values. For political expediency though, he came to forsake conservatives, even favoring Glendenning appointed judges over the objection of Party loyalists supporting two very conservative candidates (who won).
Despite spending lots of dollars, Mr. Ehrlich lost in 2006. Ironically, he was the only incumbent Republican Governor in America to lose. Voters felt he talked the talk, but he didn’t walk the walk. After the significant losses in 2006 and again nationally in 2008, Republicans in 2010 seem to have the wind at their back to rise up again. A major drawback, though, is that the Maryland Republican Party has abandoned their loyal conservative members.
A few officials and party hacks literally hijacked the will of the people! In their view they know what is best for you. This small group believes they, not you, should pick the candidate to represent Republicans in this gubernatorial election. Various newspapers and bloggers reported most of the biased chicanery that reared its ugly head at the last Republican Convention in Ocean City. But guess what? The party loyalists and grassroots said “NO” to the political hacks. Fortunately, Brian Murphy also said enough is enough and filed papers to run (even before Bob Ehrlich.)
And who is Brian Murphy? Brian Murphy has the vision, solid business experience and who demonstrates Republican values every day of his life. He’s a polished leader who also has an exceptional knowledge of Maryland budget issues and promotes pragmatic solutions to a much better path without raising taxes. That’s why he has the vote of my entire family and many others who previously donated time and money twice for Bob Ehrlich. (Emphasis mine.)
Marianne Pelura is a Republican activist who was previously the Anne Arundel County campaign director for Bob Ehrlich.
Postscript: While Mrs. Pelura made some good points about why the establishment Republicans support Bob Ehrlich and not his more conservative opponent, I really wish she’d spent a little more time quantifying the benefits of Brian Murphy besides being the anti-Ehrlich Republican. Personally, while he’s not the completely ideal candidate I think his fresh approach of competing with our neighboring states for business and stance on issues where Bob Ehrlich differs little from Martin O’Malley - like the Second Amendment and being pro-life - makes Brian the better candidate in my view.
Obviously, the pragmatist would say that Murphy is underfunded and has no chance against Martin O’Malley. But I think they said that about a couple other politicians recently who defied long odds like Barack Obama (vs. Hillary Clinton) and Scott Brown (vs. the Kennedy legacy.) And at least I have someone to vote for rather than have to accept the lesser of two evils.
I could live with Bob Ehrlich as governor, particularly against Martin O’Malley. But I’d rather see Brian Murphy have a turn at the wheel and see what he can do for a state which he opined has unfair advantages over the rest.
Shorebird of the Week – August 26, 2010
It’s been a rough year for the Shorebirds, who are already destined to have a losing season this year and on the cusp of elimination from playoff contention. Nowhere has that been more evident than at the catcher’s position, where five (make that six as of tonight) players have moved through a revolving door for those wearing the “tools of ignorance.” Perhaps the most consistent player among the group, Justin Dalles had been sought after for several seasons before finally signing with the Orioles in 2009 as a sixth-round pick out of the University of South Carolina.
Yet Dalles has had a miserable season. It started with a memorable home plate encounter with Steven Souza of the Hagerstown Suns that literally knocked him out cold and landed him on the disabled list. A month later, another home plate collision left the opponent with a broken leg and Justin enduring another trip to the DL. Guys from Brooklyn are tough, but not quite superhuman enough to avoid injury from these violent encounters.
Through all this, Dalles has struggled at the plate, hitting only .208 at the moment after a decent start. However, he has hit 4 home runs in 48 games played, suggesting he has a little bit of power to go with the catching ability. It was ability highly sought, since he was drafted by the Mets in 2006 (15th round), St. Louis in 2007 (40th round), and Toronto in 2008 (26th round) before finally leaving USC for a pro career in 2009. Justin had a decent season with Aberdeen last year (.225/0/21 in the exact same 48 games) and perhaps the Orioles were expecting more out him of this season.
But with all the injuries and time off Dalles has endured, perhaps a more fair assessment will come from having a fresh start next year. It wouldn’t hurt the 21-year-old Dalles to begin a second campaign here in 2011 and hopefully avoid the maladies he’s fought through this year.
Candidate Wednesday: August 25, 2010
The third edition of Candidate Wednesday features three Republican politicians who are trying to upset the apple cart in one way or another – two could possibly unseat longtime Democratic fixtures in the General Assembly while the third is banking on an insurgent-style, low-budget campaign using volunteers familiar with him through the local Tea Parties to carry him to a countywide Wicomico County Council seat.
We’ll begin with District 38B Delegate hopeful Mike McDermott, who’s likely to face longtime House of Delegates fixture Norm Conway in the general election.
Mike portrays himself as a fiscal conservative who’s dealt with the state bureaucracy as mayor of Pocomoke City. Things can be simplified, in his view, and the state can be more fair to its municipalities and counties by doing what they are supposed to with our dollars.
With McDermott having been in the race for so long, it’s a message I’m relatively familiar with but it may draw a response from Wicomico voters unfamiliar with his record. This segment was taped before the incident involving Mike’s position at the Worcester County Sheriff’s Department came to light, so there were no inquiries regarding that issue dogging McDermott’s campaign of late.
Dustin Mills is running to oust another longtime Delegate, Rudy Cane.
Dustin takes this opportunity to hammer on his opponent and his voting record, contending that he’s out of touch with his district. He also portrays himself as more farmer- and business-friendly by referring to specific bills that the incumbent didn’t vote on or voted incorrectly – an interesting tactic.
I believe this was actually the first interview taped, so the editing was a bit rough. However, Dustin does get his points across sufficiently.
The other candidate is a second-time aspirant who waged an unaffiliated campaign 12 years ago but decided to run as a Republican to save himself the hassle of gathering signatures for an independent bid. Chris Lewis may otherwise be best known for organizing the local Tea Parties last year.
And the Tea Party aspect permeates his “common sense” campaign. He shares the perception that many have where there’s plenty of waste in county spending and cutting that would help to solve the problem. Chris also eschews the static approach most in government take when considering cutting taxes and instead brings up the point that increased economic activity will take up the slack.
With time running out before early voting begins, there is just one more edition of Candidate Wednesday remaining and at this point in time there may only be one video yet unshown here. I’ll know more next week.
The fur flies
Just because I’ve been away the last couple days tending to family matters (and before that coordinating the GOP presence at the Farm and Home Show) doesn’t mean I’ve been completely out of the loop. Even from afar there is a political stench emanating from certain quarters of the Eastern Shore.
Let’s take the example G.A. Harrison of Delmarva Dealings uncovered regarding District 37A incumbent Rudy Cane. Obviously one can accuse him of having a few overzealous backers, and I’m certain some variation of that excuse would come from that camp IF they are even:
- confronted with the information, or
- if so, would bother to say something about it.
Since it’s concerning a guy whose campaign website looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2002, I’m not holding my breath.
To me, it’s part of the entitlement syndrome many incumbents suffer once they’ve been placed into office. They seem to assume the job is a lifetime appointment with the election just a formality they have to endure every four years. The fact that Cane routinely votes with the extreme liberals in the House of Delegates (hint: he scored a big fat ZERO on this year’s upcoming edition of the monoblogue Accountability Project) instead of for the relatively conservative interests of his district shows that he holds his constituents in utter contempt – well, unless they happen to be campaign contributors.
(Just as an aside for those of you who think party doesn’t make a difference – Norm Conway and Jim Mathias will tell you they are moderate Democrats who sometimes lean conservative. Well, scoring a big fat ZERO on the monoblogue Accountability Project as Conway did or 5.61 out of 100 like Mathias should tell you otherwise. By comparison, Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio scored 56.25 and Addie Eckardt posted a 57.6 score – not really strong conservatives to be sure but certainly better than the alternatives. The best score among Delegates this year was 90.44 so no one was exactly perfect.)
By my count, there are 48 Delegates who are running again having served 12 or more years (three terms or more) – all but 7 of them are Democrats and among that group are Rudy Cane and Norm Conway. Obviously they will tell you that they need to remain because leadership in the House seems to be seniority-based – regardless of whether they are true public servants or political hacks, if they hang around long enough they’ll be put in charge of something.
Yet this becomes a Faustian bargain for constituents as the interests of the district become subordinate to the personal interest of advancing one’s political career. In the end, is a district better off having someone in leadership when those leaders have to scratch the back of everyone else to maintain that position? It’s a situation which cries out for term limits and having committee chairs decided on the basis of merit.
And then we have the Julie Brewington drama, which she describes on her Right Coast site.
Don’t get me wrong – I like Julie, and if she wins I think she would be a good conservative Delegate for her district. And I am quite aware that there are some people who happen to believe they have a large bullhorn and have it out for both her and husband Mike because they decided to stop sitting on the sidelines complaining and actually put themselves out in the political game.
However, that being said, just in Districts 37 and 38 alone there are a total of seven females on the House of Delegates ballot (out of eighteen total participants.) Counting Julie, three of them are even blonde. None of them seem to have that same target placed on their back and if they do they shrug it off without complaining about it publicly. (Granted, Julie is the lone serious blogger among the bunch and that can be a double-edged sword.) Certainly I think Julie may need to grow an extra layer of skin to deal with some of these detractors.
Yet those detractors aren’t blameless, either. I’m not sure why some of the items being brought up are issues except to those bringing them up, particularly the innuendo about her private life. I don’t think it’s going to affect how she conducts her business in Annapolis just as what we know about Jim Ireton’s private life hasn’t seemed to affect his policy decisions.
Perhaps complaining about politicians is a sport to some, but when we step into the voting booth it’s not a game anymore. As we’re finding out on a state and national scale, making the wrong decision can have catastrophic results.
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Wicomico County Elections 2010 Examiner
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