I’ve just been informed that Andy Harris has the following Salisbury events on his schedule tomorrow:
1 p.m. Leave for Salisbury
3 p.m. Phone Banking (300 Moss Hilll Lane, Salisbury)
3:30 p.m. Door Knocking (TBD, Salisbury)
4:30 p.m. Sign Waving (Downtown Salisbury)
6 p.m. Leave for Annapolis – General Assembly Session.
He has no local events planned on Tuesday.
This just hit my e-mail box seconds ago:
Please join Michelle Obama at a ‘Stand for Change’ Rally in Princess Anne, where she’ll talk about why Barack is the one candidate in this election who can bring about change we can believe in.
Stand for Change Rally with Michelle Obama
University of Maryland Eastern Shore Campus
Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Theater
Princess Anne, MD
Monday, February 11, 2008
Doors Open: 12:00 p.m.
Program Begins: 12:45 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public; however, an RSVP is encouraged.
I’m actually pleasantly surprised that a representative of any candidate is coming down here, but given the makeup of Somerset County this isn’t a complete shock.
Last night our county held its annual Lincoln Day Dinner within the pleasant confines of Salisbury University. Although we didn’t get the Presidential candidate we may have hoped for when we set the date on the weekend prior to the Chesapeake Primary, we still had four of the five First District Congressional hopefuls along with our featured speaker, two-time candidate for Maryland governor and recent State Department official Ellen Sauerbrey. I’ll get to them later, but first let’s go in event order.
Obviously it was an evening for possibly changing the minds of those in attendance. The first Congressional aspirant I saw arrive was State Senator E.J. Pipkin.
A little later it was State Senator Andy Harris’s turn to shake hands and say hello.
This was just before we were all told to sit down and the programmed events began. Dave Goslee Jr. did the invocation, and I was given the honor of leading the Pledge of Allegiance. We then had a special guest speaker straight from 1865:
President Lincoln reflected on the practice of law in his day, and what stuck out most was his admonition to not go out to create business, as there was plenty to be had. I guess his era had its ambulance chasers too.
For the first time in the three years I’d been to these dinners, this was “our” dinner and not a tri-county event with Somerset and Worcester Counties. (I know Somerset’s is on March 1st, not certain about Worcester’s.) So we added – or possibly resumed – the selection of our “Republican of the Year.” There were two selected, both worthy of the honor:
I serve with Blan Harcum on the Central Committee. Someday I’m going to have to look up and see which came first, me being born or the beginning of his service on the Central Committee. Bob Miller is a fixture of the Wicomico County Republican Club and helps with a lot of our fundraising events like the Crab Feast and our annual Salisbury Festival food booth. I’m not sure either happens without him.
As I wrote earlier, our featured speaker was Ellen Sauerbrey. While she finished just short of her goal of becoming Governor (with the dubious “help” of Baltimore City in 1994), she most recently served as an Assistant Secretary of State, heading the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
After an introduction by fellow Bush Administration official Luis Luna, Sauerbrey began what she termed as her first political foray after leaving her State Department post. With the aid of a vast array of images, she described her efforts to improve the lives of the millions of refugees around the globe. It made her feel “good and proud to be an American.” And the images, many of which were taken at refugee outposts in Kenya, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Jordan, showed some of what our foreign aid and assistance from the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations was doing to attempt to improve things for those displaced from their native lands because of a “genuine fear of persecution.” Her aim in the presentation was to show “what it’s like to be a refugee.”
The overall goal of her program was to give refugees assistance in the camps where they were in the short-term by working with the host countries – many of whom really didn’t want the refugees in the first place and tried to not make them feel welcome – to at least allow the refugees some rudimentary standard of living while attempting to resettle them back in their homelands, or, failing that, here in the United States. We accept about 50,000 refugees a year in various resettlement cities. But most aren’t that lucky; in fact, Sauerbrey told us the average stay in a refugee camp was about 15 years.
It was an intriguing look at places most of us would never dream to go, and showed the side of America that many of our enemies would like their people to believe doesn’t exist – our charitable side. (I was told that even the bartender, who I presume was an SU student, was surprised that a bunch of Republicans were capable of this sort of humanitarianism.)
But we are Republicans and it is an election year, so the discussion switched to politics. We gave our state party officials in attendance a couple minutes to speak, then switched to the First District aspirants.
First up was our RNC Committeewoman, Joyce Terhes, who talked about our “choice” in November – we could sit out because we didn’t necessarily get the candidate we wanted but did we want to allow the Presidency to go to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama and their policies? A similar message was offered by State Chair Jim Pelura in his remarks, that of a “spirit of unity” regardless of who won the nomination.
Then it was the First Congressional District officeseekers’ turn – two minutes (or so, some were a bit liberal in their time) to make their pitch. Since they went in alphabetical order, I’ll begin with Dr. Joe Arminio.
Joe hammered on the main themes of his campaign, pointing out in particular that the American dream was “stunted” after 1972, with the advent of two-earner families; also, claiming we were in Iraq “to defend the dollar against the euro.”
Next it was Congressman Gilchrest’s turn. Unbeknownst to me, he brought a couple friends who were at his table: Congressman Roscoe Bartlett from Maryland’s Sixth District and Congressman Steve LaTourette from Ohio. Sadly, I missed the opportunity to greet my fellow Buckeye (although I actually root for “that team up north.”) Wayne touched on the key issues in the campaign – taxes, illegal immigration, agriculture, and a need for “exquisite diplomacy” in Iraq. Also, he spoke about the “beauty, majesty, and tragedy” in Ellen Sauerbrey’s presentation, having seen some of the regions she had in his travels.
Since his campaign had gone nine months up to now, Harris compared it to having a child: “joy up front, joy at the end, and hard work in the middle.” He pledged to serve in Congress and build the party where he could by invoking the three-legged stool of Reaganist principles – social and fiscal conservatism along with “peace through strength,” desiring to win the global war on terror “whatever it takes.”
First off, Pipkin described the race as “trivial” when compared to the images we’d seen of refugees around the world. To him, it was time for some changes in the way we addressed a number of financial issues in Congress, an area he claimed as his expertise since he’d worked in the financial arena during his time in the private sector and worked against tax hikes in Maryland.
After all the speeches and remarks, our county chair Dr. John Bartkovich introduced various elected officials in attendance along with those running as prospective delegates to our national convention. Maybe the most interesting introduction was for Salisbury City Council President Louise Smith, who was “pulling knives out of her back.” Actually I spoke to Louise a bit before the event started because she asked me who I thought would win. I gave her my opinion but for the rest of you I’m saving that for tomorrow.
With the benediction (again by Goslee) we concluded the evening’s schedule but many of the 150 or so in attendance hung around for the chance to speak to the First District candidates who had stuck around. I greeted all of them but Senator Pipkin afterward.
What I thought was sort of funny is that I brought the greatly reduced box of items that I’ve kept for campaign literature, but there wasn’t much brought by the campaigns that I saw, except for one:
Eventually the crowd dwindled down and there were just a few of us left, including Dr. Arminio. Since we both cleaned up our items at the same time, I walked out with him and talked about how he viewed his first campaign and about the Ron Paul endorsement of Wayne Gilchrest, one that had to be a bitter disappointment to Dr. Arminio. (I chalked it up to Congressional courtesy.)
Judging from the conversation we had, I think Joe is a history buff. The story he left me with to sum up his quest goes roughly as follows, since I’m writing from memory here.
In the Battle of Yorktown during the Revolutionary War, the commander of General Washington’s artillery said to his men, “Do you see that big house on the hill? That is the headquarters of Lord Cornwallis, so fire all of your guns at it first.” Unknown to his men, the house was this commander’s home and in following the order, all that was his was destroyed.
The point was that sometimes you have to sacrifice part of yourself for a cause you believe in. On Tuesday, we will elect two men to continue on in the political process, but seven men will see their hopes dashed for at least two years. Some may run for or continue to serve in other offices, but for some this may be their one attempt to hold an office representing the interests of about 700,000 of their peers in the district.
I was pleased about one aspect of last night’s presentation. There was no negative campaigning from the podium – each candidate gave their view of key issues and what they would do to address them. We may not agree on all of the solutions, but on Wednesday it will be time to unite behind one person. Hopefully this chance meeting of four of the five contenders, one where no ill will was shown toward the others, will begin some of the healing we’ll need after this nasty campaign in the First District.
With his permission, I’m going to reprint an e-mail I received from my fellow Central Committee member and Wicomico County Republican Club officer Dave Parker. It pertains to the negative tone of the First District race, and I found myself nodding in agreement many times during the course of reading.
*****
At the outset I apologize for being so wordy – but I’m really upset by the tone of the First District GOP campaign. If I get on my soapbox again, I’ll probably have to start my own blog – and I don’t have time to do that! (Besides Monoblogue.us is already out there!) So here’s why I’m upset.
I was really irritated a couple of months ago when the League of Conservation Voters started running ads attacking Harris. It was the first really negative ad I’d seen, and the claims in it seemed to be outrageous. (I’d have felt the same way if the ads had attacked any of the other candidates.) I kept an open mind, and I decided to start checking the ads myself in an attempt to clarify – for myself and for the WCRC – what was really going on. Unfortunately I couldn’t keep up with the subsequent flood of claims, and cracking three ribs just before Christmas slowed me down even more.
Not surprisingly the League endorsed Gilchrest, for his record on the environment is really good. In fact if the environment is your main concern, then he’s the best of any of the candidates, Republican or Democrat. But the League isn’t even a group of Republicans, and they interjected themselves into OUR primary – not by supporting Gilchrest but by going on the attack against his strongest opponent. That really hacked me off! Moreover their claims were distortions and less than half-truths. (That much I easily verified, although sharing the details would make this long e-mail even longer.)
Arminio and Banks aren’t really factors in this primary since neither managed to capture enough support to generate money. Arminio’s platform is also much too complicated for most of us to embrace – although he could easily be absolutely correct in everything he proposes. But the general public isn’t going to take the time to study his theories. As far as Banks is concerned, I haven’t seen much of anything about him down here on the Lower Shore, so I really don’t believe he’s a factor in Tuesday’s primary.
So the race is between Gilchrest, Harris, and Pipkin. It disappoints me to see these Republicans attacking each other by distorting their opponents’ voting records, platforms, and positions, and all three have done so. (The Easton Star Democrat endorsed Gilchrest a few days ago, claiming among other things that Gilchrest had NOT resorted to mud-slinging, half-truths, or distortions. Want to bet? Some of his recent ads, approved by him personally, have picked up the spurious, distorted claims of the League as well as some of the silly attacks made against Harris by Pipkin.) None of these three is “clean” in this area, and that really disappoints me. Is this the way Republicans should run for office? Absolutely not!
Until Pipkin jumped into the arena, the race was clearly between Harris and Gilchrest. Both of them are now running ads distorting things their opponent(s) voted for (or against), usually appropriations bills that are rancid with silly pork. Yes, Gilchrest voted for the bridge to nowhere. (He also got some pork for the District in the same bill.) Yes, Harris voted to fund the renovation of a dance studio (called a “dance hall” in attack ads) for school children. (This amounted to a itty-bitty drop in the bucket in an appropriations bill, passed by unanimous vote – obviously not controversial! – in the MD Senate.)
I’d prefer to have the candidates telling us what they have done and what they plan to do, rather than distorting their opponents’ records. I’d also like to keep the darned PACs – particularly the non-Republican ones – completely out of our Primary! But in the post-McCain-Feingold world, campaign-finance-reform has increased the number of attack ads. (Now THERE’S an example of successfully reaching across the aisle! Think about that if you vote for McCain on Tuesday!) Campaigns are getting more and more filthy, and there’s more money than ever before being thrown around. I’m truly upset by the whole process. Why would anyone run for office?
Gilchrest votes with Pelosi and the Democrats more than any other Republican in the House. That statement appears to be completely accurate, and that has led to his being labeled a RiNo by many of his conservative constituents. A couple of MD GOP conventions ago there was a movement to draft Harris to run against Gilchrest, and the “Run Andy, Run” stickers were everywhere. Harris eventually decided to run, and he immediately located lots of financial support. For a time we had a clear choice: Gilchrest, the environmental champion whose voting record is considered to be much to liberal for the District, versus Harris, a staunch conservative leader from the MD Senate. When the ads began to distort both men’s positions, I was worried. But then Pipkin jumped in and things got even worse. Now I’m angry.
I’ve been completely disgusted by Pipkin’s campaign. Even the Salisbury Daily Times (hardly a conservative paper) repeatedly documented the lack of veracity in Pipkin’s ads in the paper’s Wednesdays and Sundays “Politically Correct” columns. But he want far, far beyond distorting the records of Gilchrest and Harris. In his ads, Pipkin called Harris “dishonest” and a “liar.” Even if we accept distorting opponents’ records as acceptable politics-as-usual, Pipkin crossed the line into character assassination. I’ve tossed all of his recent mailings directly into the trash, and I refuse to watch his ads on TV. For a Republican to behave the way he has is disgraceful!
Politics is probably a blood sport, best fought in the gutter. That certainly is an accurate characterization of the First District congressional campaign so far. But Pipkin took things from the gutter to the sewer, completely abandoning any semblance of personal integrity. His I-did-such-and-so, not-Harris ads belong in primary school campaigns, not here. As the final pre-primary weekend approaches I shudder to imagine what he’s planning to say next as he attempts to posture himself as being more conservative than Harris. Surely he’ll do something even more stupidly insensitive than his “Three Amigos” ads!
I’m probably too old to be as naive as I am, but it’s still hard for me to believe that Pipkin is really trying to help the Republican Party. It seems to me that, after his unsuccessful run for the US Senate, as soon as he saw that Harris had a chance to beat Gilchrest, Pipkin decided to go all-out in attempt to finally get himself to the big leagues in Washington. He appears to be so desperate to be in D.C. that he’s willing to do and say anything to get there. For example, several weeks ago I e-mailed the Pipkin campaign and asked them to explain precisely what made Harris “dishonest” (as Pipkin claimed). Not surprisingly I’m still waiting for a reply. Gutter politics by Pipkin? No – sewer politics.
I believe that either Gilchrest or Harris will win on Tuesday. Shortly thereafter we’ll be treated to Pipkin’s words again, as the Democratic candidate uses Pipkin to attack the Republican. It’s hard for me to understand why, after this campaign, any reasonable Republican would vote for Pipkin – ever. It’s even harder to me to imagine how I could vote for him – for anything. He’s doing his best to destroy the Republican Party from within, and it sickens me. He’s playing the role of spoiler to perfection. Talk about RiNo’s! His ego transcends common sense and respectability, and he’s hurting the Republican Party.
Harris and Gilchrest don’t come away clean, either. I haven’t yet seen either of them do other than use distortions, half-truths, and misrepresentations. That’s the gutter. But there are several days left, so who knows?
Then there’s what Gilchrest said. At the Wicomico County Republican Club meeting in August, he addressed us. He stated that none of the Pelosi-backed Iraq-war resolutions for which he voted were binding upon the President. He stated that he’d never voted in favor of any resolution that specified a date to withdraw US troops. Both Harris and John Leo Walter (who withdrew from the race in favor of Harris) disputed Gilchrest’s statement. In fact it seems that Gilchrest voted with the Pelosi-crowd to require US forces to cease combat operations by a certain date if specific benchmarks were not met. While that is not quite the same as pulling troops out of Iraq, it’s the sort of hair-splitting that we’re more used to hearing from the Clinton’s, not Republicans. Several weeks ago I e-mailed the Gilchrest campaign to explain what appeared to me to be an attempt on Gilchrest’s part to misrepresent his own record. I have not heard back from them. (Apparently that’s either something that’s hard to explain or something that isn’t important. Well it’s darned important to me since setting a date like that helps our enemies!)
As I said at the top, if the environment is your primary concern, then Gilchrest is probably your choice. But some of us are deeply concerned that the anti-Iraq-war votes that Gilchrest supported emboldened our enemies and likely endangered the lives of our troops. Some of us see his cooperation with the liberal left-wing as dangerous to our future security, and we want to have a real conservative voice in the US Congress. Harris is the only conservative choice in this election as far as I’m concerned. Pipkin is more conservative than Gilchrest, but Pipkin doesn’t deserve anybody’s votes because of his conduct in this campaign.
Gilchrest is a likeable, sincere, principled man – but he’s not a conservative, no matter how loudly he proclaims he is in his ads. I’ve long admired him, and I’ve voted for him every time he’s run. But this Tuesday I’m voting for Harris. Yes, I’m concerned about the environment and the Chesapeake Bay. But the Bay won’t matter if we suffer another attack like 9-11. Because he’s voted with Pelosi so many times, I’ve lost confidence in Gilchrest’s views concerning Iraq and the war on terror, both huge issues of concern for me.
It’s incredibly difficult to unseat an incumbent in a primary, but Harris has a chance. He had a better chance before Pipkin muddied the waters with his inane, ego-centered, whining, personal-attack campaign. Should Pipkin happen to win, it will be a case of noise overwhelming the truth. I’ve always done my best to support my party, but I probably couldn’t hold my nose firmly enough to vote for Pipkin. He’s ripping the GOP apart in his zeal to be in Congress.
So let’s choose between a liberal-leaning environmental champion and a true conservative. Let’s ignore all of the ads from non-GOP sources, and let’s decide who will best represent us in Congress. Let’s ignore all of the distorted “facts” featured in the mailings and TV spots. Most importantly, let’s ignore Pipkin’s rants and whining. The GOP is big enough to embrace both Gilchrest and Harris, but the GOP doesn’t need any more Pipkins. No party does. We also don’t need any more attack ads of dubious veracity.
*****
To that I say, “amen!” With thoughts expressed like that, if Dave changed his mind and got into the blogging arena we’d all have some stiff competition.
In looking for something else, I came across this message by Ron Paul at his website, dated yesterday:
Whoa! What a year this has been. And what achievements we have had. If I may quote Trotsky of all people, this Revolution is permanent. It will not end at the Republican convention. It will not end in November. It will not end until we have won the great battle on which we have embarked. Not because of me, but because of you. Millions of Americans — and friends in many other countries — have dedicated themselves to the principles of liberty: to free enterprise, limited government, sound money, no income tax, and peace. We will not falter so long as there is one restriction on our persons, our property, our civil liberties. How much I owe you. I can never possibly repay your generous donations, hard work, whole-hearted dedication and love of freedom. How blessed I am to be associated with you. Carol, of course, sends her love as well.Let me tell you my thoughts. With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties — just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.
I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen.
In the presidential race and the congressional race, I need your support, as always. And I have plans to continue fighting for our ideas in politics and education that I will share with you when I can, for I will need you at my side. In the meantime, onward and upward! The neocons, the warmongers, the socialists, the advocates of inflation will be hearing much from you and me.
Sincerely,
Ron
With that, it appears Ron is going to all but terminate the national portion of his campaign to concentrate on keeping his spot in Congress as Texas holds its primary March 4th.
The key here is that the dreams of Youtube questioners and others who wished that Paul would run as a third-party candidate appear to be dashed. And this sends a message to the GOP at-large that there are people who are willing to fight from within to bring it back to its more conservative roots.
Like Ron Paul, I agree with the Libertarian Party on a number of issues but I decided it was easier to work within an established framework and change it from the inside than have to build a new force from practically scratch and attempt to throw bombs at the political structure from the outside. It appears Ron is doing the same.
Crossposted on Red Maryland.
Brian Griffiths brought up the subject of moving responsibility for adult education in Maryland from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation on Red Maryland and his own site earlier this week. At the end, he noted, “more as we hear it…” – well, here’s more.
The bill to do this has already been introduced as SB203/HB367 at the request of Administration. The Senate hearing on it, originally scheduled for yesterday, was pushed back to February 14th.
It was also one of several subjects in an e-mail I got from the DLLR recently; likely I’m on the list because I have professional registration in the state as an architect. Here’s what Tom Perez had to say about the adult education shift:
SENATE BILL 203/ HOUSE BILL 367- WORKFORCE CREATION AND ADULT EDUCATION ALIGNMENT
The quality of Maryland’s current and future workforce is vital to the State’s economy. While
Maryland currently enjoys a healthy, diverse business climate, many Maryland industries are facing worker and skills shortages. The situation is exacerbated by the approaching retirement of close to one-sixth of Maryland’s population and the job growth associated with the Base Realignment and Closure process. Maryland’s continued economic success is directly linked to our ability to create and continuously develop a highly-skilled workforce.
There are nearly 750,000 Marylanders with limited literacy skills, no high school diploma or ineffective English language skills in need of services. The 2003-2004 Maryland Adult Education Score Card shows that only three to five percent of Marylanders in need of adult education receive it. Currently, adult education programs in Maryland are not fully progressing sufficient numbers of students to the post high school skill levels necessary to compete in today and tomorrow’s economy. Recognizing the importance of linking adult education and workforce creation and aligning those programs with the needs of businesses, a number of states have transferred responsibility for adult education from their K-12 systems to state workforce development agencies.
- 19 states now have adult education programs housed either in workforce development or in a higher education context.
- Six states have integrated adult education with workforce development, including Alaska, Michigan, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee and Arkansas.
- In local jurisdictions within Maryland, the distinct trend has been to move adult education away from K-12 and into community colleges, where services are better aligned with career training and other workforce services.
Senate Bill 203/House Bill 367 will ensure that our system meets the workforce needs of Maryland’s employers by aligning adult education and literacy programs, career preparation, postsecondary education and workforce development.
This legislation moves responsibility for administering and supervising policy and funding for adult education and literacy, currently a function of MSDE, to the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
The Adult Education and Literacy Services Office will be part of DLLR’s Division of Workforce Development.
Under DLLR’s leadership, this new alignment will:
- Serve more people through more programs
- Create synergies between our workforce one-stop system, community colleges, nonprofit providers, state agencies and the business community
- Ensure a stronger evaluation component for adult education programs
- Provide career development opportunities for adult education instructional and administrative staff
- Streamline accountability for our adult education system
- Build a seamless system of adult education in Maryland that strengthens the case for more funding
DLLR’s goal is to shape a new vision for adult education in Maryland that has the support of the many stakeholder groups around the State while recognizing regional differences.
The new system will continue to serve everyone but ensure that the pursuit of lifelong learning includes access to postsecondary educational opportunities and a clear pathway into Maryland’s workforce.
DLLR will establish strong accountability standards and align them effectively to assure that adults can transition among various levels of English for Speakers of Other Languages, adult literacy, GED, career preparation, and our postsecondary system.
DLLR will identify best practices around the country to ensure that Maryland leads the way in the education of our adult population.
DLLR will also promote programs that provide financial literacy, through our Division of Financial Regulation and will partner with state agencies and nonprofits working to enhance the health literacy of Maryland adults.
The community colleges have the potential to become local resource centers for adult education and workforce training, and have already been stepping up to this challenge across the State.
Under DLLR’s leadership, the community colleges will also help provide curriculum alignment and professional development for adult education professionals.
First of all, my apologies for the odd presentation. But I did keep the pretty picture in the blockquote.
The key phrase in this long passage to me is the “nearly 750,000 Marylanders with limited literacy skills, no high school diploma or ineffective English language skills in need of services.” (Emphasis mine.) It sounds like some of the money I pay biennially to maintain my registration in good standing is going to go to aiding illegals. Not only that, Perez is out to “strengthen the case for more funding.” Perhaps he’ll seek a Thornton-style mandate for adult education next?
Similarly, under the leadership of Perez the DLLR has gone far afield in a number of other areas, one that sticks out to me being mortgage foreclosures. Remember, the R in DLLR stands for “regulation” and with a far-left guy like Tom Perez in charge it’s what you will get.
Here we have advocacy for taking steps into adult education and moving it from an area where we rank third in the country to an area that would be set up to maintain Maryland as a destination state for illegal immigrants (excuse me, undocumented workers.) Despite his pledge to adopt REAL ID by 2010, you have to think that Martin O’Malley is hoping to have Hillary or Barack bail him out by gutting the program as their first payback to Latino (and prospective Democrat) voters. Why else would it take two years?
Starting after Tuesday’s primary, it’ll be time for me to get into studying what’s going on with our General Assembly. Rest assured HB367/SB203 will be one I look at.
Lots going on today as Mitt Romney exited the Presidential race during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), all but ceding the GOP nomination to John McCain. His announcement was met with a smattering of boos and groans, and the CPAC attendees were asked not to give John McCain a similar treatment when he addressed their convention. (I’d just like to thank Mitt for making me a liar in record time after my post last night. Not.) McCain did attempt his best mea culpa at CPAC today. I’ll leave it up to the reader whether to believe the words or his deeds.
Because of that, McCain has taken Mitt Romney’s place at the Baltimore County Lincoln Day dinner this evening. Rumor has it that the big endorsement scheduled for tonight will be Governor Ehrlich throwing his support behind the Arizona Senator – we’ll all find out probably about the time this post is put to bed and up on monoblogue. As many may recall, Ehrlich was an early backer of Rudy Giuliani so the progression is logical there.
Another candidate who drew the support of Bob Ehrlich wasn’t as fortunate when it comes to newspaper endorsements. Today Wayne Gilchrest picked up the nod of two of the district’s major papers, which the campaign crowed about:
U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest’s solid sweep of local newspaper endorsements continued today with endorsements by the Annapolis Capital and the Baltimore Sun.
“Our support for Mr. Gilchrest is based on how well he represents a conflicted district split almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans. A decorated Vietnam veteran, he is an intelligent, thoughtful congressman who has a stellar record fighting for the environment and Maryland’s best interests,” said today’s Capital editorial.
“Not only do Mr. Gilchrest’s fiscally conservative views reflect his constituents’ but his pro-environmental positions that have sometimes put him at odds with the prevailing GOP views in Washington are nonetheless well-suited to this rural but increasingly suburbanized region so closely linked to the Chesapeake Bay,” wrote the Sun in an editorial today.
“Mr. Harris started this internecine war with personal attacks that didn’t belong in any campaign, let alone one being fought within the same party. His use of half-truths and vitriol – a trait that has isolated him in the legislature and would similarly isolate him in Congress – speaks volumes,” said the Capital editorial.
Both editorials had kind words for opponent E.J. Pipkin as well, with the Sun suggesting Pipkin as the eventual successor to Wayne Gilchrest, while the Capital piped, “(I)f Republicans feel (Gilchrest) is just not conservative enough, Mr. Pipkin is by far the better alternative.” Neither showed much love for Andy Harris, blaming him for the negative, scorched-earth tone of the campaign. Look for the Daily Times to endorse Gilchrest as well, but bear in mind the husband of Gilchrest’s Communications Director is the paper’s editor.
Gilchrest even got the bloggers into the act with another press release:
U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest won two endorsements from 2 highly regarded conservative blogs this week, which called on conservatives to re-elect the Congressman based on his character and his honest approach to his job.
“Wayne Gilchrest is a good man, a man of character. Sure, I may not agree with him all of the time on the things that he has done and the votes that he has made, but he has served in Congress with honor. With Wayne Gilchrest, you know what you are going to get, and that consistency is not a bad thing under our current circumstances,” wrote blog author and conservative activist Brian Griffiths.
The blog “Conservative Refuge” administered by conservative political activist Greg Kline also endorsed Gilchrest, urging listeners to his regular podcasts to reelect Gilchrest.
Griffiths credited State Senator E.J. Pipkin with running a strong campaign and making valuable contributions in the Maryland legislature, while criticizing the conduct of Senator Andrew Harris.
“There is just something about him that makes me feel very uncomfortable sending him to Congress,” Griffiths said of Harris. “He just reminds me of the type that you can’t trust, and that he would ‘go native’ in D.C. quicker than you can blink. I look at Senator Harris and see the type of politician we should not send to Washington. Yes, Andy Harris is the most conservative candidate in the race. But character counts for a lot, which is why Wayne Gilchrest has my support.”
“I think that this is an important endorsement that shows I can bring together the various perspectives within the Republican party, and I am grateful for these endorsements,” said Gilchrest.
A little love for a couple of my Red Maryland cohorts, even though I think they’re wrong in their endorsement of Gilchrest at this time. It’s worth noting that three contributors (including me) endorsed Harris in the race, giving him the overall endorsement from the site.
I also caught the usual Gilchrest biweekly interview with Bill Reddish on the AM Salisbury radio program this morning. Wayne cited one of the more unusual endorsements he’s gotten this morning, claiming that he had the endorsement of Ron Paul. That may be big news to Joe Arminio, who announced back in December he was running on the Ron Paul “ticket.”
Meanwhile, Andy Harris can’t catch a break either. I received this from Pat Toomey of the Club For Growth:
(Mississippi State Senator Charlie) Ross has been a vocal advocate of less spending while serving in the Legislature, so we are confident he would continue to fight for limited government in Congress, where wasteful spending is rampant. Ross even voted against a popular spending bill despite heavy criticism from the press.
This is a strong Republican seat — Bush won the seat with 65% of the vote and the retiring Republican incumbent was reelected with 80%. The winner of the March 11 primary will be nearly certain to win in November. This is our top priority race right now. (Emphasis in original).
Now I would think with five days to go that the First District race would be their priority, so either the Club For Growth thinks they have this in the bag or they’re going on to yet another “sure thing” like Harris was supposed to be. But they do maintain the Harris race as a high profile one on their website so we’ll see next Tuesday how much help they were.
Crossposted on Red Maryland. By the way, does anyone want a box full of Mitt Romney campaign stuff? I’ve had it ever since our Straw Poll.
For the first time since, well, probably the beginning of this process last summer, we’ve had a major polling event where no candidate for President dropped out afterward and all pledged to fight on. While the media piled on Mitt Romney and called his path to the nomination “closed”, you just never know what might happen as events go on. After all, who expected Mike Huckabee to win five states last night?
What I find quite interesting is the pattern of states that’s shaping up on both sides.
For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton has only 13 states in her column, with two of those (Florida and Michigan) not allowed to seat delegates. But her other eleven are among the biggest prizes, with her biggest strength seemingly in states with large Latino populations (California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico). Also she did well in the mid-South (Oklahoma and Tennessee, plus the given of Arkansas.) The Northeast also went for her, but you probably figure New York and New Jersey as givens because of her Senate seat and the extent that New York media reaches New Jersey. Maybe the biggest gift for her thus far is Massachusetts, where she beat Ted Kennedy.
Barack Obama has a lot of territory on the map with sixteen states, but many of them are red states. A large swath of real estate from Illinois on the east to Idaho on the west provides most of his victories (besides those two, he has Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah in his column.) Obviously he did well in the Deep South too, winning Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. The two pleasant surprises for him were Connecticut and Delaware. Oh, and he won Alaska.
But the way Democrats proportion their delegates means that the key battlegrounds left will likely be the Rust Belt states of Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, plus our mid-Atlantic area. I’d suspect Hillary would carry Texas and what remains of the Northeast, while Obama takes the remaining Deep South states along with the upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest.
The GOP, on the other hand, varies its proportions in each state, so some of the states John McCain won last night really loaded his delegate count because the winner took all of the delegates. Missouri was one example of a close race where McCain squeaked through but took everyone going to the convention with less than 40% of the vote. And there’s no region where McCain hasn’t won, with four Northeast states (New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey); the mid-Atlantic (Delaware); the South (South Carolina and Florida); Midwest (Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma); and far West (California and his home state of Arizona.) One argument against John is that he’s won a number of “blue” states so far and that’s correct – 6 of his eleven wins came in states John Kerry carried in 2004. Perhaps he’d flip them to the GOP but it’s doubtful and may come at the expense of losing previously “red” states.
Also with eleven states won is Mitt Romney, but he’s won a lot of small states. While he’s a governor from the Northeast, he’s only won 2 of 6 contests there (Massachusetts which was a given and Maine.) Most of his delegates come from out West, particularly in the Rocky Mountain region (Idaho, Wyoming, of course Utah, Nevada, Colorado, plus Alaska.) He’s also picked up his native Michigan, Minnesota, and North Dakota.
Mike Huckabee is very strong in the deep South, but not much else. Losing Missouri had to be a disappointment and it took a backroom deal for him to win West Virginia. Iowa looks more and more like a fluke, but that and West Virginia were two states that could have easily gone to the Romney column.
The race, though, is McCain’s to lose. There’s not much left out West for Mitt Romney to pick up nor is there a whole lot left in the South where Huckabee’s strongest. Romney could win in the Midwest and cut into the McCain margin but all John has to do is pick off a few delegates in most of the states where delegates are proportioned out somehow (like Maryland) and he might have enough to scrape by come September.
Using Maryland as an example, if McCain wins two delegates of the three elected in each of the Democrat-controlled Congressional districts and wins the popular vote based on those heavily-populated areas, he would pick up 22 of the 34 delegates available. He may only get 40% of the vote, but it would still be a good pickup for him because 10 delegates go to the popular vote winner. Even if Mitt Romney wins the popular vote somehow under the same scenario, McCain still adds 12 toward his needed total.
Luckily, we here in the First District have a Congressional election that is bitterly contested to increase turnout for conservatives, but other areas in Maryland don’t enjoy that same luxury. Both locally and nationally, it’s the ace in the hole for McCain as two aspirants who at least nominally lean more to the right split that vote while John McCain grabs all the moderates and sneaks off with the nomination. Substitute a certain Congressman’s name for John McCain and you get my biggest November fear come Tuesday.
Crossposted on Red Maryland.
Taking a detour from the political scene…there’s more below if you didn’t see it last night.
Yes, once again tonight one of my favorite local bands makes an appearance on the LiveLixx at Six show on Ocean 98 (98.1 FM). Listen there or you can watch it here.
They also had a good band out of Newark, Delaware last night called Stealing December. After sort of a hiatus over the last couple months with just a few live bands in the studio, it appears the station’s trying to resume having a featured group several times a week.
If you’re not familiar with the LiveLixx format, generally the featured bands will play three to four songs during the hour intersperced with other live songs by established artists and banter between the two DJ’s, BK and Leslie. They’re supporting local and regional music in a great way since the demise of X106.9 so I encourage all of you to listen and check out some good stuff!
I’ll also take this post to mention that I’m now one of the featured local blogs on the WMDT Channel 47 bloglist, so if you’re following a link from their site welcome to monoblogue!
Before many states finally got their opportunity today to make their voice heard in the GOP primary battles, a small number of states managed to whittle what was a nine-person field down to five, with three of them now in what’s referred to as “longshot” status and one clear favorite, already annointed by the Fourth Estate wing of the Republican Party.
It was in this spirit that I came across an article on Human Events by writer Brett Winterble. Called “Who Hijacked the Primaries?“, Winterble points out that:
Over the past month a new Axis of Evil has emerged — not one based in Damascus, Tehran or Pyongyang — but instead in Cedar Rapids, Charleston, South Carolina, Derry, New Hampshire and Boca Raton, Florida. It is the liberal and “independent” voters in these 4 states that have nearly completed a deed that makes Kim Jong Il envious — the near crippling of the American Electoral System. These four states have combined their native liberal populism with an imported liberal electorate and have forced the GOP to accept a nominee so distasteful that in more than one poll — the numbers of voters choosing not to vote and those choosing to vote third party actually exceed those who will hold their nose and vote for Maverick, War Hero, Amnesty Supporter, John McCain.
Yeah, Winterble isn’t what you’d call squarely in the McCain camp. But I happen to agree with him to a point. While he suggests front-loading the primaries to one large national Super-Duper-Astoundingly Tremendous Tuesday, my thinking runs along the line of a reasonable number of regional primaries much like the one we’ll have next Tuesday as we share the date with DC and Virginia. But I’d also like to add my two cents to his article based on something else that was suggested and is already occurring in this year’s race.
Some states were penalized by the GOP (and separately by the Democrat Party) for holding their primaries prior to an agreed date, losing some or all of their delegates to the respective national conventions. Perhaps instead of the full extent of Winterble’s idea, what the national GOP could do is similarly reward states which hold “closed” primaries and punish the ones who have primaries where independents and Democrats can cross over on the day of the election.
I think this is one instance where Maryland has it right since switching party registration was closed back in November for next week’s primary. (We’ll see how strictly the polling places hold to the party system and reject the independents who want to vote in either primary.) With this action, it increases the chances that actual loyal Republican voters choose the party’s nominee, which is something I favor.
In the meantime, here’s hoping that the GOP nomination remains in the balance through tonight as the focus will shift to our area of the country. Will the Straight Talk Express make a stop in Salisbury, or maybe we’ll be in luck with Huck? Only time will tell, apparently Mitt Romney is satisfied with one Maryland stop on Thursday. It’s doubtful any of the Democrats will make it over here as the huge majority of their votes will come from the I-95 corridor.
Crossposted on Red Maryland.
Interesting goings-on to begin Super Tuesday, as Mike Huckabee gained his second win of the primary season.
After trailing Mitt Romney in the West Virginia GOP caucus through the first ballot by a 41%-33% margin, Mike picked up enough votes from supporters of John McCain and Ron Paul (who were third and fourth in the balloting, respectively with 15% and 10%) to overcome the eight-point deficit and gain 52% of the second ballot. While Ron Paul was automatically eliminated with his finish, it’s apparent that McCain’s supporters also moved to the Huckabee column to deny bitter rival Mitt Romney a much-needed win to begin Super Tuesday since the Senator had just 1% of the vote in the second round.
Further, while there were 18 delegates at stake in the caucus, Huckabee picked up just 15 in the winner-take-all event. Huckabee allowed Ron Paul to claim three of his delegate slots as an apparent gesture of thanks.
In a CQ story, reporter Bob Benenson notes:
Huckabee, who scored his first victory since the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses Jan. 3, has recently been engaged in campaign hostilities with Romney. The former Massachusetts governor has publicly suggested that longshot Huckabee drop out of the race in order to allow Romney to galvanize support among Republican conservatives. Many of those conservatives continue to express skepticism or outright opposition to McCain despite the latter’s emergence as the putative front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination. Huckabee has angrily rejected Romney’s contention as “arrogant.”
Perhaps the McCain folks decided to assist Mike Huckabee with a little payback, particularly after the initial reports of Romney leading the caucus made it out early this afternoon.
I also saw as breaking news as I write this that on the Democrat side Barack Obama is projected to win in Georgia, but that’s no surprise. I’ll be watching the Super Tuesday coverage after more of the polls close and seeing how that affects the GOP campaigns, as the Democrats will be fighting it out for at least another month or so.
Crossposted on Red Maryland.
Today I got this press release, and I’ll quote Dr. James Dobson’s portion of it:
I seldom make political endorsements, but it is with a sense of great urgency that I announce my support for Dr. Andy Harris in the February 12th primary election for the U.S. House in Maryland’s 1st District. It is imperative that Dr. Harris win this contest!
His opponent, Representative Wayne Gilchrest (who currently holds the seat in the House), is opposed to nearly everything that you and I hold dear, beginning with the sanctity of life. Rep. Gilchrest has the dubious distinction of receiving a 100% voting rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), the nation’s leading pro-abortion advocacy group. He has even voted to make people like you and me provide funding for abortions through our tax dollars!
There are other major concerns, as well. Rep. Gilchrest opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would protect traditional marriage from attacks by gay activists. He has also voted to allow homosexuals to adopt children.
In stark contrast to Rep. Gilchrest, Dr. Andy Harris would be a splendid pro-family, pro-life voice in the House – just as he has been in the Maryland Senate. His willingness to take on a sitting U.S. Congressman is itself a testament to his tremendous courage and resolve. His defeat of Wayne Gilchrest on February 12th would send a strong signal that the days of anti-family, liberal Republicans are finally over.
Please know that I am sending this letter as a private individual, and not as a representative of the organizations I lead. That being said, I want to urge you, once again, to cast your vote in the upcoming primary election for Dr. Andy Harris for the United States House of Representatives.
Dr. Dobson joins Phyllis Schafly and her Eagle Forum, another organization that claims the pro-family mantle, in endorsing Harris. After Dobson’s announcement, Harris responded, “I am humbled by the support of one of our nation’s foremost pro-family advocates. I am proud of my pro-life and pro-family record in Annapolis.”
Conversely, the woman who is “hostess” of Mainstream Shore posted that Wayne Gilchrest was recently recognized as an “American Hero” by the Log Cabin Republicans. For those not familiar with the group, it’s an organization catering to the gay and lesbian Republican population. Here’s what the Log Cabin group had to say about Wayne:
Congressman Gilchrest has courageously defended freedom and fairness for all Americans during more than 15 years in Congress. He stood with Log Cabin in 2004 and 2006 by voting against the anti-family marriage amendment. Congressman Gilchrest is also one of Log Cabin’s strongest allies in the fight to end the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He is a co-sponsor of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces. He said, “Not only does it [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] take money away from purchasing armor for Humvees, there’s a lot of very skilled people that are being taken out of the military who are hard to replace.
While I don’t agree with that particular stance, it’s not something which would keep me from voting for Wayne if he were the nominee. The issue I take with the author of Mainstream Shore is her characterization of Andy Harris as “intolerant” and a “mean-spirited bigot” because he tends to vote against items near and dear to the gay and lesbian population. Personally, I really don’t care all that much whether consenting adults who sleep together are of the same sex, I’m just not a big fan of condoning same-sex marriage and the like. I also completely disagree with the concept of “hate crimes” because to me murder is murder, assault is assault, etc. Likely it puts me in her “intolerant” category but to me it’s just a difference of opinion based on life outlook.
The jury is still out (and probably will be for awhile longer) on whether preferring the same sex comes from nature, nurture, or a combination of both. If sexual preference is something that is chosen, then understanding the consequences of the choice (such as not being able to be open about your sexual preference in the military, marrying your partner, or adopting a child in some states) should be part of making it, knowing that many among society oppose these items for what they consider valid reasons. It doesn’t make them all “mean-spirited bigots” simply because they don’t agree with what you think, all the name-calling does is hurt your argument.
Crossposted on Red Maryland. You might want to read the next post here, too.
