AFP continues to build momentum

Despite the naysayers who criticize how the meetings are conducted, the local Americans for Prosperity chapter continues to grow and even attracted its biggest critic last night. He just can’t stay away.

After poking fun at Julie for her previous rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance, we got the meeting underway by looking at Wicomico County voter data. It’s interesting to note that, unlike the state at large, Democrats do not have an absolute majority in registration here, and independents, minor parties, and unaffiliated voters comprise about 1/6 of the electorate. These are the swing voters everyone craves and many lean conservative. “We must drag politicians back from the brink,’ noted WCAFP co-chair Joe Collins, “…tell them what you want.” This coming from a former two-time Perot voter who thought Obama would govern from the center – obviously recent events have made him wiser. (Hey, I voted for Perot once too.)

Dustin Mills spoke briefly for one of our scheduled speakers, Maryland Senate candidate Michael James – James needed to postpone his appearance. Mills noted that Michael was active in the Worcester AFP chapter and is a “strong, strong, strong fiscal conservative” while repeating James’s mantra of being proactive rather than reactive.

Our other featured speaker did appear. District 38B Delegate hopeful Mike McDermott went over his background and family before bringing up the fact that he was elected mayor of Pocomoke City in a non-partisan race and had to build a coalition with Democrats to get things done – it was a “well fought first year and a half.”

Having spent a brief period of time running a chicken farm, Mike thought the lack of support for the agricultural industry from Annapolis was “outrageous” and perhaps MDE needed a budget cut “to get their attention.”

He asked what the country has done with Reagan’s legacy and reminded us that there’s been two generations who haven’t had such leadership – Reagan grew up in the era of our grandparents. As for the roiling, passionate debate we’ve had over a number of topics nationally, McDermott counseled us to “simmer over the summer” and hold on to that passion until closer to election time.

When I asked him about the prospect of working with Norm Conway, he said “I can work with him.” Norm’s a nice guy, but he’s a tax and spend liberal too.

We also need conservatives in the General Assembly to help change the tax system, opined Mike, and told us that “Maryland needs to sell some land” rather than continue to spend Program Open Space money (hear hear!)

Julie returned to the rostrum to go over some ideas for an organizational structure and seek out leadership volunteers. “We are the engine driving change,” she said, but it was getting to be too much for just a few people to handle.

We then had a series of speakers briefly go over being an election judge or poll watcher as well as reports on county and city government and a brief wrapup of state activities by Nick Loffer.

Kim Trenka called the county’s budget problem “a spending problem” and said we need “to challenge our county leadership.” While Rick Pollitt equated our low tax rate with reduced services, Trenka had some ideas on positions which could be eliminated, such as the two at-large County Council members and Pollitt’s public information officer.

S.J. Disharoon saw the city’s freshly revealed budget as having some “strange numbers” and called it “a big sieve…money’s being wasted.” He also criticized Mayor Jim Ireton for leaving the fire chief position unfilled so long and reminded us that Ireton said to him, “I’m going to make government smaller.” Apparently this is more by chance than by choice.

With the absence of Council member Gary Comegys due to illness, Disharoon saw this as an opportunity for members Terry Cohen and Debbie Campbell to “exert their power” – a 2-2 tie vote means measures do not pass. S.J. ended by warning, “if you don’t pay attention…(the government) will fool you.”

Loffer did alert us to an upcoming grassroots training on May 12 at our Brew River location.

As always, the meeting ended with what’s called “vent and purge,” and one observer made the point that we don’t need a family history as much as we need issue-based discussion from candidates – after all, no one is going to stand in front of us and tell us he or she is a scoundrel. However, character is a trait we should know about, yet it also has to be about keeping one’s word. Our job is to keep those in office flying right and place their feet to the fire if they stray.

I’m not sure who will be speaking next time around, but we are trying to get another U.S. Senate hopeful for June.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

5 thoughts on “AFP continues to build momentum”

  1. You’re right, there was that one fellow there who swore he would never attend another AFP meeting.

  2. The observer’s that “we don’t need a family history as much as we need issue-based discussion from candidates” is any excellent one. And you are very correct in saying character should be about keeping one’s word. I go to the web site of the District 38B delegate candidate and find no clear, concise statement of his stance on issues. I see family history. He has made some changes in Pocomoke but has not kept them up well and he has failed in many of his promises, from my view point. He forgets that “Our job is to keep those in office flying right and place their feet to the fire if they stray” is the right of every Maryland citizen. He dismisses those that critique his performance, tell them to move away and stop writing criticism on their blogs. He says he values communication yet there is no way to comment on his facebook page or his website. He would do well to practice good communication.

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