May 2010 – Page 2 – monoblogue

WCRC meeting – May 2010

As the campaign season begins to hit its stride, we’re finding a larger and larger share of our attendance comes from those having something to do with a campaign, and this was the case tonight at the WCRC meeting.

Of course, we kicked things off in the usual way with the Lord’s Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, reading of the April minutes, and treasurer’s report. That went by rather quickly so we could hear from our featured speaker.

Originally we had arranged to hear from former U.S. Senate and Lieutenant Governor hopeful Carmen Amedori, but she graciously bowed out of her speaking engagement when she exited the race. Fortunately, the speaker we wanted for April was available and Delegate Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio gave us the rundown of this year’s General Assembly session.

Delegate Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio gave us a report on the 2010 General Assembly session.

It’s somewhat depressing to know that over 2,700 bills were introduced in a short 90-day span of time, but that’s how many they had. Obviously the most important ones had to do with the state’s budget, and given the state’s budgetary rules having the House Appropriations Committee cut $11.7 million out of it was a surprise (as was the $9.3 million cut by their Senate counterparts.) Not so shocking was the $12 million supplemental budget taken from federal stimulus funds which actually increased Governor O’Malley’s original budget.

Haddaway-Riccio told us that voted against that whole mess while stating “a reduction in increase is not a cut.” She also warned that a bloated capital budget “almost guarantees an increase in property taxes” because we’re close to our borrowing limits.

Yet the Republicans were not “the party of no” as they proposed alternatives. Some examples of cuts were eliminating Medicaid fraud and abuse (saving $195 million), reducing executive branch salaries to $1 below Governor O’Malley’s ($2.3 million) and eliminating out-of-state travel expenses ($1.9 million.)

But the news wasn’t completely bad. She had helped pass a job creation tax credit (albeit with several strings attached) and also had helped with enhancing Jessica’s Law, working with business interests to grandfather in projects already in progress from onerous (“way overreaching”) stormwater regulations, and expanded the services nurse providers could provide – something which helps areas with a shortage of doctors such as the Lower Shore.

Needless to say, Jeannie did believe the business climate could be improved – otherwise “we’re chasing our tax base out of the state.

As for the future, Haddaway-Riccio thought it was important not just to put a Republican in the governor’s chair but also to increase their numbers in the General Assembly. Having just 1/3 of the seats (47 in the House, 16 in the Senate) would allow GOP legislation to be brought to the floor and not locked in a committee chair’s desk drawer. It also helps at the committee and subcommittee levels where we can best effect necessary changes.

To Jeannie, the next steps for the state would be to put our fiscal house in order, address the poor business climate, and better balance the economy and environment, a balancing act she believed could be achieved.

While many of the questions were clarifications of items she’d gone over before, a couple stuck out. Jeannie brought up the attempt to impeach AG Doug Gansler by Delegate Dwyer as an example of the need for better accountability and more transparency. She also revealed that a clone of Arizona’s SB1070 would be introduced next term by Delegate Pat McDonough.

Mark Biehl gave the Lower Shore Young Republican report – their food drive netted over $100 cash and 200 food items, which is a start. Next year they would challenge other stores to get involved. Also, the Maryland YR convention will be in Salisbury June 18-19 with other states participating in the gathering too. Featured speakers will include Bob Ehrlich, Audrey Scott, and Andy Harris, along with RNC staffers.

As for the Central Committee, John Bartkovich showed off our hardware (the Aris T. Allen Award we received at the state convention) and asked we keep up the momentum of candidate recruitment. Several future events are in the works (Farm and Home Show, Autumn Wine Fest), we need good sign locations, and our newest associate member is a familiar face – Cynthia Williams agreed to come back into the fold (she was a predecessor of mine on the WCRCC.)

We then launched into a series of campaign updates.

Newly minted candidate for Wicomico County Executive Joe Ollinger.

Joe Ollinger began by giving us a brief rundown of his biography as a retired businessman who came here nearly thirty years ago to begin his own company. This gave him the perspective of “an outsider looking in” to the county’s government as opposed to the incumbent’s view from the inside looking out. It was a contrast of having the background in government operations which Rick Pollitt has compared to the leadership Joe pledged to exhibit.

As of now, Ollinger has no events set but the campaign is working on both that and literature to hand out. He will attend the Americans for Prosperity meeting on Wednesday night, though, and his website is up and running.

Mark McIver was “humbled and excited” about being recommended to run Bob Ehrlich’s local campaign; that is, until he was told he needed to win the county with 70% of the vote and help bring more House and Senate candidates in. Yet this was a doable goal, particularly when he’s teaming up with Worcester and Somerset counties and other candidates to help out.

District 37A candidate Bob McCarroll.

One of those candidates surely will be Andy Harris. Ed Nelson represents the Harris forces locally and announced Andy will be the featured speaker at Wednesday’s AFP meeting. Key items for him were a local fundraiser June 16, a meet the candidate breakfat later that month, and getting sign placements along U.S. 50 – Wicomico has its share but Ed would like more before Memorial Day.

The one thing holding back Bob McCarroll’s campaign is the lack of a treasurer since his original choice had to back out, but once he has that locked up he’s going to hit the ground running. The District 37A hopeful can still get to events and press the flesh so I anticipate he’ll be spreading the word using some good old-fashioned shoe leather for the moment.

As for Michael James, State Senate candidate in District 38, “things are going great” according to Dustin Mills. Voters who were longtime Democrats seem to be swinging Michael’s way, and James has been very visible at several recent events.

For firsttime candidate Ryan Hohman, this may have been his initial campaign event.

Ryan Hohman is another first-time candidate getting things started, although he does have the advantage of a campaign treasurer. Ryan is running for one of the two Wicomico County Council at-large seats, presumably to replace departing Councilman Bill McCain, who chose not to seek re-election. He’s ready to start knocking on doors and getting his campaign in full swing.

Speaking on behalf of District 38B Delegate aspirant Mike McDermott, Sean Jester noted that his campaign needs volunteers (naturally, since Sean is the volunteer coordinator.) He also pointed out a curious fact – Worcester County has not been represented by a Republican in the House of Delegates since 1874. Time for a 136 year streak to end!

Don Coffin gave a report on the Jim Rutledge fundraiser last Saturday. There were a few Democrats there who were willing to switch parties just to vote for Jim, and moneywise it was quite a success. Coffin noted that Saturday was his first fundraiser and now he know “the dos and don’ts” of hosting an event. Don also volunteered a number of area sign locations to candidates meeting his standards.

Gail Bartkovich is running for re-election to Wicomico County's Council District 3.

Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio gained back the floor briefly to mention a fundraiser for Bob Ehrlich which will be held June 13 at Sailwinds Park in Cambridge.

Finally, Gail Bartkovich announced that she’d filed to run for re-election and she was ready to campaign. The County Council president represents District 3, which encompasses the eastern and southeastern sections of Wicomico County.

While he’s not a candidate, Woody Willing mentioned that the club’s Crab Feast is coming sooner than we might think – August 28 is the date. He also noted for the benefit of the candidates there that not all polling places allow signs on their property.

With that, the meeting came to an end although most of the candidates stayed around to pick up supporters and volunteers. The next meeting will be June 28 with social time at 6:30 and meeting at 7:00 – speaker is to be determined but we have invited a statewide candidate.

Wicomico Rutledge fundraiser a success

Once you found the road, the event was tough to miss. Just to make sure this display was left out by the road.

On Saturday I went to a secluded farm hard by the Worcester County line in order to attend a fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Jim Rutledge. Looked pretty well packed from here.

A panoramic shot taken during the Jim Rutledge fundraiser outside Salisbury on May 22, 2010. About 70 people attended.

I think the Daily Times did a decent piece on the event but underestimated the crowd a little bit. Perhaps one can count the number of people in the picture.

Rutledge gave about thirty minutes’ worth of remarks.

Candidate for U.S. Senate Jim Rutledge spoke for about thirty minutes before supporters.

Jim pounded on a number of his campaign points, including:

Lowering taxes – “at heart, I’m still a Ronald Reagan conservative.” Jim vowed to repeal the tax code in its entirety if elected and replace it with a flat tax with few deductions. To spur investment Jim would also dump the capital gains tax.
Limited government – “the (federal government) beast is out of its cage.” On the other hand, “the Constitution is a forgotten document” and “the family is the fundamental unit of government.” One thing he could do to limit government would be to defund Obamacare – “we still have the purse strings in Congress” – since the political reality is that Obama is President until at least 2013.
National security – this includes border security. Jim excoriated Barbara Mikulski for applauding Mexican President Felipe Calderon for trashing our laws before Congress but otherwise being “missing in inaction” on the full scope of national security.

After he gave his remarks, Rutledge invited those attending to ask their own questions. Among them were some which touched on other issues he didn’t bring up during his remarks.

U.S. Senate candidate Jim Rutledge answers a question posed by an observer at his fundraiser held outside Salisbury May 22, 2010.

On how to attract conservative Democrats: he’s launched campaign operations in Democratic strongholds already. Among issues, illegal immigration is a “huge issue” in the black community and school vouchers are also a winning issue. “Bold talk will bring across independents.”
I asked about the impact of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Why not convene the best and brightest to attack the problem, asked Jim back. He attacked the federal government, saying their bungling made them co-responsible. Turning to energy in general, Jim criticized the “unreasonable fear” of nuclear energy but still supports additional oil and natural gas exploration, calling it “a matter of national security…life and death.”
Regarding immigration, Jim opined the Arizona SB1070 bill is “constitutional” and noted that blanket amnesty would be a reward for breaking the law. One idea he floated seemed acceptable to those attending – “when folks want to come (to America) they need to post bond.” If they overstayed their visas, there could be a process of finding scofflaws for a reward just like those who skip bond in criminal cases.
Why not the FairTax (a consumption-based tax)? The flat tax needs to come first because it can be adopted faster, said Rutledge. We only need “a revenue source for necessary services” but if the Sixteenth Amendment isn’t repealed as a consumption tax is adopted we’ll be stuck with both.
Government cuts Jim would make: stopping overseas commitments like what we’re pledging to help out Greece, abolishing Congressional pensions, and “we have to get out of the grant business.”
Regarding the Middle East and Afghanistan, Jim struck a bit of an isolationist tone. Because the mission isn’t well-defined, “we’re in a world of hurt” in Afghanistan. It is our job to defend our own sovereign state.
Jim predicted parts of the Obamacare bill will be struck down in court. It’s not among those items authorized for Congress to do in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.
Someone asked how illegal immigrants have court standing. They have due process, stated Jim, but the immigration courts are “broken” and the message from our government is “a green light” to illegal immigration.
How do we fight teachers’ unions? Jim believes in “strong” schools but the unions “serve themselves.” He pointed out that he’s been endorsed by the National Right-To-Work organization.

Yet we didn’t just stand around and listen to Rutledge speak. There was good food, too.

Yes, the organizers let us eat cake. But there was seriously good pulled pork as well as other culinary delights, too.

We also had the chance to arrange for ourselves a mini-vacation as well as other silent auction items.

You could buy everything from the potted plant to a week in Florida. Yes, the potted plant was a bit cheaper.

Participants also had the chance to take a hayride, ride around the farm on all-terrain vehicles, pitch horseshoes, or just gab among themselves regarding the events of the day. This wasn’t one of those stuffy fundraisers where the candidate zips in and zips out, or you had to buy access by being a VIP – Jim was accessible to all comers and many took the opportunity. Plus they got to meet a number of other local candidates who attended.

Jim took the time to speak to a lot of folks at this event. I think people came away impressed with his openness to discuss ideas with them.

Now I like Jim, but perhaps the best thing he’s done in this campaign is make my heretofore apolitical significant other believe in a candidate. If he can inspire more like her Jim has a great chance of making it through the primary and knocking off a Senator who’s been there too long to stay in touch with her state.

Two planks to question

On Wednesday I announced that Joe Ollinger had entered the race for Wicomico County Executive, with a followup post on Thursday regarding his platform. It’s a platform which dealt extensively with the subjects of fiscal responsibility and education and included two interesting planks:

Empower the County Executive to appoint the county’s school board, which is one of the few remaining with members appointed by the governor. Most Maryland counties have adopted an elected school board.
Create one county-wide law enforcement agency, consolidating the efforts of the existing Sheriff’s Department with existing municipal police forces in Salisbury, Fruitland, and Delmar.

As you may or may not know, the Wicomico County Republican Party (the one Ollinger is supposedly a part of) has made its case for electing (as opposed to appointing) the Wicomico County board of education; a case similar to one I made back in March.

Yet Ollinger is trying to shift a system which depends on input from a Governor’s office generally at odds with the people of Wicomico County and artificially rigged to reflect a majority of the party holding that office to one which would perhaps better reflect the will of the people based on who they elected County Executive but still not directly accountable to the electorate – sort of a half-step solution which combines the worst of both worlds. Perhaps it’s a plank which Joe can be made to reconsider if and when he’s elected because, while he may hold conservative educational values, it would certainly make the teachers’ union more of a player than it already is for the County Executive race – they would have a direct stake in the outcome.

As a Republican Party we believe an elected school board is the way to go and, unlike a GOP Congress which was forced to carry water for some of President Bush’s ill-considered ideas, neither our central commitee nor Republicans on County Council (or outside conservative groups like AFP) may sit quietly and allow Ollinger to proceed with his scheme.

Similarly, the fiefdoms which are the various local municipal police departments may not be willing to have themselves absorbed into the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Department. While these departments work together on a regular basis, the logistics of such a change need to be studied carefully and most likely placed on a timetable beyond the term of the County Executive – I think such a process if undertaken would take at least five years to adopt from initial planning to final outcome. There’s also the risk of alienating bargaining units like the Fraternal Order of Police and assuredly the Maryland State Police may have to have some say as well.

In truth, we may find that the assumed efficiencies in combining departments are outweighed by unforseeable costs or a lack of coverage of rural areas as municipalities would be especially cognizant of reduced patrols and complain if the crime rate increases.

I know that there are already shared resources between local law enforcement agencies, and perhaps Joe will elaborate further on the subject as the election draws near. But it’s a plank certain to draw as much attention as his educational ideas, which can be taken at face value for what they are worth. There’s little doubt who the educational lobby in this county will support so Joe needs to take his case above them and to the people.

A slow reclamation

In the wake of the emotional Obamacare debate, the President’s approval ratings sank much closer to those endured by the outgoing President Bush than the stratospheric heights polled as the era of Barack began. Looking at Rasmussen’s tracking poll, Obama reached a low of 43% approval during the weekend of the final House debate over the Senate-sponsored health care measure, and the approval index (defined by Rasmussen as the percentage strongly approving minus the percentage strongly disapproving) reached a low of -21.

Since those low points, though, the emotion of the debate over health care has subsided and Obama’s approval ratings have began their own slow recovery – back to 48% approval last week and a much healthier approval index of -10. It’s an encouraging trend for a party which just last month was left for dead in November, and perhaps shows that Republicans need to curb their enthusiasm about derailing the Obama agenda next year.

Yet one has to ask just what is different about the public’s mood now. Certainly there’s still a Tea Party element out there flexing its muscle, but Obama has adroitly focused his efforts on the one area he can be seen as populist in advocating Wall Street reform. While there’s a lot of people who dislike big government, even more have a beef with the perceived fat cats who navigate the murky waters of derivatives and other difficult-to-explain financial instruments while making handsome profits for themselves and sticking taxpayers with their losses.

Then again, it’s not easy to figure out what Congress wants to do with Wall Street either. In that respect President Obama seems to be leading in the same manner as he did with health care, standing aside while Congress debates the finer points and waiting anxiously with pen in hand for the final legislation to pass. Unlike health care, though, President Obama may be waiting in vain because of the Republicans’ newfound ability to filibuster legislation – Democrats no longer have the convenient workaround they enjoyed in goosing the system and rules to pass Obamacare.

On the other hand there are still a number of boobytraps remaining before Obama and the Democrats can survive the upcoming election with their majorities intact.

Immigration is the hotbutton issue du jour, placed there once Arizona passed a get-tough measure on illegal immigrants (which ironically is simply a rewrite of federal law at a state level.) While the President has wanted to see reform with federal law, there’s a number of Democrats who are quite squeamish about touching anything which remotely resembles amnesty. They’re mindful of the reaction back home, and for good reason.

The same goes for cap-and-trade legislation, which is a nonstarter despite the continuing Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf. President Obama wasn’t able to take advantage of the situation by showing leadership; instead he’s being chastised by some in the press for his slow reaction to the crisis.

It could be, however, that the biggest difference between the more popular Obama of late and the Obama trying to get health care reform passed is that the President doesn’t seem to be the constant presence he was during that debate. With a number of other world crises taking place, such as the financial meltdown of Greece, the news isn’t quite as focused on the President and lack of familiarity stops breeding contempt.

There’s no doubt Americans aren’t necessarily buying what President Obama is selling, but the pitchman has retreated off the stage enough to keep his record out of the limelight and regain a little of his lost popularity in the process.

Michael Swartz, an architect and writer who lives in rural Maryland, is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer. This article cleared the LFS wire on May 13, which after their usual hold meant I didn’t get to post it last week.

In print: Turnabout is fair play

While I’m pleased the Daily Times ran my op-ed yesterday (adding to the original title I use above), it’s sort of a pale pastel of what I originally had in mind. But they wanted me to get it down around 500 words so I complied. Here is the original version I wrote on Tuesday for comparison.

I was a Tea Partier before being one was cool.

For years I’ve believed in the principles of fiscal conservatism and limited government. I seethed just as much when President Bush adopted No Child Left Behind and the budget-busting Medicare Part D as I did when President Clinton vowed to “fix” the welfare reform package he’d just signed because it was too harsh for his progressive base to take. It makes me angry that the federal budget goes up and bureaucracy gets worse year after year regardless of who sits in the Oval Office or runs Congress.

Yet progressives always sneeringly ask those in the Tea Party movement, “what government programs would you cut?” Well, I have my list but others have theirs, too – that’s part of the problem with having a decentralized movement. And I also understand that responsible budget cutting is not expressed in terms of strictly dollars and cents because there needs to be a simultaneous effort at the federal and state levels to eliminate mandates which tie the hands of local government. There’s no simple answer, so we speak in those broad generalities that most of us agree with – limiting government to that which follows the intent of the Constitution as envisioned by our nation’s founders.

Given that setup, I’ll turn the question on its head and ask my friends on the left: how should we achieve the full funding that you desire for all of your pet programs? My home county came up $22 million short of departmental requests on a budget of $113 million while the state of Maryland counts on nearly $400 million of federal grants to patch the hole in its FY2011 budget. Needless to say Uncle Sam is just a wee bit short on funding for what Washington wants to spend.

Usually their answer is to tax the wealthy, so allow me to play this game of “what-if.”

Given that our President is the leader of the free world, one would think his CEO position is the most powerful job one can get. For this he makes a salary of $400,000 annually. (We all know that the perks of free housing, unlimited travel allowances, Secret Service protection, and so forth make the compensation package much more lucrative but the paycheck is still $400,000.) I can just hear the leftists say, “well, since the most powerful guy in the world makes that much no one else should make more. People can earn all they want but after $400,000 we’re going to tax them at a 100% rate.” Okay, done.

Unfortunately, that decision would have severe consequences. Those who have the capital to pay such a punitive tax rate also have the wherewithal to relocate to a financially friendlier port-of-call. Just as we’ve seen in Maryland with a much less comparatively severe “millionaire’s tax,” capital will flee at a rate heretofore unseen. As we’ve proven repeatedly with “sin” taxes, the old adage that to get less of something you tax it will come true – with undesirable results.

Somewhere there is a balance between those services we need government to provide and what we’re willing to pay for them, but to the average Tea Party participant the pendulum has swung too far off center. However, a pendulum can also swing too far in the opposite direction and cutting too much away can bring on its own set of problems – if there were no government at all our society would dissolve into a pit of chaos and anarchy.

By attempting to paint the Tea Party with the same broad brush as anarchists and others of a radical ilk, the progressives project their issues onto our side. Those who rail against Tea Partiers need to realize that we, too, see the world as complex. We know solutions don’t come simply, but we also know that continuing in the same direction will only make the situation worse.

Then again, it was your side who believed in a conceptual and unspecific hope and change during our last national election. Who are the rational ones now?

Michael Swartz is a blogger and political writer who lives near Salisbury. He is a regular contributor of features to the Patriot Post internet newsletter and writes on national issues as a syndicated columnist through Liberty Features Syndicate. He can be reached at lfs.mswartz@gmail.com.

Next time I’ll know about how long of a feature to write (slightly shorter than my LFS op-eds) so don’t be surprised if you see these things more often.

Friday night videos – episode 33

Since I didn’t do this last week, I have a lot to choose from among what the internet has offered me – an abundance of stuff. Let’s begin with this one, which features the script GM should’ve really followed in its recent commercial.

Now this is a real commercial. If Maryland elected a Secretary of Agriculture I would hope he’d do a commercial half as good.

Speaking of Maryland, Montgomery County guaranteed itself more hard times by enacting a carbon tax. Watch this county councilman call the opponents ‘astroturf.’ But wouldn’t astroturf then be taxed because of its carbon footprint? Doesn’t matter, we’re all going to get it.

Perhaps the next scenario will soon occur in Montgomery County (and probably serve them right.) In the meantime, it’s yet another witty campaign spot from Vermont.

After last Tuesday’s big Kentucky win, Rand Paul was feeling pretty good about himself. Check out this call out.

I’ll say the same thing about Frank Kratovil – please, please, President Obama, come down here to the Lower Shore and campaign for flip-flop Frank. That oughta be a good time.

On a more serious note, one Maryland businesswoman detailed her struggles for a Bob Ehrlich campaign spot.

Just let her do the talking, Bob.

Hey, do you see a pattern here? Must be an election year, huh? Here’s a guy who doesn’t have to worry about that anymore – he can live on his generous pension and endorse Democrats now. Thanks Wayne.

Okay, enough politics. I wanted to find something to crank up so this should fit the bill. 13:1 does ‘Judgement Day’ at a show in Philly.

I’ll leave you with that, see you next week.

Shorebird of the Week – May 20, 2010

Josh Dowdy looked awfully relaxed when I took this snapshot at the 'Meet the Players' luncheon in April. He's proven to be a cool customer on the mound as well.

Josh Dowdy stares in at a Hagerstown batter during this April game; chances are Josh struck him out. Photo by Kim Corkran.

Any good team has a good closer, but even teams which start out mediocre like the Shorebirds have so far in 2010 can have a go-to guy as well. On this team, the position is well-held by Josh Dowdy.

Josh holds the team lead in saves with 4 (out of 5 so far this season as a team) and is second in games finished with eight. But more importantly from a career standpoint is the stellar strikeout-to-walk ratio Dowdy has put up – in 13 2/3 innings Josh has fanned 19 while walking just 2. To put this in perspective, 19 of the 41 outs recorded (nearly half) have come from strikeouts, which is a fantastic ratio. For example, in a two-inning stint against Hagerstown (when the photo above was taken) Josh recorded five of the six outs via the K.

Perhaps that’s why has WHIP is a microscopic (and team leading) 0.88 as he’s given up just 10 hits in his appearances.

While Josh wasn’t highly thought of out of college (the Florida native was drafted in the 38th round last year from Appalachian State) his numbers last year at Bluefield and Aberdeen suggested he could be a fine reliever. Over 31 innings Dowdy fanned 33 and walked 12, racking up 10 saves between the two teams.

At 23, Josh’s development seems to be right on schedule for continued advancement; in the meantime Ryan Minor seems to have found someone reliable to shut the door when the Shorebirds have a lead to protect.

The Ollinger file

With his entry into the County Executive race, GOP hopeful Joe Ollinger outlined his platform planks for this election.

The 64-year-old retired businessman, who moved to Salisbury to begin a computer services company in 1984 and sold it six years ago, provided details to several of his priorities should he be elected in November.

(continued on my Examiner.com page…)

I’m reserving the right to comment on specific planks because two are very interesting. But the Examiner page prefers I keep those posts strictly by the book so I’ll let this stub sink in first before returning to the subject.

I’m also told his website, joeollinger.com, will be online soon. It’s still under construction as of this writing.

Anti-establishment candidate continues his campaign

As I detailed yesterday, Brian Murphy wasn’t pleased with the Maryland GOP taking sides in the race for Governor. Last week it was revealed that the leadership of the Maryland Republican Party that represents the party at the national level allowed the waiver of the Republican National Committee’s Rule 11, giving consent to the Republican National Commitee for providing assistance to Murphy’s opponent Bob Ehrlich as well as First District Congressional candidate Andy Harris prior to the September 14 primary.

Today I got a copy of Murphy’s letter to Audrey Scott, Chair of the MDGOP, and one of the more scathing paragraphs is worth passing along.

(continued on my Examiner.com page…)

Ollinger enters Wicomico County Executive race

This afternoon I found out that the someone on the Republican side has stepped up to challenge Rick Pollitt for the task of being our County Executive.

There is a little more on my Examiner page, but the reason I came back here to expand on this story was some of the background I uncovered simply by looking through my own archives.

In many cases, Joe Ollinger was the surrogate for Ron Alessi, who ran and lost the 2006 campaign for County Executive. For example, he spoke on Alessi’s behalf during the Pittsville forum and October 2006 Wicomico County Republican Club meeting. (You can tell it’s an old post by who comments.)

It’s my hope that Ollinger learned some lessons from Alessi’s failed campaign. Truth be told, it’s probably fortunate that the 2006 primary election didn’t occur much later because Alessi’s closest opponent, B.J. Corbin, got into the contest late but had serious momentum when September came. But the worst mistake made by Alessi is something that Ollinger doesn’t seem to have an issue with – Alessi trashed the local blogs in a memorable tirade. (That piece is also worth reading for my description of the state of the Maryland GOP expressed in the last three paragraphs. Mind you, I hadn’t been elected yet.)

Over the last four years – for the most part – the local blogosphere has evolved and grown, with just a few of us old-timers being joined by a host of young whippersnappers. Joe Ollinger and all the other GOP candidates should embrace the opportunity to have a friendly media outlet because the Daily Times is rarely on their side, WBOC spends a lot of time covering Delaware events, and WMDT political coverage is spotty at best.

Just some advice from an old hand at this.

Top of the evening (meetings)

Originally I was going to make this a simple comment to Julie’s post but figured I’d rather have the forum to myself – she can feel free to link to my reaction.

I look at it this way, as a logical manner. The County Council meets twice a month and we have five months remaining until the general election – in other words, ten meetings.

Under the rules in place, two of these meetings (July 6 and October 5) would be held at night, with the other eight being morning meetings.

With the compromise measure, five meetings would be night meetings and five would be daytime. Right now, the difference is three meetings. Certainly that would be a better situation for some, but for me it wouldn’t be the ideal hill to die on. Even Prettyman is quoted as saying she has nothing against night meetings despite the fact she voted against the latest effort, which lost in a 3-3 tie because John Cannon was away tending to family matters.

My point is that we have a ready-made issue for the next election, and the dynamics are interesting.

The loudest opponents of going to a totally evening schedule have been Bill McCain and David MacLeod, both Democrats. We already know McCain isn’t running again, so presumably we can pick up a vote there.

Meanwhile, the Republicans on County Council have generally favored the switch. We all know Stevie Prettyman is running again as is Gail Bartkovich and presumably Joe Holloway. It leaves John Cannon and Sheree Sample-Hughes as swing votes; however, Sheree’s affirmative vote on the last proposal may be in some part because she is the first County Council member to draw an opponent in Dave Goslee, Jr.

Former Councilman Ed Taylor and newcomer Ryan Hohman are in the race for at-large County Council positions (one of which will open up with McCain’s departure) and their stance on the night meetings can be made into an issue as well.

So, I suppose my thought is not to sweat the small stuff but make it into an issue of good government where leadership on the concept can be rewarded this November at the ballot box.

Jobs that teens won’t do?

This item from the Center for Immigration Studies interested me. It’s a backgrounder called A Drought of Summer Jobs: Immigration and the Long-Term Decline in Employment Among U.S.-Born Teenagers.

While CIS has acquired a reputation as an immigrant-bashing organization, what I took from reading through the study wasn’t so much the immigration aspect (although it is significant) but the general decline in the number of teenagers working. Their theory is that older immigrants, who are at the requisite skill level for entry-level work but don’t have to work around schooling, extracurricular activities, and other pursuits, are taking these jobs in increasing numbers.

One conclusion of the study suggests that these teenagers are handicapped later in life by not getting work. By that they mean they don’t get the experience of being on time and adjusting to a work schedule, providing customer service, and other job-related skills they don’t teach in school. Obviously that’s true because, while schooling is good, there’s truly no substitute for the good old School of Hard Knocks. Just ask any manager or customer about the service in certain outlets and you may hear horror stories about this generation. (Then again, I’m sure if you asked my parents’ generation about their recollections of us starting out you would get many of the same complaints.)

I can’t see fault in CIS’s theories but I think there are other factors at work. One intriguing finding is that teenagers from lower-income families aren’t as likely to be working as those in the upper starta of income. Now you would think that poor teenagers would be helping out the family’s economic situation and perhaps that was so a generation or two ago, but apparently that’s not the case anymore.

Obviously I wasn’t here on the Shore a generation ago to see what the young population did during the summer; perhaps readers can help me out. As it stands now, there are a number of low- or semi-skilled positions available in the area which seem to be filled by nonnative workers – picking crabs, processing chickens, or other agriculture-related work was probably a stepping-stone job among the youths of an earlier time while my generation likely grew up with the rise of Ocean City from a sleepy seaside town to the regional resort it has become. Now those jobs in the agricultural, food service, hotel/motel, and amusement fields seemingly fall more and more to imported workers. Anymore you can’t walk in Ocean City without tripping over a worker here for the summer on a visa – even here in Salisbury a couple years back we had a charming young Slovakian lady who was the lifeguard at the apartment pool.

However, it seems from some anecdotal reports that the employment situation in Ocean City has changed a little bit – but it’s still not to the advantage of teenagers looking for work. They’re being bumped out by displaced older workers from other fields who are desperate to keep food on their tables and a roof over their heads.

So the CIS backgrounder isn’t necessarily surprising given what we know about the local situation, but it is worrisome. These days teens seem to have a lot of idle time on their hands; time which some fill with camps, classes, sports, or sitting in their living room playing video games. But too many who would like a job can’t get one, and that’s something which may affect their financial and employment status for the rest of their life.