Candidate Wednesday: August 11, 2010

The first edition of Candidate Wednesday begins with Democratic Wicomico County Council at-large hopeful Mike Brewington, features second Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Rutledge (in the famous school bus interview), and wraps up with House of Delegates District 38A officeseeker Mike McCready.

Just in watching the interview I was struck by the ease at which Mike delivered his message, which is sometimes rare in a first-time candidate. I can understand his ideas about being a Democrat, although I disagree about them being “for the people” anymore. He obviously would fall under the category described as a “Reagan Democrat” given his conservative fiscal views.

However, he fell a little flat in some of the answers. While you can’t get too wonkish in a ten-minute interview, he needs to realize that, yes, it will be tough on these workers that are furloughed but job creation doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game: losing a public sector job may be the stimulus for creating private sector work on a large scale. And Mike never answered the question on the parking lot, although he brought up a good point regarding the gas tax.

The interview with Jim Rutledge was done on his Crisfield-bound bus for the Tawes Crab and Clam Bake – sometimes you have to take your chances when you get them. But the problem with doing the interview in such a location is that the background noise is too distracting to effectively allow Jim to convey his message. And that’s too bad because Jim makes a lot of good critical points about legislation passed (financial reform, Obamacare, etc.) with the help of his Democratic opponent, Senator Barbara Mikulski.

This interview with Mike McCready was one of the earlier efforts and it seemed that they were still working out the bugs – for example, the whole interview is slightly out of focus. But I liked the line of questioning for the most part and if McCready was trying to establish himself as a conservative he did more or less a decent job – perhaps aside from the aspect of toll roads and raising bridge fees.

I just wish Matt had thought to ask an obvious question I would have asked – how do you think you’ll get along with the liberal majority of Democrats in Annapolis? Certainly he’ll be one of the few who supports gun rights and cares about the fate of farmers and watermen in that caucus.

That brings the first edition of Candidate Wednesday to a close – hopefully if you’re a voter you’re now a more informed one.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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