Category: Delmarva items

Items of local interest to Delmarva readers.

Welcome to the new state government

If there was ever an argument for the Electoral College, Maryland provides it.

There were four statewide races, and here are the (still-unofficial) totals for the races as a whole. For the purposes of this post, I’m excluding minor party and write-in candidates in my percentages.

Governor:

O’Malley/Brown (D) 923,991 – 53.1%
Ehrlich/Cox (R) 815,776 – 46.9%

Comptroller:

Peter Franchot (D) 997,524 – 58.9%
Anne McCarthy (R) 695,633 – 41.1%

Attorney General:

Douglas Gansler (D) 1,023,801 – 60.9%
Scott Rolle (R) 658,083 – 39.1%

U.S. Senator:

Ben Cardin (D) 947,174 – 54.9%
Michael Steele (R) 777,614 – 45.1%

Now, let’s imagine for a moment that the votes from three jurisdictions were tossed out – Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, and Baltimore City. Here are your new revised results.

Governor:

Ehrlich/Cox (R) 631,775 – 57.4%
O’Malley/Brown (D) 469,619 – 42.6%

Comptroller:

Anne McCarthy (R) 546,101 – 51.1%
Peter Franchot (D) 521,576 – 48.9%

Attorney General:

Scott Rolle (R) 531,271 – 50.2%
Douglas Gansler (D) 527,880 – 49.8%

U.S. Senator:

Michael Steele (R) 601,529 – 55.2%
Ben Cardin (D) 488,766 – 44.8%

Put another way, as an absolute percentage of votes the Democrats got from those three jurisdictions:

O’Malley 49.2%
Franchot 47.7%
Gansler 48.4%
Cardin 48.4%

And if you thought the 98-43 Democrat edge in the House of Delegates was bad, in the new term it will balloon to a whopping 105-36 bulge. Those three Democrat strongholds either elect or help to elect a total of 66 Delegates, and the tally for those 22 districts – 66 Democrats, 0 Republicans. (There may be 1 Republican to make it 65-1 if Del. Jean Cryor of Montgomery County can make up about 120 votes in the remaining count.) The rest of the state has a 39-36 Democrat edge.

In the State Senate, the Democrats will keep their exact numbers from the last session, it’s still 33-14 Democrat. Of course, all 22 of those districts in question have Democrat senators, otherwise the GOP would hold a 14-11 advantage.

What this proves is the value of the Electoral College nationwide. Here in Maryland three geographic locations dictate the affairs of the other 21. It seems to me that what we have now is not the state of Maryland (and certainly not the Free State) but rather the monarchy of Prince Baltigomery.

Looking at things this way, it appears the GOP has an all-but-impossible task in making this even a competitive state. But we have four years to begin educating the outstaters first. It almost has to become an “us vs. them” mentality.

For example, getting the 13 outstate counties (Eastern Shore + Western Maryland) to a consistent 70% GOP vote would make a serious dent in the Prince Baltigomery advantage – if that area can be 70% Democrat we can certainly make “our” area 70% GOP. Then it would come down to getting the metropolitan exurbs to enough of a split, which is doable. Had this 70-30 split happened for the outstate counties (maintaining the votes in the Prince Baltigomery area and adding the GOP votes as above) based on the vote totals for O’Malley plus Ehrlich, these would have been the results.

Outstate: GOP 201,071; Dems 86,173 (70-30 vote split).
Prince Baltigomery: Dems 454,372; GOP 184,001 (actual votes, 71.2% Democrat)

This leaves a deficit of 155,473 votes. However, there were 814,150 votes cast in what I call the exurb area around Baltimore and in Southern Maryland. That area needs to split 60/40 GOP – if it does, then these are their results.

Exurbs: GOP 488,490; Dems 325,660 (GOP 60-40 split).

Total: GOP 873,562; Dems 866,205.

That may seem hard to fathom, but there’s not a lot of improvement needed in those exurb counties. These are the actual 2006 Ehrlich percentages for those localities:

Carroll 69.9%
Harford 63.4%
St. Mary’s 58.2%
Calvert 57.2%
Anne Arundel 56.9%
Baltimore County 50.9%
Howard 49.2%
Charles 47.7%

As it was, the total worked out to almost a dead even 55%. In most instances, the 2006 Ehrlich vote ran 5-10% behind his 2002 totals so 60% GOP voting is a very attainable goal for 2010. In turn, this may begin to crack that stranglehold that the Democrats have on the General Assembly, at least enough to give any future Republican governor an override-proof minority.

But for the next four years, we belong to the fiefdom of Prince Baltigomery. Now is the time to start planning the overthrow at the ballot box.

I think the first step as a party is to decide what solutions we have to the key issues that face our state. To help, I’m going to do a post in the next few days with some ideas on how to do just that.

One piece of advice

Thanks to fellow MBA blogger Baltimore Reporter, here is an article outlining steps for the GOP to take to regain power in 2008. And I agree wholeheartedly, this is a war that was taken to the Republicans and it’s time to fight back!

I keep hearing the mantra, “conservatives didn’t lose, Republicans did.” Well, if this is true, time is a-wastin’! We only have 722 days until November 4, 2008. That’s not a lot of time to win a war and find a good conservative Republican presidential candidate in the vein of Ronaldus Maximus.

But there’s another topic I wanted to add my two cents about as political talk winds down for a short while.

Something that was sort of lost in all the hubbub about the 2006 election was a discussion about the good young candidates who made their first political runs on both sides of the political aisle. (For the sake of argument, I consider “young” as being under 40 like the Young Republicans dictate.) While most weren’t successful, this becomes the “farm team” for later campaigns.

Among the Democrats locally were Sheree Sample-Hughes (who won a County Council seat in District 1), Gary Tucker (he lost in the County Council at-large primary), and Patrick Armstrong (who lost to Page Elmore in the general election for the District 38A seat.) From the GOP we had even more youngsters, starting with Clerk of the Courts candidate James Gillespie (a hardworking officeseeker who deserved better in the general election), Bill McDermott (at 20 the youngest to ever run for the General Assembly; he lost in the District 38B primary), Bryan Brushmiller (who made a good election showing in District 4, a heavily Democrat area), and John Herweh (who lost in the primary for County Council at-large.) And we can’t forget Delegate Jeannie Haddaway, who won election to a full term in the General Assembly after her appointment 3 years ago.

When I think about politics I know that we have our issues with the world today, particularly what’s been called the “Long War”, better known as the “War on Terror.” But I also like to concentrate on what’s going to be around ten years, two decades, even a half-century down the road.

I’m a person who has a political outlook that’s conservative with a little bit of libertarianism thrown in to make things interesting, and just enough of an ’80’s punk “Question Authority” attitude to where I don’t fit into the typical GOP mold and dislike the “politics as usual” games. But I’m also realistic enough to know that my generation (I identify more with the Gen X’ers than the Boomers, as I was born smack dab between the two eras) has pretty much become settled in its ways to a point where neither conservatism or liberalism has a large advantage. The great memories of those of us born in the mid-to-late ’60’s of coming of age in the Reagan era are negated by the 1970’s version of Gen X’ers remembering the good times of the Clinton era.

So I look to the future and hope that those men and women of what I call the Milennial Generation (the oldest of whom are just turning 30 now) rebel against the excesses in government that both parties have perpetuated over the course of their youth and become a modern-day “Greatest Generation”. With the Long War as a constant threat, theirs will likely be a generation of sacrifice much like the fathers and grandfathers of the Boomers had to endure (World Wars 1 and 2 plus the Great Depression.) This stands in stark comparison to the relative ease that Boomers and Gen X’ers have grown up with.

This is why I’m encouraged by the influx of youth into the political process, particularly on the Republican side. Politics can be a nasty game at times. But the ideal of public service puts a much better spin on what’s essentially the same task, being elected to office and held in the public trust by your peers. A country led by our most level-headed and rational youth of today will again be a good place for coming generations to grow up in.

The market basket, revisited

Back at the end of April I did a post called “The market basket” where I compared the local grocery store prices. In that post, I noted that I would continue this on a semi-regular basis, and since six months has elapsed I decided to revisit the stores and see how they stack up.

In the interim the Salisbury area has lost a store (the Giant at North Pointe) and plans are afoot to build a Food Lion in Crisfield. If this pans out, the residents of Crisfield will have the next-best option behind Wal-Mart insofar as price goes, and given the distance between Crisfield and Pocomoke, it may be very competitive as long as they hold the Salisbury stores’ prices for the new location.

As a total food bill of the 20 items selected, here’s how the stores compare. (Individual items can be found here on this Word Perfect document.)

Wal-Mart $42.21 (up 0.9% from April)
Food Lion $50.56 (down 3.3% from April)
Giant $55.61 (down 0.3% from April)
Super Fresh $60.40 (up 5.9% from April)

Obviously, a lot of this depends on how many sale prices were in effect in April vs. October (my shopping date was October 29, I just held this for post-election posting.) But the trend has been prices staying pretty much the same over the six month period (except for Super Fresh), which is good news for Delmarva shoppers like myself.

So next April I’ll do this once again and see how prices react, and if Super Fresh can remain in the market. I didn’t know that the Giant that was closed was once a Super Fresh and twice now they’ve been the highest priced competitor in this survey. So it makes me wonder how long Super Fresh can stay in the game.

Wicomico County Veterans Day ceremony

Inspire the youth in peace as they would be in war.

I attended the Wicomico County Veterans Day Ceremony this morning, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as is appropriate. And with the weather today, it felt more like the last ceremony I attended there at Memorial Day.

What I failed to do was take into account the pictures I was taking weren’t going to format into my blog, although I only took a handful during the 15 minute ceremony anyway. Fortunately, I also maintain a Flickr page where today’s photos can be seen (as can ones of the Memorial Day ceremony.) I particularly liked the one of bringing the flags up to full mast.

The program was simply a short presentation with various speakers orating their thoughts on various topics. These topics were: Remembering Our Veterans, On The Home Front, An Incredible Spirit, A Common Aim, Bravery, and A Greater Discipline. There were a couple of passages that I noted and I think should be passed on, one of which began this post. The other speaks about A Greater Discipline. Paraphrasing, with majority rule comes voluntary obedience. As Democrats grumble but comply when placed under Republican rule, so must we Republicans with the new regime in Annapolis come January. However, I submit to the speaker that respect must flow both ways, and, as it is appropriate to question orders when they are contrary to the goals of battle, so too must we question authority when used in an inappropriate manner.

Unlike the solemnity of the Memorial Day ceremony, today’s events serve as a reminder that the military needs to maintain our respect. The military is an oddity in one sense, though – it strengthens and prepares itself for battle in the hope that it’s never used in one, thus the Reagan doctrine, “peace through strength.” Or, as Metallica put it in the song “Don’t Tread On Me”, “to secure peace is to prepare for war.” (That’s a great 4th of July song, by the way.)

So, from me to all of those veterans out there (including my dad), thank you for your service!

Support your local music scene

Project Sideways playing at the Monkey Barrel, November 10, 2006.

Something a lot different this morning. I decided to post this because the fans of monoblogue like content and I haven’t posted in a couple days. That and I needed a break from the political scene, obviously doing that gig for the last several months (entailing running around like a chicken with its head cut off) has sort of cut into other things I enjoy, like seeing some of the local band talent rocking the stage.

This band is called Project Sideways and they are from Salisbury. They were part of a triple bill last night (second band) – unfortunately I only got decent pictures of two of the bands. More unfortunately I didn’t get the name of the opening band, who was a very good outfit as well. The night closed out with a band out of Rockville, I believe they were called No Bones. (My bad hearing, they’re called DayNovo.)

The nameless (thus far) opening band at the Monkey Barrel, November 10, 2006.

As I noted, I didn’t catch the name of this band (but I know it now, thanks to commenter PSRob – this band is called Back Before Dawn), which is too bad because she’s quite a good singer. She even filled in for the Project Sideways vocalist on a version of the Tool song, “Sober.” Hopefully someone reading monoblogue can get me the name of this group (and where they’re playing next.)

If you’re wondering why I took the pictures at the angle I did, one thing I dislike about the setup at Monkey Barrel insofar as pictures are concerned is the big window directly behind the stage, which just kills anything taken with a flash. But that places the piling in the line of sight. I’ve gone to Coyote’s up in Seaford for shows before too and they have a similar situation with a mirror behind the stage (but a clear view otherwise.)

Obviously that doesn’t matter if you’re just there for the tunes, but I enjoy the photography aspect of it as well.

There is another local band I’m planning on seeing next weekend called Halflink. Tonight they are scheduled to play in a competition out in Los Angeles in what’s billed as the 2006 Battle of the Bands. Hopefully it all goes well for them out there! That show next weekend will be at the Cactus Club, which is a venue I’ve yet to visit so we’ll see how that is. Probably more crowded, but that’s all right – these folks need all the support they can get.

Time for healing, time to move on

Aside from the fact this is sort of an election wrapup, it almost would qualify as an “odds and ends” post.

I’m going to start out with a concession. Probably when I do site cleanup this weekend I’ll add it to my template as a more permanent disclaimer, but just so there’s no confusion the opinions expressed on my website are not necessarily those of the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee. (However, they probably should be.)

Now I’m going to do some number crunching. I don’t recall who I said this to but on a couple occasions this week I opined that, in order to win re-election, Governor Ehrlich would have to carry the “out” counties in Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore by at least a 2:1 margin.

What I’ve done is set up two sets of numbers. The first set is the county’s Ehrlich percentage from the 2002 election followed by the October 2002 Republican voter registration percentage in (parentheses).

Western Maryland:

Allegany – 64.2 (47.9)
Frederick – 66.0 (46.4)
Garrett – 73.2 (63.3)
Washington – 68.6 (46.5)

Eastern Shore:

Caroline – 74.7 (40.1)
Cecil – 68.1 (37.7)
Dorchester – 67.2 (34.5)
Kent – 65.0 (36.0)
Queen Anne’s – 74.2 (46.3)
Somerset – 68.3 (31.2)
Talbot – 70.0 (44.8)
WICOMICO – 64.2 (37.4)
Worcester – 64.9 (37.3)

Particularly on the Eastern Shore, Ehrlich got a ton of crossover votes – anywhere from 25% to 35% inroads among registered Democrats and Independents within those nine counties, and about 10-20% in Western Maryland where the GOP has better registration numbers.

Fast forward to 2006. I have the unofficial results from last night (no absentees yet) and the October 2006 GOP registration percentages.

Western Maryland:

Allegany – 56.6 (47.4)
Frederick – 59.4 (45.3)
Garrett – 67.8 (62.3)
Washington – 60.3 (45.9)

Eastern Shore:

Caroline – 65.5 (41.0)
Cecil – 57.5 (39.1)
Dorchester – 61.2 (36.2)
Kent – 54.2 (36.0)
Queen Anne’s – 66.2 (46.9)
Somerset – 59.3 (32.3)
Talbot – 62.9 (44.5)
WICOMICO – 62.4 (38.0)
Worcester – 64.3 (38.9)

Last night the Democrats came home to a much larger extent for Martin O’Malley, and the crossovers were reduced to a figure anywhere from 5% in heavily GOP Garrett County to 27% in Somerset County (which has the lowest GOP registration percentage of the selected group). But no county had a 30% or better switchover as four counties did in 2002. It does say something about the efforts of our tri-county GOP (Somerset, Wicomico, Worcester) that we managed to switch more D/I voters than the average (24-27%) and come closer to that 2/3 we needed on the Eastern Shore. But Garrett County was the only 2/3 county and that would be expected given the 62% GOP registration.

I suppose the other feathers in the cap go to Ellen Andrews and Ann Granados, who managed to almost stem the downward tide that Ehrlich had in his reelection attempt. While all 23 counties and Baltimore City had a lesser percentage for Ehrlich, Worcester County was only off 0.6% and Wicomico second-closest at 1.8%.

I also should congratulate fellow MBA blogger Stephanie Dray, who did some work for the winning campaigns (she was out working the polls and such yesterday as I was – hey Stephanie, take your camera next time!) Today she got to feel the euphoria that comes from working on a campaign and being victorious, while I had the crushing disappointment of seeing the hard work I did pretty much go to waste. It’s been more often than not that I’ve been in the latter category, but that’s not to say I’ll work any less to place myself on the winning GOP side in 2010.

But since Stephanie may have her interest piqued because I linked to her, and since she’s the huge O’Malley fan of our group, I have a couple things to ask about.

Martin O’Malley claimed on literature I acquired that he’d be “(a) governor for all of the Eastern Shore. This literature quoted onetime Governor Harry Hughes about “doing what’s best for the people of Maryland, including protecting the Bay and saving family farms.” Regardless, there are two things I think we on the Shore would like to make sure the governor-elect keeps in mind.

First of all, do not balance the vast amount of spending you’re promising (almost every plank on his platform called for what he liked to term “additional resources”) on the backs of our businesses by raising the sales tax. Because of our geography, the Eastern Shore (and Salisbury in particular, being only 5 miles away) has a competitive disadvantage with sales-tax-free Delaware close by. Increasing the sales tax would only drive more capital over the line – already Route 13 is lined with big-ticket outlets for furniture and used cars and increasing the sales tax would make that disadvantage grow.

The other item cuts to the heart of the pull quote on your literature. Governor Glendening was loathed in these parts because he valued the environment voters of the Western Shore more than the farmers of the Eastern Shore by overregulating what farmers could do. Don’t repeat that mistake. Governor Ehrlich was well-liked around these parts by farm families because he called off the Glendening dogs.

One relief was that the election seemed to go relatively smoothly, and aside from a charge of misleading literature being distributed by the Ehrlich campaign, things went relatively well, particularly for Democrats. (Obviously voting is smooth as glass when they win, as opposed to seemingly always screaming “voter suppression and fraud!” when they don’t.) So we seem to have the computer voting pretty much down.

To me then, that means it’s time to perfect the system even more. Because this was a smooth, fraud-free election and a clear mandate for the Democrats based on the results, they should have nothing to fear by adding the requirement for photo ID’s at polling places – particularly with the Election Day registration that Question 4 would bring about. Heck, Arizona has a voter photo ID requirement (or two non-photo ID’s) and they managed to oust a sitting GOP Congressman (J.D. Hayworth) and pass a minimum wage increase.

So, Governor-elect, add these to your to-do list or we’ll have to make you a one-termer like Governor Ehrlich. People who voted for Ehrlich generally didn’t want the bad things about the city of Baltimore (high crime, lousy schools, oppressive taxes) replicated throughout Maryland, it’s up to you to prove them wrong.

I have one other point to make. Last night I read that the demise of the Charles Jannace write-in campaign (which will probably total 700-800 votes once absentees are counted) coincided with the demise of his Justice For All? blog. Probably most among local blogs, his had most of the local GOP’s collective knickers in a wad, and the blowback from it affected my blog. (Not that I really much cared.)

So now we have three main blogs if you count monoblogue (Duvafiles and Salisbury News being the other two I link to) plus a rapidly growing second tier from both sides of the political aisle (examples are Crabbin’, Delmar Dustpan, integrity only matters sometimes, Westside Wisdom, and What I See and Hear) With the popularity of the free blogging site Blogspot, these “second tier” blogs all have popped up in the last few months.

To make a long story short, we as a group are here to stay. The names may change, but someone will have an opinion about something and write it out, and it may or may not draw favor with the local Republican Party. But they’ll have to learn to deal with them, and my suggestion is to welcome them with open arms because more often than not these folks are average conservative types and it’s good to have them on our side.

Election evening in pictures

Reliving the election of 2006.

Kirk Daugherty with his supporters, including one in an infamous yellow jacket.
Kirk Daugherty with his supporters, including one in an infamous yellow jacket.
Mike Lewis talking with his supporters.
Mike Lewis talking with his supporters.
John Cannon's ladies wave from across the way.
John Cannon’s ladies wave from across the way.
WBOC's reporter interviewing Kirk Daugherty.
WBOC’s reporter interviewing Kirk Daugherty.

By the way, I was interviewed by the Daily Times myself so we’ll see how that turns out.

A couple of Democrat supporters. Until the very end they were rooted in that spot.
A couple of Democrat supporters. Until the very end they were rooted in that spot.
John Cannon's motorhome, which had loudspeakers playing patriotic songs. That's my car in front with its Ehrlich signs.
John Cannon’s motorhome, which had loudspeakers playing patriotic songs. That’s my car in front with its Ehrlich signs.
The last holdout (besides me.) We were both pretty damn soaked by this time, and I had an umbrella!
The last holdout (besides me.) We were both pretty damn soaked by this time, and I had an umbrella!

It was about this time that Bonnie Luna stopped by to personally thank me for helping, and I suspect my mug will be on her website (or in her archives someplace.)

A scene of Bonnie's post-election party.
A scene of Bonnie’s post-election party.
Mary Beth Carozza of Governor Ehrlich's office joins Bonnie and Luis Luna in watching the results.
Mary Beth Carozza of Governor Ehrlich’s office joins Bonnie and Luis Luna in watching the results.

And with that, I’m off to bed. Things didn’t go as well as hoped tonight, but tomorrow the sun comes up and I go back to “normal” life. I have four years to be a thorn in the Democrats’ side.

Election morning in pictures

Hold the mouse over the picture for the caption.

Sheriff candidate Mike Lewis talks to Question A volunteers.

Campaigning wives Faye Holloway and Sarah Gillespie.

Democrats on their side of the street.

Campaigning in a sea of signs.

Dustin Mills, manager of the Michael James campaign.

County Council candidate John Cannon chatting with Sarah Gillespie.

County Council candidate Bill McCain joins the Democrats across the way.

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis campaigning for their son.

A Mathias/Conway van. The four folks in it parked it and left in another car.

Close to the borderline.

The people who were manning this spot went within the 100 foot radius a few times. They were handing out the “teacher-approved” slate (on apple-shaped flyers) plus stuff for Norm Conway.

Question A volunteers. They have a great sign.

Discussing issues with a voter.

The lady in the maroon jacket at the left was one who freely admitted she hadn’t studied up on the candidates so we spent 15-20 minutes with her. She appreciated our efforts, and I think she voted our way.

I’ll not be back until late tonight, but I may post because I’ll be wired from all this and several cans of diet Mountain Dew.

Gilchrest pre-election rally

My server was down last night, I wrote this about 11 p.m. See you at the polls!

Tonight prior to my Central Committee meeting I stopped by a pre-election rally hosted by our Congressman, Wayne Gilchrest.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs.

Some of the approximately 80-100 people in attendance.

As one would expect at a political rally, signs and balloons were plastered throughout the room and I thought turnout was pretty good, I figured close to 100 candidates, volunteers, and Republicans gathered to hear our Congressman and the other candidates in attendance speak. This picture was taken early before the crowd all came in from the lobby.

Congressman Gilchrest addressing the crowd.

Gilchrest spoke of his early days campaigning here in Salisbury and also talked about working together with all people, regardless of party or even nationality, particularly when it came to the Middle East. As an example, Wayne talked about his meeting with the head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, who is no fan of the Iranian leadership. He also cited President Eisenhower inviting Khrushchev to America after the “we will bury you” speech to the UN, President Kennedy’s diplomacy during the Cuban missile crisis, and Richard Nixon’s trip to China after they threatened us.

Our Congressman is one of those “80%” guys I wrote on previously – I don’t agree too much with his stances on the War on Terror or energy policy, but he’s much closer to my ideal than his opponent is.

Some of our GOP candidates in attendance.

Left to right: County Council District 3 incumbent Gail Bartkovich, Gilchrest, District 38A Delegate Page Elmore, District 38B officeseeker Michael James, County Council at-large candidate John Cannon, and County Executive hopeful Ron Alessi.

Other GOP candidates who got to speak.

Left to right: Clerk of the Courts hopeful James Gillespie, County Council at-large candidate M.J. Caldwell, Worcester County Commissioner candidate Linda Busick, Sheriff officeseeker Mike Lewis, County Council District 5 aspirant Joe Holloway, County Council District 4 candidate Bryan Brushmiller, Bartkovich, Gilchrest, and Elmore (at podium).

He then introduced the candidates who were in attendance, and each would be given a chance to speak. I had the Central Committee meeting mentioned above so I didn’t stay for the speeches. But I’m sure they did their part to keep the troops motivated for one more day.

So as Rush Limbaugh says, “tomorrow we meet at dawn.” And that’s when I’ll be out – I have a trunkload of Steele signs to place and I’ll be at the appointed polling place right about opening time, ready to sway those last minute voters!

Election Guide 2006

This is going to be all the information I can muster on the election, based on the many posts I’ve done this election season. Don’t forget, I also link to most of these campaigns on my right-hand sidebar.

First of all, here are my overall summaries on various races:

Governor
U.S. Senate
County Executive
House of Delegates/Senate District 37
House of Delegates/Senate District 38

I also attended several candidate forums over the course of the campaign, summarized here (with attendees):

Pittsville (October 12)

Both candidates for Wicomico County Sheriff.
County Council candidates Caldwell (at-large), Holloway (District 5), McCain (at-large), Werkheiser (District 5), Sample-Hughes (District 1, unopposed), Pretl (District 3). Cannon (at-large) was a latecomer.
County Executive candidates Pollitt and Jannace. Rick Pollitt comments on one of my statements here.

The other forums were pre-primary so more participants were invited.

NAACP forum (August 3)

All three State Senate candidates from District 37, along with the five candidates vying for the District 37 Delegate seats.
Delegate Elmore from District 38A, along with all four District 38B contestants.

NAACP forum (July 27)

State’s Attorney (Davis Ruark is unopposed).
All five candidates for Orphan’s Court Judge.
Both candidates for Sheriff.

NAACP forum (July 13)

Register of Wills (Karen Lemon is unopposed).
Both candidates for Clerk of the Court.
County Council candidates Sample-Hughes (District 1, unopposed), Prettyman (District 2, unopposed), both District 3 candidates, David MacLeod (District 4), both District 5 candidates, and at-large candidates McCain, Caldwell, Cannon, and Graf (who is a write-in for the general election after losing the GOP primary.)
County Executive candidates Alessi and Pollitt.

FOP Sheriff’s Forum (July 6)

Both candidates for Sheriff.

Another item that proved to be interesting was the Ten Questions. I actually reuse them on the summaries of the U.S. Senate and General Assembly races, but here’s the link to each individual candidate’s answers.

Kevin Zeese (U.S. Senate)
Lih Young (U.S. Senate). She lost in the Democratic primary but re-entered the Senate race as a write-in. I didn’t know this when I did the summary.
Rich Colburn (Senate District 37)
James Adkins (House of Delegates District 37B)
Addie Eckardt (House of Delegates District 37B)
Patrick Armstrong (House of Delegates District 38A)
Michael James (House of Delegates District 38B)

Additionally, as some of the GOP candidates have been the featured speaker at the Wicomico County Republican Club meetings, here are summaries of what they had to say there. Note that pre-primary, other candidates who lost in September are also featured speakers.

September (John Cannon, M.J. Caldwell, both County Council at-large)
August (Bonnie Luna, District 38B Delegate candidate)
July (Rich Colburn, District 37 Senator, and Mike Lewis, Sheriff)
May (Michael James, District 38B candidate)
March (Ron Alessi, County Executive)

As far as candidates go, I have covered the most of the five recognized write-in candidates someplace in here. Most in Wicomico County are familiar with Charles Jannace’s bid for County Executive, and as alluded to earlier, Lucy Graf is running for County Council at-large again. I also have listed in my Governor’s summary the John Simmins write-in campaign, but was not aware that Charles Ulysses Smith, an also-ran for the Democratic Senate nomination (along with Lih Young, who I discussed earlier as rerunning for U.S. Senate) has also filed as a write-in for Governor.

Finally, I wanted to touch on the various issues that are on the ballot. I’ll start with state issues, and rather than type the whole text out, an explanation prepared by the state is here. (This is an 8 page .pdf file, the final two pages are irrelevant to Wicomico County.) In Wicomico County, we also have Question A, which deals with allowing the Sheriff’s Department collective bargaining power with binding arbitration.

State Question 1 deals with state parklands. In my not-so-humble opinion, this is yet another attempt by the Democrats to both usurp power from and embarrass the Ehrlich Administration. The Question stems from an attempt to sell over 800 acres of surplus state land in St. Mary’s County to a private developer.

I wrote a letter to the Daily Times on this subject back in March of 2005 (pre-blogging days). In part, I argued that:

To me, the word “surplus” implies not needed for any purpose. In an era where the trend is for government to overuse its power of eminent domain, I find returning state land to the private sector (and to tax collection) a refreshing trend…I would like to see a lot more state land turned over for private use. The extra taxes collected could help lower that burden on the rest of us.

As is the case with much of our state government, the Democrats were fine with executive authority when they had the executive. But once Governor Ehrlich came into office, it was no fun anymore. Join me in voting NO on Question 1.

Questions 2 and 3 are a matter of cleaning up judiciary laws. At the risk of allowing frivolous appeals to continue up the court ladder, I’ll vote YES on Question 2 and allow the $10,000 limit by voting YES on Question 3 (with some reservations there too.)

Several election law changes are involved with Question 4. Among them:

E-poll books at each polling place
Separate precincts at college campuses. (I believe SU would be exempt from this as the Asbury UMC is right by campus.)
Supermajority (4 of 5) decisions by the Board of Elections, which is currently 3-2 Republican
Voter registration and absentee voting assistance at nursing homes, assisted living facilities, etc.
Provisions affecting only Baltimore City (and Somerset County)
A study of Election Day voter registration

Because of last four provisions, we don’t need to pass this. This Question came about from the petition drive done this spring to stop early voting (which succeeded in court without needing the petition) so rather than get the half a loaf we would’ve gotten by passing this, we can get the whole enchilada now by dumping this question. Vote NO on Question 4.

Now I turn to Question A. I asked a friend of mine in the Sheriff’s Department who would be the collective bargaining agent for the deputies and was told FOP Lodge 111. This friend gave me a hypothetical:

“…let’s assume that LEOPS is achieved and that may well happen, even if Question A fails. What happens if Question A is voted into law is that the FOP can then demand arbitration on schedules, uniforms, cars, management, etc., which as you are keenly aware of relinqueshes (sic) management issues to the union.”

Here’s the way I look at this. The even better solution would be to elect a Sheriff, County Executive, and County Council who are willing to work in harmony and hammer out the improvements in pay and benefits our law enforcement officers deserve, rather than place all in an acrimonious position from the start by passing Question A. So vote NO on A.

Wow. I believe that’s about it. We do have to reconfirm one judge to the Court of Special Appeals, Ellen L. Hollander. I see no reason not to.

There will be six pages on my particular ballot, and that’s a lot to vote on. Hopefully you’ve been paying attention, and no matter what choices you make I hope they are careful and learned as I advocated in the Daily Times.

Eastern Shore Ehrlich rally

A welcome sight in any parking lot.

Once I saw this lineup of cars, I knew I was in the right place. Today I attended an “Eastern Shore Ehrlich Rally” in Ocean City.

Full house in the Carousel's poolside dining area.

When we got there (I drove up trailing Ellen Andrews and her husband Darryl, with the big Ehrlich sign in my back window) it was a pretty full house. There were 50-60 people there at the peak, pretty good for a Saturday noontime event.

District 38 State Senator J. Lowell Stoltzfus.

After being introduced by Worcester County Ehrlich coordinator Ann Granados, our Senator, Lowell Stoltzfus, spoke briefly about working with Governor Ehrlich for the last four years and looking forward to four more as momentum is shifting toward the GOP in Maryland (and I daresay nationwide.) He also praised the campaign efforts of the next two pictured:

Both District 38 GOP hopefuls were there.

Michael James and Bonnie Luna also addressed the people. James is a quiet man who’s determined to bring Eastern Shore values to Annapolis, while Luna, the more talkative of the two, spoke on her campaign theme of placing people before politics, particularly when it comes to prioritizing spending.

Everyone was sort of clipped in their speeches because there was also to be a scheduled call-in from the Governor himself, which did occur after Luna finished. Ehrlich opened by saying he had good news and bad news…the bad news was that Drew’s ballteam was losing, but the good news was the momentum for his re-election that was building in the polls.

Honestly, the Governor doesn’t really have to give us the time of day – the Eastern Shore is solid Ehrlich/Cox country. In the last election our four-county area voted anywhere from 64.2% to 68.3% for Ehrlich and there’s no reason to expect anything less this time. But every vote counts and it’s nice to know that our hard work is appreciated. Also, the key for Ehrlich is to flip the two District 38B Delegates from two Democrats to two Republicans, helping enable the GOP to have enough members in the House of Delegates to sustain Ehrlich’s vetoes (they need 14 more.) This was another item noted by Stoltzus in his remarks – after almost 15 years without a single veto override in the General Assembly prior to his term, Governor Ehrlich has suffered 40.

After I returned and took a short break at home, I did my part to offset fellow MBA blogger Stephanie Dray as I worked a phone bank for Governor Ehrlich and Michael Steele’s campaigns. By happenstance I drew my newly adopted home precinct so if you live on the east side and close environs of Salisbury, there’s a chance you heard me today (or may tomorrow as I finish the precinct’s list. Waiting on answering machines can take a LONG time.)

We have just over 72 hours until the polls close as I write this. As I wrote to the Daily Times, this is the biennial opportunity for us to determine our country’s direction. Tuesday will determine whether we “cut and run” from the principles of limited government and freedom or embrace them.