WCRC meeting – September 2006

While we didn’t quite have the throngs we did pre-primary, it was still a pretty respectable gathering tonight at the September WCRC meeting, my guess is that we had about 50-55 people there. And a lot was accomplished tonight as we settled several business items for the upcoming election.

As always, we got ourselves started with the Pledge of Allegiance, then did the Lord’s Prayer and went through the August minutes. There was actually a attendance count within the minutes, and when I said 65 or so I was off by one – we had 64. Maybe I forgot to sign the sheet? No, I’m sure I did. But I was pretty close, so I guess that explains my success at predictions (for all you Central Committee folks out there.)

Also, we had our treasurer’s report. It was about this time last year that we started building up the war chest we have, between last year and this year it’s only about 60% higher rather than double like we were running. But the Crab Feast was quite a financial success, I believe the totals worked out to about $8,000. I did underestimate the proceeds on the silent auction, it came out to $1,430. That’s all right, I had no money invested in that result so I can miss on that prediction.

Anyway, inside jokes aside, we quickly disposed of old business. Bob Miller thanked all those who helped with the Crab Feast and Woody Willing called for even more silent auction items next year, along with letting the members in on the ballot language for Question A, which would allow the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Department collective bargaining rights with binding arbitration. The binding arbitration portion is what Willing stressed voters be most aware of.

At that point we got to what would be several items of new business. On one, I’m reserving my right as the author to make additional comments so that will be covered after I go through the remainder of the meeting.

But the first item was comments by M.J. Caldwell about encouraging people to switch parties if you find they’re in agreement with you on most issues. Instead of Democrats voting for Democrats because that’s the party they’re aligned with (even if they’re in agreement with the GOP on most issues), changing their perception of identity by getting them to switch parties generally results in more votes downticket. People are more likely to cross over for big races but then stay with the party line farther down.

Ellen Andrews of the county’s Ehrlich campaign was looking for volunteers, as campaigns are known to do. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball on one item. There was a list of accomplishments that Governor Ehrlich had done for Wicomico County at the meeting and I forgot to pick one up! These could be the basis for a letter-writing campaign, or talking points if you will. She also was looking for phone bank volunteers, one upcoming opportunity is Wednesday night from 5:30 to 8:30 at M.J. Caldwell’s office here in Salisbury. Andrews also informed us about a fashion show up in Baltimore on October 12th (I believe First Lady Kendal Ehrlich puts this together) and introduced intern Josh Wick, who’s working on the Ehrlich campaign with Andrews.

Most importantly, she emphasized getting out the vote, particularly in this area where the governor is strongest. The only area of the state where opponent Martin O’Malley is winning big is the MoCo/PG area, even Baltimore is a tossup (this according to the Sun, so given that source I’m sure Ehrlich’s leading by a few points in Baltimore then.)

Next, we heard a representative from the Maryland Public Policy Institute (who I met and shook hands with, then promptly forgot his name. Sorry.) But more importantly, they are hosting a Town Hall meeting here on the SU campus on Wednesday, October 25. The purpose of the meeting is to introduce their new book, Maryland 2006-2007: A Guide to the Issues and solicit public input. Something tells me monoblogue will be represented.

The last issue (after the one I’m reserving comment on) was that of spending some of the “war chest” we have collected during this cycle. It was resolved that we should spend as much as we legally can on local candidates (as needed) while leaving a cushion of a few thousand dollars in the bank to begin the next cycle with. As John Bartkovich would comment on later, some of that funding would go to advertising for the Republican team.

With that, we had our first speaker, County Council at-large candidate John Cannon. The native of Wicomico County stated that he was “no stranger to community service or the political arena” and did go through a pretty impressive laundry list of organizations he’d served with and political posts he’d held, including some time on the Republican Central Committee.

John focused on two main issues during his address, growth and education. He used the analogy of cutting a diamond to express his thoughts on growth, saying that you only have one chance to get it right. Growth, he continued, should be managed and kept within the metro core and close to other county municipalities. Cannon also cited a need to “take advantage of the developer’s ideas” where possible, as the best ones would take initiatives and help to take the burden of cost off the taxpayers. Above all on the growth issue, Cannon stressed a “no surprises”, consistent approach.

Cannon told the group that he’d looked through the education budgets for both administrative and capital expenditures and, while there was a little bit of pudginess on the administrative side, the report he cited said that Wicomico County’s BOE delivers “good value for the dollar” overall. But he wanted to work on finding creative and efficient solutions to some budget areas and sought more state money to help the 12% of students that he claimed used 20% of the budget.

In response to a question from our assembled regarding the revenue cap, Cannon asserted that the county had an $18 million surplus with the cap, and while it could be said that the government never has enough money, John prudently said that the county simply needs to “set priorities” and that it would be up to the voters to create a groundswell of support for removing the cap. (Fat chance of that happening.)

Then, for a second time, it was M.J. Caldwell’s time to speak. This time he had the candidate hat on as opposed to club officer. Caldwell is a Maryland native, but not an Eastern Shore native. (As he put it, he came here by choice.) I found it quite analogous to the experience on the Eastern Shore though as he related how his once-staunch Democrat family (including himself) slowly switched over to the GOP column as the Democrats moved away from the values his family held closest. M.J. also alluded to his personal persistence as he recited the story of how he came back from law school (at Tulane University) and couldn’t get a bite on the resumes he’d sent to various Eastern Shore law firms, so he took a day and drove the stretch from Ocean City to Easton along Route 50, meeting people face-to-face. Coming home, his wife told him she’d lined up four interviews for him from phone calls he’d gotten back and the rest is history. (I can vouch for that approach, I got my last job in Ohio via a similar method within a day after being laid off by my previous employer because of a slow workload.)

One asset Caldwell claimed would be helpful on County Council was having the law school background because there he was trained to listen and analyze. He also claimed to have a hand in job creation as a minority shareholder in two local companies which had grown from startup to a combined 300 employees. Other items he used to buttress his argument were his efforts to rewrite the Wicomico County charter a few years back and then, after being against it at first, how research into the matter persuaded him that a County Executive would be a good step to take for Wicomico County. Another little-known but important task he’s done is to serve on the committee that decides legislative compensation. While it may not seem like a lot of money to give a raise to 188 members in the General Assembly, the dirty little secret is that all of the retirees get a raise as well because their pension is tied to the salaries. Caldwell and the committee were successful in holding the line on raises this time around.

While M.J. agreed with John Cannon on the growth issue, he did amplify one aspect in talking about the farmers and their role. With a moratorium on growth, the average farmer wouldn’t have the ability to recover from a bad season by splitting off a small parcel or two to sell for extra income. He also chided the county’s planning and zoning department for not always operating in a “timely” fashion. Caldwell also stayed pretty much in lockstep with John on education, although M.J. did advocate more “neighborhood-type” schools rather than the centralized setup we have now where kids from outlying parts of the county are bussed all the way into Salisbury to attend school. (Three of the four local high schools are in or close to Salisbury.) M.J. also noted that since now the majority of the Board of Education is Republican, there’s a better chance for a good relationship between the two if the County Council is likewise GOP-controlled.

Caldwell continued on from these points of agreement though, saying that the “number one priority (for the county) is the safety and security of citizens” and calling for the budget money to be made available to improve the disability plan of the Sheriff’s Department. He also vowed that he “will not vote for tax increases” including an excise tax, calling taxes “government’s legal right to pickpocket” the public. In his message, Caldwell called on the county to make priorities and choices first, and stated the budget was still increasing at a 12.5% annual rate even with the revenue cap in place. In summary, he spoke for himself and John Cannon saying that they “weren’t afraid of being Republicans.”

M.J. also answered a post-speech question regarding the aforementioned Question A, which he was against only because of of the binding arbitration factor. If it were simply a question of collective bargaining, he had no problem with it.

With the speakers concluded, we got our Central Committee report from John Bartkovich. First he thanked the volunteers who helped at Riverfest (you’re welcome) and the Women of Steele event last Saturday. He also was on the hunt for future volunteers, first for the Winefest on October 21-22 and also for the headquarters. The GOP headquarters will be at the corner of Route 13 and Northwood Avenue in Bob Lawrence’s building. The “media opening” is Friday at noon and staffing will begin on Monday, October 2nd. I signed up for two Friday shifts and encourage other Republicans here to do so. And as mentioned before, Bartkovich spoke about the advertising campaign the party would fund for local candidates. These ads would tout the Republican Party as the party of leadership and fiscal responsibility.

This brings me back to one piece of new business that came up. A motion was made from the floor regarding the current situation where local blogs (including monoblogue) are linked from the WCRC website. The motion was made to remove these local links from the site if they were deemed harmful to the GOP cause. (Note to my readers who also partake of the other local blogs: the motion was not made by Mr. Alessi, Mr. Ollinger, or Mr. Bellachico.) After amendment, local candidate websites were exempted as well as generally recognized national conservative websites. As amended the motion passed with one dissenter (three guesses who, first two don’t count.)

I was told afterward that the ban was obviously not pointed at me, but then again there could be cause sometime to do so. It’s not that I’m going to change political stripes or anything like that, but following links from monoblogue one can access almost any Delmarva political website, including those of minor parties. And regular readers know that I’d like to see more choices on the ballot, despite the fact that could cut into the number of Republicans out there someday. (I doubt at the moment too many would switch from GOP to Populist or Greens, but a Conservative Party – maybe.)

But let’s face facts here. The ONLY reason this came up was because the other three major players on the local blogging scene have found fault with County Executive candidate Ron Alessi. Even so, this still may not have come up had Charles Jannace (a.k.a. Hadley V. Baxendale) not began a write-in campaign for County Executive because Alessi won the GOP primary by a handful of votes.

If you go back through the entire body of work of these other three local blogs you’ll find that they are all on the relatively conservative side. I’ve been reading Duvafiles for about the last year and a half (since the “wetback” controversy) and Justice For All? since before the Blogger crash last winter. National Joe-A-Graphic is newer on the scene, it’s only been around since the spring. To me these are good background sources of information mainly because I’m the newcomer of this group, the others have been here for years.

And this so-called “feud” has escalated to this point, a point where bloggers like myself (even though I’m not who he meant, I get tarred by association) are called a “cancer” and one blogger decides that he’s going to make a statement by getting into the race as a last-minute dark horse candidate. I know that Dr. Bartkovich wants unity among Republicans, but in this case events aren’t going to dictate that and it seems to me that this action may make the WCRC look closed-minded.

I operate on the principle that I’m not afraid of competing views because I believe I have the better argument on the issues. This is why I link to all the websites I do and ask the questions I ask. I’d like people to compare the stances and platforms because it’s become apparent to me that people who have any sort of common sense will see that government that governs best governs least. Sometimes that puts me at odds with my adopted party, but my goal is to bring about change from within by enabling a tide of support for a conservative and Constitutional point of view – to me it’s too late for that sea change to occur within my Gen X’ers so I’m placing my hopes on the Millennial Generation (born after 1975 or so). And where do they get their news? It sure ain’t from the newspaper or the 6:30 nightly network broadcast.

On that principle, I voiced my opposition to the proposal when it was voted on. But after the November election when things have cooled down, a motion to reconsider will be in order because it’s time for me to speak up. I’m not afraid of checking out all of the corners of the “big tent”, neither should the WCRC be.

Election Calendar – September 25 thru October 8

Not too much new on the Election Calendar this week. Have no clue why. Maybe it’s because we’re almost to the new month.

Monday, September 25: As is customary, the Wicomico County Republican Club will have its monthly meeting at the Chamber of Commerce Building, 144 E. Main Street in Salisbury. Social time at 7 p.m., meeting begins at 7:30. Wicomico County Council at-large candidates John Cannon and M.J. Caldwell will be the speakers.

Tuesday, September 26: I’m not sure if it’s too late to RSVP for this, but the Public Awareness Forum at the Holly Center will get underway at 8:00 a.m. and run through 9:00. It will be held in the gymnasium of the Massey Activities Building, 926 Snow Hill Road in Salisbury. District 38B House of Delegates officeseeker Bonnie Luna and Clerk of the Courts candidate James Gillespie have this event on their respective schedules.

Wednesday, September 27: No events scheduled.

Thursday, September 28: Delaware State Treasurer (and also monoblogue-linked blogger) Jack Markell formally begins his re-election campaign in Georgetown at the Old Sussex County Courthouse at 8:30 a.m. (his first stop.) Also having this on his calendar is Delaware’s U.S. Senator Tom Carper.

Friday, September 29 and Saturday, September 30: No events scheduled, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if candidates are campaigning at a local high school football game.

Sunday, October 1: Delegate Jim Mathias hosts a “Meet the Candidate” get-together from 1 to 3 p.m. and again from 4 to 6 p.m. at Occasionally Yours, 10514 Racetrack Road, Berlin.

Monday, October 2: No events scheduled.

Tuesday, October 3: In talking with the folks at PACE yesterday, I found out that there’s a candidate forum on the SU campus that night in the Wicomico Room of University Center. It starts at 7:00, and if you’re like me and can’t be there it’s also being taped for PAC-14.

Wednesday, October 4 through Friday, October 6: No events scheduled.

Saturday, October 7: I believe this is a fundraiser, but State Senator Richard Colburn is having a dinner at the American Legion #91 post in Cambridge at 6:00 p.m. More details as they become available.

Sunday, October 8: No events scheduled.

Upcoming on WICO’s Bill Reddish morning show, 7:40 to 8:00 a.m.:

September 25: City of Salisbury District 2 Councilwoman Debbie Campbell.
September 26: District 38 State Senator J. Lowell Stoltzfus.
September 27: Wicomico County Sheriff candidate Kirk Daugherty.

September 29: Wicomico County Council District 4 aspirant Bryan Brushmiller.

At the moment, there’s no one scheduled for Thursday the 28th.

Political day in pictures

Me and my (somewhat) trusty camera were out and about today checking out the political scene.

Signs in a nice geometric march.

The afternoon started at the Stoltzfus Picnic, which this year was held inside the Civic Center. They were tired of being rained on, last year’s event was soaked.

District 38B hopefuls Bonnie Luna and Michael James applaud remarks by Senator Stoltzfus (center).

This event worked in a pretty tried and true fashion. We all got our food first – they had the hot dogs and sauerkraut again, along with some really good pulled pork. A little cole slaw, a ladleful of baked beans, a few cookies and my lunch was filling. This photo was taken after most of us ate, when the candidate introductions started. Luna and James both made remarks. Stoltzfus even got down to introducing the Central Committee people for each of the three District 38 counties (Somerset, Worcester, Wicomico) which meant I was introduced and got a wave in.

Senator Stoltzfus introduces a U.S. Senate hopeful, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

We actually were introduced after Lieutenant Governor Steele got to the event. He patiently waited a few minutes and here he’s shown just before making his remarks. Steele made what’s probably a pretty typical stump speech to a crowd of supporters but he had some help. Steele spotted a toddler-age girl scampering in front of the stage and bade her come up. With her on his shoulder, Steele pointed out that his job was to help this little girl’s future (as he pointed at her for emphasis.) You couldn’t ask for a better photo-op and hopefully someone got it.

Michael Steele's ride on his 24-county Maryland tour.

This moving billboard is Michael Steele’s bus for his state tour. I snuck out after he finished to take the picture, then walked back inside to renew acquaintances with the Lieutenant Governor, as well as many other politicians in attendance that I knew. In fact, I found out that once the new Central Committee gets underway it’s been decided that I should act as Secretary (which I did for the Toledo Young Republicans years ago.) Gee, a guy with a blog doing a job that requires writing. Whoda thunk it?

Write-in County Executive candidate Charles Jannace - a.k.a. Hadley V. Baxendale of Justice For All? -  (in green on left) with fellow blogger Joe Albero, who does National Joe-A-Graphic (in green on right). Albero is helping to finance the Jannace campaign.

One person I hadn’t met yet was Charles Jannace, who is the “Hadley V. Baxendale” of the local Justice For All? blog, and also a write-in candidate for County Executive. It was a pleasure to meet him and place a name and face behind a blog that I regularly read. Now I hope Joe Albero got the picture of Steele with the young lady I mentioned above. She’s the daughter of Beau Oglesby, an attorney in the Wicomico County State’s Attorney office who’s running for the job in Worcester County where he lives.

Just like last year, the event also had a live auction that was conducted by Lewis Riley, Maryland’s Secretary of Agriculture. I didn’t keep a running count, but I’m guessing they totaled in the $2500 range on the items sold. They were also supposed to have Kristen Cox (Governor Ehrlich’s current running mate) come and say a few words but unfortunately she was running late. I did get to meet her at the next event.

Arriving at the 'Your Vote, Your Voice' event.

Frankly, I was disappointed with the turnout to this event, but it was a nice Saturday and SU doesn’t have a whole lot of on-campus housing.

A nice setup for the Senate hopeful.

U.S. Senate candidate Ben Cardin had a nice table set up even though he didn’t come to see it. At left are two Wicomico County candidates, District 4 Council hopeful David MacLeod and incumbent Orphans’ Court Judge Melissa Pollitt Bright. Seated behind them is another Orphans’ Court candidate, George Ossman.

On the other side, the Republicans had plenty of signage.

The College Republicans put together a rather impressive display. I took the shot looking down the row but theirs stood out.

Two of the Green Party contingent on the SU campus.

These two young people were very nice and polite, but they’ve never heard of monoblogue! I told them I’d make them world-famous. Well, at least they’re now on the World Wide Web.

I do have a question though. Since we have far fewer hurricanes in 2006 than we did in 2005 (with none of them being “major” hurricanes), does that mean we’re having global cooling?

County Council at-large candidate Bill McCain.

In between the band sets, there would be a speaker or maybe two who would go up there and talk about the importance of voting. Judging by the attendance though, not a lot of students find it that important. But I have to commend the folks at PACE for trying.

The politicos outnumbered the students.

However, there were times like this one where I saw mostly candidates who were running for offices speaking to their counterparts, sometimes of the opposite party and sometimes not. I spoke to Joe Albero (in green on the left) and he sadly noted the same phenomonon at forums he attended – they were 1/2 to 2/3 politicians and most of the rest were their hangers-on. Just a handful of citizens show up. At the end, I was chatting with a young lady who’d volunteered to sit at the PACE table and they’d registered only about a half-dozen voters.

U.S. Senate aspirant Kevin Zeese during his address.

There were some bright spots though. I liked Kevin Zeese’s brief message about voting for what you believe in and not against what you fear. Actually, the Green Party’s Senate hopeful is running a fairly positive campaign aside from being virulently anti-war. I did take this occasion to introduce myself and thank him for participating in my Ten Questions. Also, I got to speak at length to his son Alex, who was there helping his dad. He’s a bright young man who told me about his unusual childhood – instead of getting to watch cartoons on weekend mornings, the one TV in his house was tuned to “McLaughlin Group”. So he was immersed in politics at an early age.

In fact, I spent the largest part of my time there speaking with Democrats and Greens. Obviously I’m loyal to the GOP, but it’s good to find out about people on the other side. So I spoke at some length to Democrats like Hilary Spence, James Adkins, Melissa Pollitt Bright, and Sheree Sample-Hughes (who didn’t deny it when I told her she could be a political force to be reckoned with at a higher level), as well as the Green Party’s Zeese. Most of the time we actually spoke about things that were non-political – for example, Spence got a little bit of my history with taking the architectural exam, and Adkins told me about referring folks to monoblogue to read his Ten Questions answers.

As a group, the Democrat and Green candidates stuck around longer than the Republican ones did. I think I was about the last one on the GOP side (excepting the College Republicans) to leave, but I was enjoying talking to some of the younger people there as the affair wound down.

So like in years past the Stoltzfus Picnic will be an early-fall affair next year, but I believe that the SU event will be shelved because there’s no state or federal election in 2007. It may return in two years though as the Presidential election winds down. But after the event I told the organizer to invite me whenever it returns, I’ll be there. This year’s event may not have been what they’d hoped, but there’s no harm in trying since that generation is going to be a pivotal one in history.

Pre-election planning

Since this turns out to be a “milestone” post (number 250)* I wanted to do something “important” with it. With just over 6 weeks remaining until the general election, this seems like a pretty good time to work out some of what I’m planning to do with monoblogue for election coverage.

First of all though I’m going to go back and review my pre-primary election coverage. There were four major initiatives I began during that period, some were more successful than others.

The first part of the equation was expanded coverage of political forums, which I thought were very successful in the two most important aspects – it gave people who couldn’t be there an idea of what went on and it also brought new readers to monoblogue. With the exception of the weeks immediately after I was on vacation and also last week after the primary election, monoblogue readership has established new all-time highs week after week since about the first of June. According to my much stricter Site Meter, I had close to 800 readers in the week before the primary, and my server’s more generous hit counter has already established an all-time high this month with another 9 days left (when my last reading was taken), a hit rate that’s on pace to blow by the 40,000 mark (once only dreamed about during my “ttown’s right-wing conspiracy” days on Blogspot) and challenge the 50,000 hit mark for the first time. Obviously I’ve had some success with my forum coverage and also with my expanded links list and Election Calendar (which were part of my second initiative).

On the other hand, I don’t think the Ten Questions (my third initiative) worked out like I’d hoped, particularly on the U.S. Senate side. There’s many an expert who advises candidates not to answer open questions like those I presented; unfortunately these so-called experts think that 30 second commercials are the basis for good campaigning. I think what I’m going to do for the U.S. Senate race now is use the candidate’s own websites to answer these issue-related questions as best I can, although with Kevin Zeese I can supplement his own answers. Fortunately, that’s not going to be too time-consuming as we have just three candidates. If Michael Steele can’t even send his answers to the Baltimore Sun, he’s not going to mess with a website that has just a few hundred readers (for now.) So my thought is that the Ten Questions for candidates of that level was a good try, but likely not useful in statewide elections. I think I’ll resubmit these (with one change since early voting was overturned) to the surviving (and opposed) General Assembly candidates to either change any answers they feel like changing or answering them anew. Ten Questions seemed to work better for local-level races.

The final initiative was devoting some time and coverage to my own campaign. Unlike a website that’s specifically to boost electoral prospects, monoblogue started well before I decided to throw my hat into the ring and (good Lord willing) will continue far into the future. As I’ve stated, I’ve done local newsletters before to keep people in my precinct informed about Central Committee happenings and will do more of that after I’m sworn in. Fortunately monoblogue can cover all of Wicomico County, no more hand delivery! I found out on Thursday night that I’ll officially be sworn in during the fall Maryland Republican Party convention in Annapolis on December 2nd.

Looking back at what I did, I have to say that not finishing last was a pretty good achievement, considering that all of my opponents were a) older and b) have lived and worked in Wicomico County for a period of time, whereas I moved here in October 2004. I started with probably zero name recognition unless you recalled a Letter to the Editor I wrote at one time or another to the Daily Times or knew me from monoblogue. And as stated, my website only covers a few hundred readers, some of whom are either Democrat, independent, or live outside the county. Having no idea what kind of response I’d get, I’m very grateful to the 3,363 voters who had enough confidence in me and my ideas to vote for me. And all the votes counted – if just three fewer people voted for me I would’ve been the cow’s tail, it was that close!

But my goal for the next time is to get about 5,000 votes in the same race, in part because people saw the job I did in helping the Republican Party improve itself here in Wicomico County, and also because there’s more Republicans! Actually, I’d like to improve upon the number of ballots I was voted on to about 65-70%. John Bartkovich finished first because he was on 68.7% of the ballots whereas Ed Heath and I (the tail-enders) finished right about 53%.

However, this is now all past history. My main focus in the next 6 1/2 weeks is the biggest races – governor, U.S. Senator, General Assembly Districts 37 and 38, and Wicomico County Executive. (The County Executive race, needless to say, has been turned on its ear by events over the last 10 days.) Those are ones I’m going to try to cover and analyze in-depth as far as where each candidate stands on main issues involving the Eastern Shore. Because the Sheriff and County Council contests had a lot more play during the primary due to the sheer number of candidates, I can focus a little less on those as many of their positions are already known and previously covered.

I’m also going to try and “fill in the blanks” as far as websites go. I believe I have all of the Maryland statewide candidates linked now. There’s a few left in the General Assembly that I have to get (Jeannie Haddaway, Lowell Stoltzfus if he does one, and possibly one in Senate District 37) but most of my focus for link collection would be on local Wicomico County races as I’m sure some of the local folks will get online too. I also have expanded my Delaware offferings some in the last few days as well. Those are of more limited scope so using those links for further self-guided research will likely have to suffice. Of course, I’ll also check through things as I do the weekly Election Calendar.

Since events during election time can occur without a lot of notice (not to mention I’ll be moving my household and volunteering for headquarters and various campaigns), I’m probably not going to set any sort of schedule in stone for race analysis and such like I did with the Ten Questions, which were generally on set days of the week. The only constant I plan on keeping is Sunday for the Election Calendar and that may yet become flexible, particularly around mid-October when I shift locales.

But I think this is going to be an exciting month and a half as both Maryland and (to a lesser extent) Delaware select their respective representative governments. Of course, after that we’ll have a short holiday lull but then the races in the city of Salisbury will ratchet up after the first of the year and then the prologue to the 2008 Presidential campaign starts up next summer with early straw polls. (That will be Maryland’s only statewide race in 2008 as both of our U.S. Senators will be midterm.)

Needless to say I’m looking forward to serving the Wicomico County Republican Party on their Central Committee and the voting public on monoblogue.

* The way WordPress works, my pages also act as posts and are assigned numbers, plus along the way I’ve deleted a couple of test posts. So this isn’t actually the exact 250th post but its sequential number is 250.

Election Calendar updates – 9/20

Three things that just crossed my wire:

WICO’s Bill Reddish gave me (thanks as always) his upcoming political lineup for the next week or so:

September 21: House of Delegates District 38B hopeful Michael James.
September 22: Wicomico County Democratic Party chair Phil Tilghman.

September 25: City of Salisbury District 2 Councilwoman Debbie Campbell.
September 26: District 38 State Senator J. Lowell Stoltzfus.
September 27: Wicomico County Sheriff candidate Kirk Daugherty.

September 29: Wicomico County Council District 4 aspirant Bryan Brushmiller.

At the moment, there’s no one scheduled for Thursday the 28th, hopefully I’ll know by Sunday.

However, I did come across a happening on September 28th for our north of the border friends as incumbent State Treasurer (and also monoblogue-linked blogger) Jack Markell formally begins his re-election campaign in Georgetown at the Old Sussex County Courthouse at 8:30 a.m. (his first stop.)

I also found out via my normal little postcard I get from the WCRC that our speakers for Monday will be the “dynamic duo” of at-large County Council candidates M.J. Caldwell and John Cannon.

So that’s an update for today, and I’ll integrate these into next week’s Election Calendar.

Party time (minor version)

With this being the quadrennial election season in Maryland, most people’s attention turns to the races for the governor’s chair, control of each legislative body, and the two other statewide offices of Attorney General and Comptroller. What attracts much less fanfare is the effort for those parties who are considered to be minor parties to remain in good standing for another four years. At present, Maryland has four minor parties; the Constitution Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Populist Party. State election law (obviously set by the Democrats and Republicans) mandates that they have three possible routes to retain their status for the 2007-2010 election cycle:

* A statewide candidate needs to poll 1% or more of the vote in a Maryland general election, or;
* The party must have 1% or more of registered voters. If they have neither condition at the end of this election cycle, then;
* The party must petition its way back to status by submitting 10,000 valid signatures to the Board of Elections.

Judging by the history of these four parties, the prospects of continuing unabated through to the next election cycle are spotty at best – the Constitution Party in its various incarnations has been on and off the party rolls five times in ten years, and the Libertarians have lost status once in seven years. Only the Green Party has gone uninterrupted through an election cycle. (The Populists are in their very first cycle.) In the 2002 general election, only the Greens and Libertarians fielded candidates for state offices according to the Board of Elections website. Green Party candidates were in six contests, with three being write-in candidates who got little support (less than 1/4% of the vote, including a Comptroller candidate.) In three races where they were on the ballot for various House of Delegates seats, the Greens got between 2 and 14% of the vote. Meanwhile, there were two Libertarians running, one for governor and one for Congress. The governor candidate finished short of the 1% required by polling 0.68% (11,546 votes) while the Congressional officeseeker did better with just over 2.5% of the tally.

So how are prospects for 2006? Certainly they are better for some parties than others. While each of the four parties has candidates running for various offices, the number varies greatly. The Constitution Party has just two officeseekers running, both for House of Delegates seats. Meanwhile, the Populist Party also has two people on the ballot, but one is running for governor and looking to at least eclipse the magic 1% threshold. The other Populist is running for the House of Delegates. As for the Libertarian slate, it has four on it, but only two in state races and one of those is a technically non-partisan judge race. The other is running for Ben Cardin’s former Congressional seat. Libertarians also are on the ballot in Dorchester and Howard County races.

By far, the most successful minor party as far as candidate recruiting is the Green Party, which has 20 on the ballots for various state races – governor, 3 for U.S. Congress, 1 for State Senate, a judicial candidate, and ten folks running for House of Delegates seats, including a full slate of three in House of Delegates District 43. Plus they have 3 running in local jurisdictions as Greens. This doesn’t include U.S. Senate hopeful Kevin Zeese, who’s been crossendorsed by three of the four minor parties (all but the Constitution Party.)

The item I ran across awhile back that piqued my interest for writing this post was a note I got from the Libertarians because I’m on their mailing list. In it, they were worried about once again losing their status as a party in Maryland as their petition drive was sputtering. So I asked representatives from three of the four parties how their petition drives were going. I didn’t get reaction from the Constitution Party because they have just revamped their website and I couldn’t find an e-mail address of their state chair.

Chris Driscoll of the Populist Party wasn’t worried about the petition yet, sounding fairly positive about meeting the 1 percent threshold in the gubernatorial election (Driscoll is the Populist Party candidate.) He stated that their Central Committee decided early on to devote full attention to their candidates, and only after the November election would they work on the petition drive if needed.

Also sounding quite positive about her party’s chances to stay for another cycle was Patsy Allen of the Green Party, who noted that their petition drive was “very close” to the 10,000 they needed as of last Sunday (before the primary) and now was seeking the extra 4,000 or so as padding in case some signatures were ruled invalid. Allen stated that she herself had collected another 170 on primary Tuesday and that many others were soliciting signatures on primary day as well. (I’m sure the Lamone administration at the Maryland Board of Elections goes through Green Party submittals with a fine-toothed comb.)

However, Bob Johnston of the Libertarians was more glum, speculating that the party was “less than halfway” to their 10,000 signature mark, even with petitions gathered on primary day. While the Libertarians nationally have been around for a long while (since the early 1970’s) they haven’t found a lot of success as members get pulled out from both the left and right – parts of their message have been co-opted by both the liberal and conservative fringes. In Maryland, their slice of the left wing pie is being cut into by both the Greens and Populists.

I also found out in my research that the Reform Party, once a viable party in Maryland, lost its status after the last cycle and hasn’t yet regained it (and likely won’t.) It might be that come the next election cycle in 2007, we may be down to four or even just three parties again in Maryland as the other parties will have to restart the long process to revive themselves.

In looking at the most recent voter registration totals, none of the parties come anywhere close to the 1% threshold. With 3,105,236 registered voters in Maryland as of August 31, a party would need to have 31,053 registered voters and the highest total of the four minor parties is the Green Party with 8,023. The Libertarians place second with 4,059, there’s 495 registered Constitution Party members and Populists number just 90. These totals are dwarfed by even the number of unaffiliated voters – they have 14% of the total with 433,286 voters.

This led me to an interesting request. Even though I’m a member of the Republican Party, I’d like to see more voices on the political scene because it adds more to the battle of ideas that politics is at its root.

If you are one of those unaffiliated voters and it’s because you don’t feel strongly enough in either major party to vote straight ticket, a good idea might be to join these minor parties just to pump up their numbers and keep them on the ballot. You can always switch if a party that suits you better comes along!

Those of you who inhabit the left side of the political spectrum have three choices at the moment as I’m sure the Populists, Greens, and Libertarians would welcome new members; meanwhile, those to the right could perhaps find a home as a Libertarian or probably be more suited to the Constitution Party’s point of view. If just 10% of the unaffiliated people decided to join one “minor” party, that group would be insured ballot access perpetually, or at least until the two main parties changed the rules of the game. And you’d most likely still get to blow off primary elections like you do now.

In turn, getting these “minor” parties more permanent access could encourage more to form, like NYC blogger (“Suitably Flip“, a blog I link to) Philip Pidot’s Growth Party or another bellweather New York state party, the Conservative Party. And I believe putting more choices before voters would do more to increase turnout than all the early voting in the world. It doesn’t matter how many days you can vote if the choice is between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. In the Wicomico County GOP primary, turnout was pretty high because of a four-person race for Sheriff and a spirited three-way race for County Executive, as well as a five-person House of Delegates scrum in parts of the county. Meanwhile, Democrats had less to choose from and their lower turnout reflected this.

This is a time where I’m certainly placing principles above party. While strengthening the Green, Populist, and Libertarian parties would be a threat to the entrenched Democrats, a stronger Constitution Party would pull voters out of the Republican column. But my feeling is that the larger pool of interest would make up for the diminished market share of both Republicans and Democrats. Above all, I want people to be satisfied that they have a say in their affairs, and, with just two choices given by the major parties, a large segment of the population isn’t satisfied so they stay home on Election Day. Place more people inside the political process as candidates and you’ll find a more satisfied electorate.

Election Calendar updates

Two items of note:

Number one, U.S. Congressional candidate Jim Corwin will be on Bill Reddish’s show Wednesday morning in the normal political slot, 7:40 to 8:00 a.m.

Secondly, I got a note from Jim Gillespie on my post that the September 19th candidate forum (tomorrow) has been scrubbed. Well, no wonder I hadn’t heard about it.

Because I “buried” the Election Calendar post, I thought it prudent to make this its own post; but the remainder of items can be found two posts hence.

Election Calendar – September 18 thru October 1

It’s baaaaaaack. As promised, here is the Election Calendar for the remainder of September as I have it from various sources. I also have decided to bring back Delaware events because there’s a couple statewide candidates who will have events in Sussex County for those of you “north of the border.” I know I get the occasional reader from there, so I’ll add that in for this week at least (all the events are in the next few days.)

I’m also going to check my “alternate” e-mail I use for campaign e-mail lists to see who I need to get stuff from, I get quite a bit but some campaigns I’ve noticed as absent. And don’t be surprised if I put in some breaking news from any of Maryland’s six political parties, I’ve actually contacted three of the four so-called minor parties regarding an upcoming post.

Once again, if you’re a new reader (and I’ve gotten plenty in the last few weeks) I post events which happen on the lower Eastern Shore (I define that as Cambridge south) and am resuming checking out Sussex County in Delaware for at least their statewide candidates. I do check the Virginia statewide stuff as well just in case one of their Congressional or Senate candidates finds themselves in Accomack County. Hasn’t happened yet but you never know.

So here’s the calendar. In this revised rendition I’m going to go in chronological order regardless of county, that makes more sense to me. When I begin to hear once again from Bill Reddish about political guests such as I did pre-primary, I’ll place those at the bottom.

Monday, September 18: Delaware U.S. Senate candidate Jan Ting will speak at the Fenwick Island Lions Club at 12 noon. He’s also scheduled a speaking engagement the next day for the Rotary Club at Sussex Pines Country Club.

Tuesday, September 19: On his calendar, Wicomico County Clerk of the Courts candidate James Gillespie has a candidate forum, but I’m not aware of the time or place. If he’s slated to be there (wherever it is) I’m sure many more will be there too!

Wednesday, September 20: District 38B Delegate Jim Mathias is hosting coffee from 7:30 to 10 a.m. at Layton’s Family Restaurant, 16th and Coastal Highway in Ocean City.

I also believe that the Wicomico County Democratic Club has their meeting that evening because I’m under the impression that they meet the third Wednesday of the month. I plug the Republican Club because I’m a member but people can hear the other side of things as well, right?

Thursday, September 21: Jim Mathias also has on his calendar the Ocean City Sunfest. I’m sure others will be there as well. This goes through Sunday the 24th.

Also during that day, Delaware State Treasurer Jack Markell will be making an appearance at Grotto Pizza in Seaford from 3 to 3:45 p.m. to share pizza and pop with interested parties. Grotto is right along Route 13 in Seaford – if you’re coming from Salisbury and you go by the Wal-Mart you went too far.

And that night, James Gillespie has an appearance scheduled at the Urban Salisbury Crab Feast. According to the Urban Salisbury website, that starts at 5:00 p.m. at City Bistro.

Friday, September 22: No events scheduled. I get another year older.

Saturday, September 23: Two events I plan on attending on this day:

The J. Lowell Stoltzfus “Picnic in the Park” will not be in the park, but in the Midway Room of the Wicomico Civic Center. This runs from 1 to 4 p.m. and cost is $30. The honored special guest is Maryland U.S. Senate candidate, Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele. I’m sure the local GOP contingent will be well-represented.

Then from 3 to 7 p.m. the “Your Vote, Your Voice” event will be held at Salisbury University. Two candidates who have this on their calendars are the aforementioned James Gillespie and also Maryland U.S. Senate hopeful Kevin Zeese, the Independent Unity candidate(Green/Populist/Libertarian). A political event in Red Square? Hmmmmm. Besides that, I want to know: what local bands will be there?

Sunday, September 24: No events scheduled.

Monday, September 25: As is customary, the Wicomico County Republican Club will have its monthly meeting at the Chamber of Commerce Building, 144 E. Main Street in Salisbury. Social time at 7 p.m., meeting begins at 7:30. I’m not sure who the speaker is yet this month, I’ll likely know by next week if not before.

Tuesday, September 26: Another event I’ve been invited to and will likely attend, this is the Public Awareness Forum at the Holly Center. This continental breakfast gets underway at 8:00 a.m. and runs through 9:00. It will be held in the gymnasium of the Massey Activities Building, 926 Snow Hill Road in Salisbury. I bring this up not for me, but for the fact both District 38B hopeful Bonnie Luna and Clerk of the Courts candidate James Gillespie have this event on their dockets as well.

Wednesday, September 27 through Saturday, September 30: No events scheduled.

Sunday, October 1: Delegate Jim Mathias hosts a “Meet the Candidate” get-together from 1 to 3 p.m. and again from 4 to 6 p.m. at Occasionally Yours, 10514 Racetrack Road, Berlin.

This is what I have for now. I’m sure over the week I’ll get more. Kudos to the candidates as more and more put their calendars on their websites!

WCRC Crab Feast 2006

As one would expect since I’m a member of the Wicomico County Republican Club, I was at their Crab Feast yesterday. And also as one would expect since I do monoblogue, I took some pictures. First of all, it was pretty obvious for those driving along Schumaker Drive who was renting the pavilion.

Political signs in riotous color and arrangement.

The weather didn’t start out too well, when I arrived it was pouring down rain – this seems to be usual for an outdoor GOP event. But about an hour into the picnic the skies brightened and by the end it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon. The rain didn’t stop the crowd from showing up, that’s for sure.

Tents full of lovers of both crabs and politics.

And as always at these events, we had the silent auction tables going. I put in a couple bids for the guitar pictured at left. Otherwise, the timing of this was bad for me – I’m trying to make myself have LESS stuff to move not more!! The auction did reasonably well; I didn’t tally it up as they went but the club made several hundred dollars from it. I think the largest dollar item (a years’ membership at the midshore Y) went for $175.

The silent auction tables with their wares.

After enough time had passed for most of the patrons to partake of some of Maryland’s finest homecaught fare, party chair Dr. John Bartkovich introduced many of the politicians in attendance. Now they each were supposed to take 30 seconds, I don’t think one of them actually took that little time. But it was over in about 20 minutes or so.

District 38B candidate Bonnie Luna speaks to the gathering.

District 38B Delegate candidates Bonnie Luna and Michael James (pictured speaking above and below) were among those. In the above picture from left to right is incoming Central Committee member Dave Parker, District 38 State Senator J. Lowell Stoltzfus, District 37 State Senator Rich Colburn (in the pink shirt, obscured by Sen. Stoltzfus), James, House of Delegates District 38A Delegate Page Elmore, Dr. Bartkovich, Mary Beth Carozzo (representing Governor Ehrlich’s office), Wicomico County District 3 Councilwoman Gail Bartkovich (in the background), and Luna.

Michael James talked briefly as well, but looked relieved to finish.

We also heard from the local Wicomico County hopefuls, including two of our highest priority ones (from left), James Gillespie (Clerk of the Courts) and Mike Lewis (Sheriff).

Two of the Wicomico GOP's brightest hopes for November.

We didn’t hear from Ron Alessi, though, and I know he was present for at least some amount of time because he and I exchanged greetings. In fact, I really didn’t see too many of the unsuccessful candidates, either. But I did get to talk to most of the remaining ones, including introducing myself to District 5 hopeful Joe Holloway, who I hadn’t met previously. Soon I’ll be a resident of his district.

Among those making remarks that I didn’t photograph was Orphans Court Judge aspirant George Ossman, who had an interesting companion. He made a plug for one of his Democrat opponents, Melissa Pollitt Bright, who does deserve credit for being bipartisan and hanging out with the Republicans for an afternoon. (Who knows, maybe she’ll come over to the dark side after all is said and done like Hunter Nelms did.) The only problem I have with that theory is because the D’s hold the registration advantage, loyal D’s will vote for all three of theirs and we don’t need to add to one’s total. But vote as you wish, I’m just making an observation and we do appreciate Judge Pollitt Bright for supporting our club yesterday.

I have one other item that definitely deserves comment. I’m not a Maryland native so eating crab doesn’t come to me second nature, nor do I like seafood all that much anyhow. But I do know corn, and I really wish I’d been paying attention when they thanked some of the farms who supplied the corn and tomatoes (for the burgers that were also on the menu) because whoever brought the corn on the cob brought some seriously Grade A stuff like I haven’t had in many moons. THAT was awesome sweet corn, a little butter and pepper and man was that good. Seeing it in the “cooler” that was serving as a warmer make me think that all we needed was some good kielbasa, potatoes, and cabbage, and voila! hobo dinner. (That’s the Polish roots in me.)

Next week I’ll be at a similar event, the Stoltzfus “picnic” (can an indoor event be a picnic?) at the Civic Center. (We may as well use it for something, Lord knows we can’t get good concerts there!) Our honored guest that afternoon will be Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. I’ll have my camera along again although I won’t vouch for how well indoor pictures come out. It reminds me that tonight will be the return of my Election Calendar, so I’ll peruse the websites for nuggets and see whose mailing lists I need to get on to be notified of events upcoming on the lower Eastern Shore.

Time for housecleaning

With the primary now history, I’m going to considerably shorten the sidebar of links, particularly the campaign blog links and the Maryland U.S. Senate race. So most of the campaign websites will fade away sooner or later as the campaign that spawned them has become defunct. Some of the websites had a sort of “goodbye” notice on them already. Here’s a sampling.

Thomas Hampton, U.S. Senate: My sincere thanks to anyone who voted for me, and moreover, to anyone who voted, period.

*****

Stuart Simms, Maryland Attorney General: Thank you! Thank you!

We did the best we could with the time and resources available to us.

Congratulations to Doug Gansler and the other successful candidates.

Now on to a Democratic victory in November! Let’s take back our state and nation.

*****

William Donald Schaefer, Maryland Comptroller:

To the residents of Maryland:

I want to thank those who worked so hard for me in this campaign and throughout the 50 years I’ve been fortunate to serve the people of Maryland in public office.

I especially want to highlight and compliment the excellent staff of the Comptroller’s office who are the smartest and most dedicated workers in Maryland government. I am deeply honored to have served along side them these eight years.

Although I will not continue as Comptroller next year, I hope a tradition of serving people will continue. I would consider that my best legacy.

I also want to congratulate the nominee Peter Franchot who ran a good race, and I wish him luck. If he wins the general election, he will inherit an excellent agency and I’m sure he will maintain it as such.

No matter what the coming years hold for me, I will fondly remember my years in public life. There is nothing like public service. I have been asked many times what my proudest accomplishment has been. My answer is: everything was important. Everywhere I go around the state, I see something that I can be proud of, whether a revitalized neighborhood or a tourist attraction.

I’ve also been asked, how do I want to be remembered? Two words: “He cared.”

*****

Doris Schonbrunner, Wicomico County Sheriff: Major Doris Schonbrunner would like to extend sincere thanks to the citizens of Wicomico County who voted for her and supported her candidacy during this 2006 election. Your confidence and your support are greatly appreciated.

(You’re welcome.)

*****

Larry Dodd, Wicomico County Council District 5: I would like to thank the citizens of Wicomico County for giving me the opportunity to serve them for the last four years. It has been an honor to represent the citizens of Wicomico County as a member of the Wicomico County Council. Best wishes go out to the Candidates in the General Election on November 7, 2006.

*****

So this afternoon I’ll be working on the site and deleting a good number of links. I’m also deleting one winner, since Rudy Cane is already assured of reelection I’ll take that one off to squeeze things that much closer together. You should be able to find his e-mail and general info on the Maryland General Assembly website.

Well, now I can work on a few other things that have been sort of backing up. I’ve found a couple items outside the realm of electoral politics that I think are worth commenting on so I will over the next few days.

Primary election wrapup

Just going through all the results, particularly in races I endorsed. I’ll start with the state level and work my way down. (There’s an update at the bottom.)

The governor’s race was set back on July 3rd. No, that wasn’t the day Doug Duncan dropped out, it was the day the fourth and final duo of governor and lieutenant governor filed. Obviously Ehrlich/Cox and O’Malley/Brown made it through their primaries. But little known is that we have two other hopefuls in the race, Ed Boyd with James Joseph Madigan for the Green Party, and Christopher A. Driscoll with Ed Rothstein of the Populist Party. I would expect if anything they take a few far-left votes out of the O’Malley column, and that might pick up one to two points for Ehrlich.

It’s now become possible that the entire statewide political landscape could be different come January, as the venerable incumbent William Donald Schaefer was knocked out and Peter Franchot, who was way behind in the polls a few weeks ago, stormed to victory on the Democrat side. Franchot won the urban counties to get the victory, since Wicomico voters selected Owens with 45% of the vote and Schaefer had 36%. He’ll face Republican Anne McCarthy in November, McCarthy’s 43% statewide was a little below her 50% performance here.

(By the way, I really liked Schaefer’s press conference. Watch out Ocean City.)

Meanwhile, retiring Attorney General Joe Curran will be succeeded by either Democrat Doug Gansler or unopposed Republican Scott Rolle. Gansler won easily over Stuart Simms, who got a late start because he was Doug Duncan’s running mate. It’s too bad, Simms is a nice guy – I spoke to him briefly in Crisfield at the Tawes gathering.

The U.S. Senate race turned out to be pretty much a landslide for both winners. All of the pundits who were worried that the two dozen lesser candidates would doom Cardin and hand the race to Mfume looked pretty bad as Cardin still won by 4 points. The closest of the also-rans besides Mfume was Josh Rales, with 5% of the vote. The Democrats’ monoblogue-endorsed candidate, Dennis Rasmussen, was fourth with just under 2%. So much for “common-sense” moderatism. As it turned out, the candidates on the Democrat side who answered my Ten Questions combined scored a whopping 6.15% (but 11.77% here in Wicomico County – did I help them?), and while I thought the number of words in just one of Lih Young’s TQ answers was larger than her statewide vote total, I checked and she outpolled her most long-winded answer by 1,738 votes to 850 words. On the GOP side, the question was whether Michael Steele would crack 90% and he didn’t quite make it, only getting a shade under 87%. Republican answerers of the Senate version of Ten Questions managed only 4.99% of the vote (3.91% in Wicomico, so the Ten Questions REALLY didn’t help the Republicans) – then again the answerers on my side were either too moderate, barely literate, or way-out there wacko!

I did get the matchup I expected in the U.S. House District 1 race, although it was closer than I thought it would be. While I didn’t know much about Christopher Robinson, apparently some people did because he only lost by 10 points, 43% to 33%. 2004 candidate Kostas Alexakis was a distant third with 23%. But Robinson actually carried Wicomico County by 10 votes over Dr. Jim Corbin, who I endorsed. I look forward to debate regarding the merits of health care currency and the fusion surge between him and incumbent Wayne Gilchrest.

Now I can turn to the General Assembly. Despite the fact that monoblogue endorsed two District 37 Democrats, it didn’t help much as they were steamrollered by more established candidates. But I expected that. Actually, they both did a little better than I thought they might – I figured Ronald Warden would get just 10% (he got 24% – 26% in Wicomico County against Hilary Spence) and Charles Cephas Sr. I had pegged for about 25% (he finished with 30%, 21% in Wicomico – Rudy Cane’s home county.) So as expected it will be Spence against incumbent Rich Colburn in District 37 and Rudy Cane gets another 4 years in Annapolis representing District 37A. Now the District 37B race I had pretty close to what I expected, I figured about 45-40 Atkins over Quinn and it turned out 44-42. Both of the monoblogue endorsees will face the incumbents, who also did about what I expected and left Redgie Lancaster the rest. I figured he’d get 15%, he only got 9% (14% in Wicomico County.) But by 75 votes, my order was reversed – I thought Addie Eckardt would poll higher than Jeannie Haddaway. I could still be correct though after absentees are counted. That’s the lone instance where I got my endorsed candidates on both sides (Atkins and Quinn against Haddaway and Eckardt).

In District 38, I only had to endorse two races, since Senator J. Lowell Stoltzfus was unopposed and so were Delegates Page Elmore, Jim Mathias, and Norm Conway. I was happy to see District 38A voters decided the gameplaying by the Somerset and Wicomico Democratic parties wasn’t going to fly and advanced Patrick Armstrong by a easy 18 point margin. And as I stated in my endorsement, any District 38B Republican was more than qualified enough to take over in Annapolis, the voters selected Michael James and Bonnie Luna. I got half a loaf there, I thought Jack Lord (who monoblogue endorsed with James) was better because of his common-sense law enforcement and farming background. But Luna will also be fine to take the place of one half of the Conway/Mathias duo along with Michael James.

Out of the candidates who answered my MGA Ten Questions, 5 of 8 advanced to the general election. I lost Sonny Bloxom and Jack Lord from District 38B, and the death of Tony Bruce ended his District 38A campaign. But Rich Colburn, Jim Adkins, Addie Eckardt, Patrick Armstrong, and Michael James play on.

Time to look at Wicomico County races. My endorsed candidates for County Executive both finished last in their fields. Bob Culver managed only 23% on the Republican side and the underfunded Tom Taylor the same 23% on the Democrat side.

Regarding Alessi vs. Corbin, I remarked at Monday night’s Central Committee meeting that I thought the Alessi campaign was going to be a race akin to a NASCAR driver who runs out of gas on the backstretch of the last lap – could he hold off the competition and coast to victory or would he be nipped at the line? The events of the last couple weeks or so all but crippled the Alessi campaign. However, I’m of the opinion that the 40 vote margin will hold up.

There are about 650 outstanding ballots total. But remember, of those ballots not all are GOP voters. My guess is that between 350 and 400 of these ballots are Democrats – absentee ballots are skewed toward the older population and that’s the “daddy” population of the people who say “I’m a Democrat because my daddy was a Democrat.” So out of a probable best case scenario of 300 votes left, Corbin has to get close to 50% of the votes to overcome Alessi because a percentage also goes to Culver – it would have to go something like 140-100-60 just to even the numbers out, then we’d have to sweat out a recount. And the fewer GOP votes left, the better Corbin has to do.

I have to congratulate Mike Lewis. I STILL think Major Doris would be the better Sheriff, but the voters spoke and it was shocking how well he did. I figured maybe mid 40’s but 60% blows my mind. I honestly think Lewis getting radio ads at the end pushed 10-15% his way and away from Doris. And the whuppin’ Kirk Daugherty laid on the Democrat field surprised me as well. So monoblogue went 0 for 2 on Sheriff endorsements. I did them awhile back, but I was in a hurry to put the last post on and forgot to add those to it. D’oh!

Overall for County Council monoblogue didn’t do so good on endorsements. The only district one I got was Sheree Sample-Hughes in District 1, her hard work paid off to the tune of about 70% of the vote. Neil Bayne was blown out in District 4 and Larry Dodd lost big in District 5. monoblogue did better on the at-large but that wasn’t too difficult, the only misstep was underestimating Brenda Hughey-Jones and way overestimating Carl Crumbacker. Then again, had I heard from Hughey-Jones at the NAACP forum that she missed it may have changed my mind.

When I add up the totals on monoblogue endorsements, I still have 12 of 23 candidates alive. Obviously I’m in favor of the Republicans in the general election so it was just a matter of trying to pick who I felt the best Democrats were as far as political leanings or unique and debatable ideas (or just avoiding chicanery.)

There’s one more important race left, and that’s how I fared in my Central Committee race. I’d like to say “thanks a million” to everyone who voted for me, which I suppose means they all get thanks roughly 300 times each. I have 3,200 votes at the moment and sit in 6th place of 7, but I’d have to believe that I’ll pick up another 100 or so from the absentees + provisionals. I’m not sure that’s going to keep me out of the basement though – Ed Heath is only 4 votes behind me and I believe a fair number of provisionals will come from his side of the county.

John Bartkovich has the most Central Committee votes with 4,142 – that means so far 69% of Republicans voted for him to remain on Central Committee and 31% either don’t like him or didn’t care to vote for him. (By the same measure I’m at 53.28% of ballots, but remember I started with near zero name recognition aside from 100 or so daily monoblogue readers and I’ve lived in this area less than 2 years.) The order was pretty much what I expected though, and I’m not that far out of fourth (140 behind Dave Goslee, Sr.) So I guess I’ll take this as something to build on for the next election. I am interested to find out once the results are all tallied up how I did in the two precincts I walked, 5003 and 5004. Aside from small portions of Precincts 5002 and 8002, that’s pretty much where I campaigned.

Now we start thinking about November, and I’ll continue to contribute to the Central Committee discussions as an outsider (I believe my term doesn’t begin until January.) But I’ll be out helping when and where I can for those who I support the most. It’s time to kick some Democrat ass. Oh yeah, also time over the weekend to drop a LOT of sidebar links!

Editor’s note: with the first batch of absentee ballots today I’m now just 1 vote ahead of Ed Heath – as I expected I didn’t do as well with absentees. Now I have 3283 votes, which means I got only 48.2% of the possible 172 absentee votes. Oh well, I guess someone has to be the cow’s tail and it’s likely going to be me. At least there’s still one close “race” since, as I expected, Ron Alessi picked up ground (23 votes) on B.J. Corbin so he’s all but official now.

Summary of monoblogue endorsements

Here are the endorsements for local and state races that have appeared on monoblogue.

U. S. Senate: Democrat Dennis Rasmussen and Republican Michael Steele are my choices to square off with the Green Party’s Kevin Zeese, who’s already on the November ballot.

U.S. House District 1: In my opinion, incumbent Republican Rep. Wayne Gilchrest should vie for reelection against Democrat Dr. Jim Corwin.

General Assembly:

Senate District 37: It’s only because he’s not a sure vote with the liberals in Annapolis, but Ronald Warden Sr. should advance to face incumbent Republican Sen. Rich Colburn.

House of Delegates District 37A: In a Democrat-only battle for the seat, I feel there should be new blood in Annapolis, thus Charles Cephas Sr. gets my nod.

House of Delegates District 37B: This four-person ballot would be best if it pitted James Adkins and Tim Quinn as Democrats against incumbent GOP Delegates Addie Eckardt and Jeannie Haddaway, although Republicans have a third solid ballot choice in Redgie Lancaster.

Senate District 38: Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus has no primary or general election opponent.

House of Delegates District 38A: Democrat chicanery can be prevented by voting for Patrick Armstrong to square off with Del. Page Elmore come November.

House of Delegates District 38B: Hopefully current Democrat Delegates Norm Conway and Jim Mathias will have their Annapolis careers ended by two of these five great GOP candidates (Sonny Bloxom, Michael James, Jack Lord, Bonnie Luna, and Bill McDermott.) My picks from that group would be Jack Lord and Michael James.

County Executive: My picks for the final contest would be Democrat Tom Taylor vs. Republican Bob Culver.

County Council at-large: In my view, the best final four would be Democrats Carl Crumbacker Sr. and Bill McCain against Republicans M.J. Caldwell and John Cannon.

County Council districts: November matchups should end up like this:

District 1: Sheree Sample-Hughes would be unopposed.
District 2: Stevie Prettyman, the incumbent, is set for another term.
District 3: Incumbent Republican Gail Bartkovich is up against Democrat Michael Pretl.
District 4: GOP candidate Bryan Brushmiller will hopefully compete for the seat against Democrat Neil Bayne.
District 5: Incumbent GOP councilman Larry Dodd is my pick to survive the primary and face Democrat Ed Werkheiser.