With the sheer frenzy of candidates filing earlier this week, my e-mail box was filled with other news. But instead of making a long series of posts, a good editor can pick out the relevant points in a paragraph or two and that’s what I’ll do here.
Needless to say, I receive frequent dispatches from a number of candidates. In the race for U.S. Senate, Eric Wargotz was proud he won a ballot to be the featured candidate for “Ten-Buck Fridays” as he explains:
Ten congressional candidates are nominated each week. Whoever receives the most votes is announced Friday. All of the web site and blog sponsors spread the word on the winner across the web to conservative sites and encourage all visitors to the sites to donate. In essence, they promote a $10 per donation money bomb for the winning candidate of that particular week.
I checked it out last evening and Eric won with 673 votes. I’m not sure how that will translate into actual donations, so I suppose this goes in the category of “every little bit helps.”
Oddly enough, Eric’s opponent Jim Rutledge used something Senator Scott Brown (who had assistance in getting elected from Wargotz) said in blasting incumbent Democrat Barb Mikulski:
Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts summed up the philosophical differences in Washington regarding how Congress should provide solutions. Sen. Brown said, “It’s the checking account versus the credit card.” Democrats like Barbara Mikulski want to spend and tax their way out of a recession while conservatives like Jim Rutledge believe we need to lower taxes, cut spending, and reduce the deficit. Rutledge said, “President Reagan showed us that America can grow and prosper by reducing the size of government and lowering taxes.”
One thing Rutledge forgot to add was that Reagan did it with a Congress controlled by Democrats, at least in the House. But Jim didn’t forget to let me know he was endorsed by Delegate Pat McDonough.
Endorsements are a funny thing – sometimes they are useful and sometimes they bite you in the behind. Given President Obama’s track record on campaigning for other candidates, perhaps Martin O’Malley may regret this statement from the One:
Since being elected Governor in 2006, Martin O’Malley has been a true champion for the people of Maryland.
He has restored a sense of fiscal responsibility and helped the state grow sustainably, expanding access to health care coverage and continuing to improve Maryland’s schools, while also restoring the Chesapeake Bay. His four-year freeze on college tuition brought the cost of higher education within reach of middle-class families.
Governor O’Malley has a lot more to contribute to your state — and I hope you will do your part to ensure he has four more years to continue his work.
Actually, if he’s re-elected Governor O’Malley will likely make sure We the People of the Free State are forced to contribute a lot more. It’s funny that President Obama left out the increased tax burden and job losses Maryland has endured under O’Malley’s watch. It seems the only sustainable growth we have is in the unemployment rate.
And as Dave Schwartz of Americans for Prosperity reminds us:
Earlier this week, Gov. Martin O’Malley announced a plan to spend $1 billion for school construction. Even though we still have a $389 million hole left in this year’s budget and a projected $8.3 billion long term structural deficit, O’Malley believes that more spending is the answer. This unhinged appetite for spending our dollars is exactly why Maryland is in trouble.
Yes, President Obama, Martin O’Malley has a lot to contribute – a lot of deficit spending and budgets balanced on the backs of the counties and working people of Maryland.
Tomorrow I pick on O’Malley’s television ad. It should be fun.
I was at a meeting where Rutledge was blasting Wargotz for helping Brown win in Mass in January (the rest of the candidates st home). Now Rutledge is quoting him? Go figure. I can’t trust this fellow.