Candidate Wednesday: August 25, 2010

The third edition of Candidate Wednesday features three Republican politicians who are trying to upset the apple cart in one way or another – two could possibly unseat longtime Democratic fixtures in the General Assembly while the third is banking on an insurgent-style, low-budget campaign using volunteers familiar with him through the local Tea Parties to carry him to a countywide Wicomico County Council seat.

We’ll begin with District 38B Delegate hopeful Mike McDermott, who’s likely to face longtime House of Delegates fixture Norm Conway in the general election.

Mike portrays himself as a fiscal conservative who’s dealt with the state bureaucracy as mayor of Pocomoke City. Things can be simplified, in his view, and the state can be more fair to its municipalities and counties by doing what they are supposed to with our dollars.

With McDermott having been in the race for so long, it’s a message I’m relatively familiar with but it may draw a response from Wicomico voters unfamiliar with his record. This segment was taped before the incident involving Mike’s position at the Worcester County Sheriff’s Department came to light, so there were no inquiries regarding that issue dogging McDermott’s campaign of late.

Dustin Mills is running to oust another longtime Delegate, Rudy Cane.

Dustin takes this opportunity to hammer on his opponent and his voting record, contending that he’s out of touch with his district. He also portrays himself as more farmer- and business-friendly by referring to specific bills that the incumbent didn’t vote on or voted incorrectly – an interesting tactic.

I believe this was actually the first interview taped, so the editing was a bit rough. However, Dustin does get his points across sufficiently.

The other candidate is a second-time aspirant who waged an unaffiliated campaign 12 years ago but decided to run as a Republican to save himself the hassle of gathering signatures for an independent bid. Chris Lewis may otherwise be best known for organizing the local Tea Parties last year.

And the Tea Party aspect permeates his “common sense” campaign. He shares the perception that many have where there’s plenty of waste in county spending and cutting that would help to solve the problem. Chris also eschews the static approach most in government take when considering cutting taxes and instead brings up the point that increased economic activity will take up the slack.

With time running out before early voting begins, there is just one more edition of Candidate Wednesday remaining and at this point in time there may only be one video yet unshown here. I’ll know more next week.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.