On the heels of yesterday’s great results for Republican observers in Maryland – Bob Ehrlich overtook Martin O’Malley in polling numbers for the first time in a major survey – reality crashed back in when Rasmussen released a poll giving incumbent Senator Barbara Mikulski a 58% to 33% lead over their presumed leading GOP contender, Eric Wargotz.
This margin suggests, at least for the time being, that Mikulski will enjoy a margin of victory not unlike her 65% to 34% crushing of State Senator E.J. Pipkin in 2004, her last election.
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:
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.
While it wasn’t a formal apology the campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Eric Wargotz released a statement this afternoon, parts of which are published below:
As per the suggestion of the Tarrance Group, The Wargotz for U.S. Senate Campaign has provided additional details subsequent to the initial press release announcing Dr. Wargotz’s lead in Baltimore County CD1.
Heeding the admonition of The Tarrance Group, a national polling firm, Eric Wargotz’s campaign has removed a “misleading” poll citation from its website.
Wargotz’s Senatorial campaign trumpeted the data in a Wednesday press release claiming “Wargotz leads Mikulski by 3% in recent poll.” While the data was indeed correct, Tarrance warned that as a basis for a realistic snapshot of the county’s electorate the poll couldn’t be trusted because of its small sample size of 41 people and the fact it only encompassed the portion of Baltimore County lying within the First Congressional District.
A controversy over a statement Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Wargotz made to the Baltimore Jewish Times last October has grabbed some notice in a summer where voters are focused on the race for governor.
The Jewish Times remarks got the attention of fellow Examiner Scott Strzelczyk, who hammered Wargotz’s announced stance on immigration as “misleading” Republican voters. In his post Strzelczyk quoted Wargotz as telling the BJT reporter, “I was very disappointed that President Obama stated that he wouldn’t pay health care for illegal immigrants.”
While some GOP aspirants in the First District Congressional and U.S. Senate races continue to trust old media with some of their advertising, most key contenders are still focusing on free media.
Eric Wargotz is back on the radio with the fourth in his series of 60-second spots, this entitled, “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.” In the commercial, he notes, “I know first hand the detrimental affect (sic) that over regulation and an oppressive tax bourdon (sic) have on job creation,” based on his experience in private medical practice.
Oh yeah, this one should be good. I’m liking the way this is shaping up already.
I’ll begin with a leftover from last weekend. You know how I celebrated Memorial Day weekend, but my blogging friend Bob McCarty found one man’s ultimate tribute to the veterans in his family and across the nation – a restored 1971 Mustang.
I found this fascinating as well. You know, we’ve all been transfixed by the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but, as former Virginia Governor George Allen explains, we have other energy resources which are being ignored.
But it’s government regulation which keeps us from accessing our resources, and the unpredictability of Washington is scaring some investors. Businessman Steve Wynn was on CNBC recently making his case.
So he’s going to reallocate his operations because China – a nominally Communist nation – is more predictable and friendly to business than our nation. Shameful.
Then again, in this video from CEI we see government run amok. While they bill the video as humorous, is this really all that far-fetched?
The cold hard reality of our economic future is detailed in this short piece.
Yes, we are basically making money out of thin air, tangling ourselves hopelessly in a web of debt.
I referred to this video earlier today in an Examiner piece, but financial crunches are affecting government all the way down to the local level. While I find there’s a little too much grandstanding in this example, the problem is real.
Maybe we all should just say screw it and rock. Ballyhoo! is an Aberdeen-based band soon to embark on another national tour of clubs and the occasional opening slot for other artists. They’re already popular on the college circuit as this video from a University of Delaware stop shows (some language NSFW).
A nice, summery groove. Can’t be dead serious all the time, can we? Until next time, enjoy the weekend.
With the third in a continuing series of radio spots (playing in selected markets, I’m told WQMR-FM out of Ocean City is carrying the commercials,) U.S. Senate candidate Eric Wargotz looks at health care.
While the cutest line in the 60-second spot is, “Washington’s plan is about mandates and consequences, imposed by 16,000 new IRS agents. And the Internal Revenue Service is not known for having a compassionate bedside manner,” Wargotz stays with the fairly standard Republican and conservative prescriptions for change: medical savings accounts, the opening up of the insurance market by allowing sale of policies across state lines, policy portability and tort reform.
This is the first in an occasional series talking about the media usage of local and statewide candidates.
While I haven’t heard these spots on a local station yet, the Senate campaign of Eric Wargotz just released the second of a series of radio spots intended for talk radio stations around the state.
I’m just curious because I haven’t heard this yet locally.
Eric Wargotz, an elected member of the Queens Anne’s County Board of Commissioners and a candidate for US Senate from Maryland released the first of the campaign’s, “Eric on the Issues” radio ads, which will begin airing on talk radio stations around the state. Wargotz, a physician, is seeking the Republican nomination for the seat currently held by four term incumbent Senator, Barbara Mikulski.
In the spot titled, “Our Common Defense,” Wargotz takes issue with Washington ‘s handling of illegal immigration. “While illegal immigrants flood across our borders, Washington holds the door,” he says. To address the problem, he plans to, “crackdown on employers who hire illegals and attract them across the border like a magnet.”
Wargotz says our energy needs are being held hostage to terrorist nations, while, ” Washington sacrifices our liberty in the name of public safety.” He pledges to support policies which make use of our natural resources here at home to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Commissioner Wargotz concludes by saying that he, “will not coddle terrorists with civilian trials, while Washington wallows in political correctness and the policies of appeasement.”
The spot, which begins airing tomorrow, is the first in a series designed to highlight the cornerstones of the campaign. In the coming weeks, health care, the economy and the environment will also be addressed.
Well, this came to my e-mailbox a week ago and I haven’t heard the ad – granted I don’t spend my day listening to talk radio but I find this odd.
Speaking of talk radio, I’ll be returning to Melody Scalley’s ‘Politics on the Edge’ radio show tomorrow evening sometime between 6 and 9 p.m. It’s available locally on WESR-FM 103.1 or most weeks it’s streamed live.
You know, it’s really hard to be stuck indoors at a convention in a place with a view like this.
Yep, it was a little windy Friday afternoon when I shot that brief video. This was prior to the first of four seminars I attended as the event was billed as a training convention. Now, because of a scheduling conflict I had to miss the Executive Committee meeting but Kim and I did arrive in time to enjoy the hospitality of various candidate suites – in truth, the partying spilled onto the Princess Royale’s pool deck.
One Senate candidate made the most of his presence there, festooning the venue with signage. It began with this creative use of bumper stickers.
Several balconies had Wargotz’s signage, so it was a good thing Eric had a special one by his suite.
Governor Gary Johnson led the state of New Mexico from 1995-2003, winning an election as an outsider who was told he had little chance of winning (it was his first electoral contest.) Here’s Eric and Gary together – it’s one of two pictures I took (the other will likely be on his campaign site sometime soon.)
I’ll come back to Johnson later. In the meantime, it’s worth noting that fellow U.S. Senate hopeful Jim Rutledge also had a presence there, with a table near the registration desk.
Rutledge did come down on Saturday to meet and greet conventiongoers.
But if the MDGOP was anticipating a lot of revenue from table rental, they had to be sorely disappointed. Aside from Rutledge and the debut of Americans for Limited Government as a presence, not much was to be found on the tables.
This table on Friday night showed the undercurrent of competition.
As I mentioned earlier, part of the idea behind this convention was to conduct training for Central Committee members. I sat in on four seminars: voter vault training, new media, treasurer’s training, and a panel discussion led by Audrey Scott and featuring General Assembly members Delegate Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio and Senators David Brinkley, Nancy Jacobs, and Allan Kittleman. Of the four that was the most interesting, but I learned something new at each and I suppose that was the intent.
I think I’m going to treat the panel discussion as a separate post because a lot of interesting statements were uttered. So let’s skip to lunch and its two guest speakers.
Being introduced by GOP Chair Audrey Scott, who said “we need Bob back to make this a business-friendly state,” Ehrlich pretty much stuck to his stock speech. Most of us knew that “Maryland has been good to us” and “the last grudge match I had was in middle school.”
To Bob, “progress” in Martin O’Malley’s terms was a higher unemployment rate, 3,000 fewer businesses, increases in sales and business taxes, a so-called “living wage,” and gifts to Big Labor – all in all, a poor business climate is O’Malley’s legacy. “You don’t raise taxes on the producers,” said the former governor.
Annapolis is “never out of excuses,” continued Ehrlich, who also said that for us, jobs are “real” and not a “talking point” as they are for O’Malley. The “worst-kept secret” of a second O’Malley term would be the “monumental tax increase awaiting us.” It’s the “politics of getting over” – getting over the next year or the next election. His biggest disappointment was dealing with the schools in Baltimore (and then-Mayor O’Malley) – he accused the Democrats of not stepping up “because it was inconvenient” for them to. Never mind the kids sentenced to a below-grade education.
Addressing the TEA Party movement – a movement which “is serious” – there’s “no doubt” this “pro-opportunity” group wil help us.
While there’s little doubt that everyone in the room supports Ehrlich against O’Malley, I would’ve liked to hear from another man present – Brian Murphy.
We’re not supposed to endorse candidates pre-primary, but by all appearances the Maryland GOP has placed its lot for better or worse behind Bob Ehrlich. Yes, it can be argued that Murphy has little chance but at least he put his name on the line while someone was dithering about which race to run in – if he would run at all. I think we owed him the opportunity to speak, or else be neutral in the race and find a different keynote speaker.
The other speaker isn’t officially running for anything – at least not yet. While the list of current and former governors perhaps seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nomination is long, should Gary Johnson decide to do so we’ll have a pretty good idea of where he stands thanks to his Our America website alluded to above on Eric Wargotz’s sign.
Johnson related his experience as an entrepreneur and being told he “can’t come from outside politics to be elected” to statewide office. But he succeeded by putting “issues first and politics last.”
Perhaps his most noteworthy achievement in two terms as governor was vetoing 750 bills. He used the example of a bill to mandate pets in a store be exercised 2 hours a day, 3 days a week – who would police such a law?
That streak of libertarian thought extended to issues which were received well, like our lack of fiscal conservatism naturally leading to inflation, the “next shoe to drop” being state pension funds, and noting “I was hoping for free-market reform” on health care.
Other issues, though, may have fallen somewhat flat with those gathered, such as taking a “hard look” at the War on Drugs and “squandering our military might” on Iraq and Afghanistan. Regarding drug laws, Johnson noted that 1.8 million are arrested for drug crimes each year and 90% of that is prohibition-related rather than use-related. Instead, we should look at nations like Holland and Portugal and adopt “harm-reduction strategies.”
Gary was definitely thought-provoking, though, and may fit in as a second-tier participant should he begin the process of seeking the GOP’s highest nomination.
After lunch we got down to brass tacks and began the convention proper with Chair Audrey Scott presiding.
I must say, though, this may have been the absolute worst hall I’ve ever sat in for this sort of gathering.
I truly felt sorry for the guests who had to sit in the back, far away from the stage. You can’t tell by the picture but our group was fairly far back; we sat at the outside corner where the room narrowed.
With those surroundings, even Andy Harris didn’t fire up the troops as he could have in nicer circumstances.
Harris did wax eloquent about “taking America back” and stopping the “systematic dismantling of the American Dream” by the “gang in Washington.” To them, electing Scott Brown was “not (a) loud enough message” because they passed Obamacare anyway.
One big flaw with Obamacare Harris elaborated on was that hospitals were unwilling to make new investments because of the uncertainty. “It’s about time Congress admits its mistake (and) repeals health care,” Andy said. Another red meat comment: “when it comes to taxes, we should be the party of ‘hell no’!”
Checking in with the usual reports were our National Committeewoman, Joyce Lyons Terhes, who opined, “Michael Steele is doing an excellent job,” and that, “America is being dismantled before our very eyes.” National Committeeman Louis Pope added that our national fundraising was “right on target” and “the TEA Party is us.” The Republican National Committee is predicting a 30-60 seat House gain and 29 or 30 governorships after this election.
In her Chairman’s Report, Audrey Scott claimed that the “party was in disarray” when she took over but she’d improved both communication and finances during her brief tenure. The recent town hall meetings had gone well “beyond her wildest expectations” and she revealed that a paid Maryland Democratic Party staffer was following her during the latter stages of the tour, recording her every remark. (There was no Democratic staffer at her Wicomico stop. I’m bummed.)
An exciting upcoming event was the annual Red, White, and Blue Dinner, which will feature Mitt Romney as guest speaker.
Yet I have an editorial comment. What was the problem these big donors had with Jim Pelura? They could have opened up their wallets just as easily then and saved the party a lot of headache. Jim must not have been the fair-haired boy they wanted I guess.
Other than that, the business at hand went more or less routinely. Three of us from Wicomico County and another from Montgomery County objected to the adoption of the rules – in my case I suggested to Audrey beforehand that the “compromise” voting system be voted on separately (as they were last fall) and when they did not I objected. So there’s four people who “get it.”
But since the only resolution was to allow the Teenage Republicans a seat at the Executive Committee table the rules were no big deal. Most disappointing was the Voting Committee – who was charged with studying the issue and suggesting a solution – punting the voting system issue down the road. Their excuse this time was that an outgoing convention shouldn’t dictate rules for the next year. Well then, I guess we should rewrite the bylaws every four years then, shouldn’t we? (Actually we did a major revision this term – we just didn’t resolve the voting issue or properly adopt the worthwhile idea of regional chairs. That’s another issue the powers-that-be will find excuses to ignore for another term.)
Okay, my rant is over. For the first time that I recall, the Young Republicans didn’t have a hospitality suite on Friday night. Instead, they capitalized on current events for this idea to bridge the gap between the convention and dinner.
Speaking of dinner, I wasn’t sure about the speaker but political consultant David Winston turned out to be interesting to a numbers freak like myself.
Some of his findings:
President Bush couldn’t capitalize on the structural advantage the GOP has – we are a center-right country.
Obama’s big misstep was tackling health care and not jobs. Almost 3 times as many respondents to polling cited jobs as the key issue over health care.
Having a high disapproval rating hurts the introduction of issues – if “there’s that guy I don’t like” talking about an issue it turns voters off.
9.7% (the unemployment rate) is “the only number that matters” this cycle.
“The political center does not mean moderates.” On a sliding scale of liberal to conservative, independent voters are far closer to the GOP than they are President Obama.
Finally, our annual awards for 2009 were given out and we were pleasantly surprised!
Charles Carroll Award (Outstanding Republican Man) – Bob Ostrom
Belva Lockwood Award (Outstanding Republican Woman) – Patt Parker
Samuel Chase Award (Outstanding County) – Talbot County
William Paca Award (Outstanding Republican Youth) – Matt Teffeau
Grassroots Activist of the Year – Katie James
Aris Allen Award (Outstanding Voter Registration Effort) – Wicomico County
Obviously we won one award and as I recall we nominated Matt for his award for his work as head of the Salisbury University College Republicans. Here are the award winners with Chair Audrey Scott.
So I don’t have a completely bitter taste in my mouth for the event. It just looks like the work won’t stop on November 2nd – when I’m reelected to the Central Committee and after we beat the Democrats like a rented mule it will be time to push for much-needed reform for the MDGOP.
One idea of the relative strength of a political campaign is the amount of money it’s raised. As we stand six months out from the November elections, it’s no surprise that Maryland’s incumbent members of Congress (with one exception) lead the way in both money in both money raised and cash on hand.
In the lone statewide race, incumbent Senator Barbara Mikulski trails only Eighth District Congressman Chris Van Hollen in cash on hand with just over $2.7 million in the bank. Among her GOP challengers only Eric Wargotz has cracked the six-digit barrier in either cash on hand or total contributions to date, with Wargotz sitting on a small war chest of $118,321. So far Eric’s raised just under $200,000 for his effort, with his closest competition being Jim Rutledge and his total take of $74,709.
