HoCo Times Primary Endorsements

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We have endorsed candidates only in races where there is a contested primary election. We will offer endorsements in all the locally relevant contests before the General Election of Nov. 7.

House of Delegates District 9A: Republicans: Gail Bates, Warren Miller

Melissa Covolesky raised $1,025 in the most recent finance report (due tomorrow) and has $15,500 on hand.

Warren Miller last reported he had $16,900 on hand.

I feel vindicated

House of Delegates District 13: Democrats: Shane Pendergrass, Neil Quinter, Frank Turner

The fact that Guzzone didn’t get the nod is surprising to me.  Don’t count him out.  He has $150,000 on hand.  That is a lot of name recognition and he can spread that money around to other candidates to help get his message out.

County Council District 4: Democrat: Mary Kay Sigaty

Given that Guzzone and Ulman are supporting Josh Feldmark I am a little surprised.  Josh raised $5,000 in this period and has $6,700 in cash on hand.  I am sure some will come his way from Guy.

Mary Kay raised $1,400 and only has $1,000 on hand.  Perhaps the endorsement will help her campaign raise much needed cash.

For the Democratic Primary for County Executive Ken Ulman got the nod.

County Council District 5: Republican: Greg Fox

Finance reports are due tomorrow.  Wayne Livesay reports $10,000 ($1,500 more than he had on hand last time) on hand and raised $6,056.80.  Fox had $15,000 on hand from the last report.  His most recent report isn’t on line yet.  Charlie Feaga has $13,200 on hand and one must wonder what he will do with the balance.  Give some of it to Wayne I suspect.

I feel validated

Board of Education:

Frank Aquino, Larry Cohen, Ellen Flynn Giles, Patricia Gordon, Joshua Kaufman

I think it was a mistake not to endorse Roger Lerner.

I wish the article went into more specifics regarding he reasoning behind all the endorsements.  It touches on the issues they discussed, but not in great enough detail to satisfy my curiousity.

This has nothing to do with Howard County

I have been thinking about this for a while.  It concerns the format for this season’s television show Survivor and I don’t even watch the show – maybe a rerun here and there but I can’t tell you much about the show except for the regular format.

If you haven’t heard the contestants in this season’s show will be divided into categories based on race and ethnicity.  I understand that their will be a white team, a hispanic team, an asian team, and a black team.  Pretty audacious don’t you think?

Harper’s Choice Candidate Forum

I didn’t get to attend, but this article in the Sun describes the event.  Seems positive to Merdon given the venue and area might be considered hostile to a Republican candidate.  The article even mentions “hostile political turf”.  By all accounts Merdon aquitted himself well.

Merdon used Monday night’s packed house on hostile political turf to attack rival candidate Democrat Ken Ulman on Ulman’s own issue – the touchy matter of redeveloping Columbia’s Town Center.

County Council District 5 Question

Update August 29th:  Greg Fox has replied. 

August 25th update: Please see Mary Smith’s latest comment on this post. 

Update:  I hope no one is “offended” that I point out the Wayne Livesay and Greg Fox have not yet replied to the question posted below by Mary Smith.  Let me assure you that no “bias” is intended.

Mary Smith, a frequent reader and commentator on this blog, has posed a question for the GOP primary candidates in County Council District Five.

Jim Adams, Greg Fox, Wayne Livesay.

Mary asks:

House of Delegates 13

I wrote about this in “Howard County Races Shaping Up” and not much has changed.

District 13: Currently held by Shane E. Pendergrass (D), Neil F. Quinter (D), and Frank S. Turner (D). What is interesting about this race is that Quinter declared his intent to seek Ben Cardin’s congressional seat. Then he changed his mind. Problem is that Guy Guzzone (D) at the time declared he would join the Pendergrass/Turner slate thereby freezing out Quinter.

Republicans on this ticket will be Mary Beth Tung, Lorettta Gaffney, and Rick Bowers

This race will be the most competitive in Howard County. Although the district leans Democratic, the Democrats will have a difficult time keeping all three seats. Republican Mary Beth Tung, as a first time candidate in 2002, was the top vote getter in the Primary (out of 6), eventually losing the general election by only 2000 votes, less than 2%. (from Wikipedia)

The Baltimore Sun published an article by Larry Carson on the race on Sunday, August 27th.  Although it was mostly about the four main democrats in the race, the slate Guzzone-Pendergrass-Turner, and then Neil Quinter.  All vying for 11,000 votes on September 13th.

I thought this would be a bruising primary.  So far it hasn’t looked very bruising.  However, we still have time.

The most disagreement I have heard is what was quoted in the article.

Quinter, a strong supporter of tougher laws on sexual crimes, also stressed his support for full-day kindergarten and criticized plans for redevelopment of downtown Columbia as “very overblown. We don’t need a bunch of 20-story office buildings to make it look like Bethesda.”

His priorities if re-elected are enactment of a new assault weapons ban and tying minimum wage levels to inflation to make wage changes automatic.

 I agree with all of his positions except for the “sounds real good but does absoluting nothing assualt weapons ban“. 

 The Sun Lies made this very good comment on Quinter’s relentless attack on assualt weapons.

In 2006 the Maryland General Assembly made a point of passing every bill they wanted to last year and this year overriding 37 gubernatorial vetoes, but Delegate Quinter couldn’t pass his Assault Weapons Ban because the Governor stood in the way? (as Quinter claimed to the Baltimore Sun) How can The Sun honestly print this when Quinter has been unable to get his bill out of the Maryland House of Delegate, let alone passed by the Maryland Senate? For a Governor unable to stop 37 gubernatorial veto overrides we find it highly unlikely that he was suddenly able to quell one particular piece of legislation. Delegate Quinter should redirect his fiery anger towards the Maryland General Assembly leadership because clearly they had the abilities and powers to pass any legislation they wanted to.

His criticism of the redevelopment of Columbia as “very overblown” is a direct criticism of Guzzone and Ulman.  Overblown?  Well when Ken and Guy were up and arms about 1,600 new residential units and now we are talking about 5,500 ne units and Ken and Guy are fully supporting it then I think Quinter may have a point.  In the very least I think the planning has been poor.  They started backwards.

Nina Basu got some mention as well.  It was token at best considering the piece on District 9A and that attention lavished on Melissa Covolesky.  Turner call Basu a candidate for the future.  Unlike Melissa at least Nina has some experience in the community serving on the Long Reach village board.  I don’t think that has prepared her for Annapolis though.

I believe in a citizen legislature.  The concept of a citizen legislature is to avoid career politicians to let the citizens represent the citizens.  However, it was intended that prepared and experienced citizens participate.  Then come home and live among their peers.  Annapolis is not a training ground or a launch pad for a political career.  Some make think my position is stupid.  I respectfully disagree, and I respect their right to think what they want even though the language is less than charming.

Mr. Turner was quoted as fretting that his name being last on the ballot may cost him some votes.  Well then it would seem that by that logic Basu would get those votes.  Basu, Guzzone, and Pendergrass?

We may still see some fireworks here given the amount of money that could be spent.

Early Voting Ruling Upheld

The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld an Anne Arundel Judge’s earlier opinion that Maryland’s Early Voting law is unconstitutional.

The Baltimore Sun report

Washington Post report

The General Assembly is earning a black eye in the Court system.  Their over reaching antics are being proven for what they are – over reaching and Ehrlich bashing.

From a WBAL Radio report on June 20, 2006

In an April 5, 2006, editorial, the Post said, “Before they voted, Democratic lawmakers stripped the bill of provisions that would have permitted Republicans an equal role in deciding where to place the early-polling stations and that would have required that the station’s locations would be geographically central. The conference committee that wrote the bill was composed of six Democrats and zero Republicans.”

The newspaper warns, “With such arrogance and abuse the Democrats will only erode their majority in Maryland.”  It would be wonderful were that true, but I have my doubts.  The one-party monopoly in Maryland is so entrenched that it has been openly waging war against the interloper governor without any fear of comeuppance.

As the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund reminds us, Maryland Senate President Mike Miller boasted early this year to his party caucus, “We’re going to shoot [Republican leaders] down. We’re going to bury them face down in the ground, and it’ll be ten years before they crawl out again.”

Fund calls the legislature here the worst in America. Here’s his complete column.

District 9A Article in Baltimore Sun

Article Here

The article quotes Senator Allan Kittleman

“I don’t have anything personally against Melissa,” Kittleman said. “She just came out of nowhere. In a Republican primary, people are going to want to see what you have done for the party and the community. She’s a very nice person. She should have run for the central committee.”

That pretty much sums up my position.  I have said before that I hope she sticks around no matter the outcome.

This quote from Melissa puzzles me.

“I’m not a political appointee and not an entrenched party member,” she said. As a former officer in the military police, “I bring a broader perspective.”
Those comments are a shot at [Delegate Warren] Miller … who was appointed to his seat in March 2003 to fill a vacancy after serving two terms on the party central committee.

I talked to Melissa about this very point.  It is a non-issue.  I don’t know why Melissa thinks that is going to resonate in the primary.

Altough Warren was appointed to the seat he was elected twice (County wide) to the Republican Central Committee.  He garnished about 8,000 votes of 14,000 cast.  More than half those votes came from District 9A.

Now, given that Warren garnished about 4,000 votes from District 9A in two primary elections and it is expected that 4,600 people will vote in the District 9A primary (6,838 actually voted in the 2002 primary)I think Warren stands a great chance of being elected to a full term to the House of Delegates.  They have voted for Warren before and they will vote for him again because he has served them well and responsively.  No hint of scandal.  A diligent approach to his responsibilities.  A very keen sense of the issues.  Warren is the type of person we want in public office.  Warren Miller for Governor!!!

Melissa has wonderful credentials.  They just don’t match up to Gail Bates’ or Warren Miller’s record in Annapolis.

She can continue to use “Break the Slate” as one of her campaign themes (which I hear a lot and many people talk about) but to me that theme means two things.  If a slate it is then Gail Bates’ explains it best when she points out the great working relationship she and Warren have and their demonstrated committment to Howard County.  The second thing is that the campaign is being driven by that theme (among others).  The fact that it came up in this article again shows it is a part of her campaign strategy.

I think it is dangerous of her to ignore the fact that Warren Miller was elected twice to office by large margins.  If she really feels that being an appointee to the position is one of Warren’s weaknesses why didn’t she challenge Allan Kittleman who was also appointed to the seat and has even less experience than Warren in Annapolis?

Of course the answer might be that in a three way race she can split the 4,600 votes three ways and possibly end up one of the two top vote getters in which she would only need to get 1,534 votes to win.  That is a lot easier than challenging Allan Kittleman and trying to get 2,301 votes to Allan’s 2,299 votes.

I wonder with a the primary fight for County Council District 5 and Legislative 9A (they share political boundaries) we might get a lot more than 4,600 people showing up at the polls.  I don’t think many will show up for County Council District 1 which doesn’t have a primary fight and also shares political boundaries with 9A.  So we might see a heavy turn out in the Western part of the district and a lower turn out in the Eastern part of the district.  Remains to be seen.

County Council District 5 Poll Update

As of 6:40 AM August 25th.

Greg Fox leads with 14 votes (50%)

Jim Adams follows with 8 votes (29%)

Wayne Livesay has 6 (21%)

I am not surprised by the results so far.  What surprises me is the low number of votes.  This site gets over 200 hits a day and we only have 28 votes?  With that many visitors this is still a close poll.

We had 130 votes for the District 1 poll and it was only open for about one week.  We had 200 votes for the County Exec. race.

Here is a link to the poll.  The poll will remain open until August 31st.

Final Word on FOP Endorsments

An email from FOP President Andy Mackert

Related to this post 

My name is Andy Mackert. I am a Sheriff Deputy in Howard County, Maryland.

As the Presdent and co-founder of the Howard County Sheriff’s F.O.P. I am surprised but pleased that this Post on my friend David Keelan’s blog has generated so much interest.

That the F.O.P. could so quickly generate the passionate interests of Howard County citizens confirms that our concerns are being noticed. Now we need to ensure that action will be taken. Our endorsements were just the first step in a long process. Long after I and others have left the Sheriff’s Department we hope that positive changes will last.

As the Voice of the F.O.P as a whole I am in a position where some people love me and some don’t. Looking back setting up the F.O.P. may have been easier than running it. The endorsment process is an example where all the members did not agree on the endorsements. Not that anyone expected full agreement. One of the things I love about this department is that we all can agree to disagree.

Let me set the record straight for some of you today!

Roger Lerner for Board of Education

The Howard County Blog reported the Democracy for Howard County Board of Education endorsements.  I was disappointed that he did not receive their endorsement.

I met Roger Lerner when I took my kids to Meadowbrook Park.  Coincidentally, Roger had left a comment on this blog regarding Chancery SMS software the night before.  He had no idea who I was.  When he approached me to introduce himself I told him “I know who you are and I plan on supporting you”.

Roger Lerner has great ideas and enthusiasm.  What is more – he has a solid head on his shoulders and a firm grasp on the issues.

You may want to read his full platform here.

He supports, among other things: