Dyer & Zou Slate?

A press release from Allen Dyer and Di Zou

October 3, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Allen Dyer – Phone: (410) 531-3965 email: aldyer@lawlab.com 

Di Zou  – Phone: (443) 527-0775 email: di_zou@yahoo.com

 

Howard County, Maryland — Independent Board of Education Candidates Allen Dyer and Di Zou have found common ground in a shared belief that a diverse board will enrich and expand the board’s discussion and deliberations.  On the strength of that shared belief, Dyer and Zou have joined forces to promote diversity and encourage voters to focus and cast their votes in a way that will create a diversity of perspectives on the new Board of Education. 

Currently, Candidates Dyer and Zou are using candidate forums and voter handouts to explain the tactical value of using focus voting when five seats are open.   In addition, Allen and Zou would bring much needed information technology backgrounds to the Board of Education and are jointly working on a series of web videos that promote diversity and focus voting. 

Diversity brings new ideas.  For example, candidates Dyer and Zou have added their experiences together and are working in creative ways to: 

●      Test joint campaign mailings as a way to reduce the cost of campaigning for all candidates willing to work together—cooperation saves money. 

●      Explore use of technological trends to encourage youth political participation.  

●      Broaden students’ horizons by bringing back vocational education and skills training to local schools.  

●      Empower our teachers, staff, and students by providing more information technology training and support. 

●      Strengthen student relationships during times of growth and transition by supporting a feeder school system. 

●      Provide the public with information necessary to hold the Board accountable by supporting the Open Meetings Act and on-line availability of public information.

Candidate Forum

I am 1/2 way through the questions and answers for House of Delegates District 9A.  I don’t know why I started there.  Maybe because we had all the candidates in that race respond?  Anyway, if you have any suggestions on which race to go to next please drop a comment.

I will finish tomorrow and post them in the evening.  Then you can go at it yourself if you want and maybe we will prompt some candidate dialogue.

If you are interested in to some insight as to how I am leaning then

On Line Candidate’s Forum

Kudos to Dave Wissing for compiling the responses for the Howard County Blogger Association forum.  I will begin posting my comments shortly.

Kudos to the candidates who took the time out of very hectic campaign schedules to respond and participate in this worthwhile experiment.  Most responses were directed to me and they all contained similiar preambles.  Thanks for taking the time.  I hope this is a success.  Looking forward to comments.  Even though I am busy I thought this was worth the time and effort to respond even though it meant something else had to slip.

As Dave stated:

All in all, our experiment was rather successful in my mind. We basically had 40 candidates running for local office in Howard County – County Executive, County Council, State Legislature and Board of Education. Out of the 40, we received feedback from 23 of the candidates. I was hoping for a 50% response rate and we got close to 60%. Interestingly, most of the non-responses came from candidates the Columbia area.

Responses

County Executive

Chris Merdon – Republican
Steve Wallis – Independent

County Council

Tony Salazar – Republican – District 1
Gina Ellrich – Republican – District 2
Jen Terrasa – Democrat – District 3
Donna Thewes – Republican – District 3
Tom D’Asto – Republican – District 4
Don Dunn – Democrat – District 5
Greg Fox – Republican – District 5

State Senate

Allan Kittleman – Republican – District 9
Ed Kasemeyer – Democrat – District 12
Sandy Schrader – Republican – District 13

State Delegate

Gail Bates – Republican – District 9A
Warren Miller – Republican – District 9A
David Osmudson – Democrat – District 9A
Elizabeth Bobo – Democrat – District 12B
Rick Bowers – Republican – District 13
Mary Beth Tung – Republican – District 13

Board of Education

Allen Dyer
Sandra French
Joshua Kaufman
Roger Lerner
Di Zou

Update:  Dave Wissing sent this to me.  It is from Courtney Watson.  I wasn’t copied on the original.

I was unable to respond to the blogger questionnaire due to time constraints within the campaign.  I have chosen to spend all of my available time knocking on doors and as a result, have had to prioritize all other activities.  I have an extensive website at www.courtneywatson.org that can be referenced by your readers.  I also invite and encourage interested readers to attend one of the upcoming forums – October 4^th COPE forum at 7 p.m. at Miller Library; October 11^th League of Women Voters at 7 p.m. at Howard Community College.  I will be available to answer any questions from the public before, during, and after the forum on those evenings.

Courtney Watson

Hmmm.  Now I would think that even Jen would agree that this is not within the spirit of this forum.  I see Tony Salzar out door knocking, putting up signs, and going door to door too.  I am glad he thought this was a priority as did 23 other candidates.  (Ian and Evan, did the Central Committee get together and boycott our forum?).  I do encourage everyone to attend the COPE forum tonight so they can compare and contrast the candidates.  BRING A LIST OF OUR QUESTIONS WITH YOU AND A COPY OF TONY’S ANSWERS so you can ask Courtney to respond.

Some observations about a few of the respondents.

Chris Merdon and Liz Bobo both use the web a lot to convey their messages and communicate with the public.  Liz Bobo often comments and provides updates on the HCAA community forum.  Chris Merdon’s web site is never out of date.

Also, David “Oz” Osmundson sees this as an opportunity to get his message out and suggested to me that the Democrats have narrowed the GOP voter registration majority in 9A to less than 1,500 and feels he has a real shot at taking a seat.

Steve Wallis sees this as another tool to convey his message and level the playing field.

Di Zou, given his age and familiarity with the technology I am only surprised he wasn’t the first to respond :=)  Mssrs. Lerner and Dyer – they are techies and I expected them to respond.  Sandy French has embraced technology and Josh Kaufman understands the value.  I think you will find the quality of the answers between each of these candidates to be revealing.

Mary Beth Tung (a.k.a. MBT) is a frequent visitor to all the blogs.  She has commented that she finds a lot of value in reading not only the posts but the comments.  She says she learns a lot about public opinion and perceptions.  I think she is right on.

Given Howard County’s adoption rate of technology I think our respondents exhibit good insight into the behavior of Howard County citizens search for news and unfiltered content.

Worst case, those who responded didn’t want to be counted among those who wouldn’t try this experiment and be classified as “No Response”.

As to those who did not respond.  I can’t speak for them.  I could not help but notice that Ken Ulman’s web site is way out of date.  He is still reminding visitors that the Democratic primary is September 12, 2006.  Nothing wrong with that.  His campaign just might not see the value of an internet presence.  If his campaign responds we will certainly post his responses.

Based on his comments in the press and his treatement of Evan Coren I didn’t expect Mr. Robey to respond.  I would have been pleasantly surprised if he had taken the opportunity to do so.

Just an interesting footnote.

Slow Growth Dunbar

From the Merdon Campaign 

Ellicott City, Md., October 2, 2006 – Harry Dunbar, former Howard County Executive candidate and slow growth champion, today announced his endorsement of Councilman Christopher J. Merdon as Howard County Executive. In addition, Councilman Merdon unveiled his five point plan for responsible growth in Howard County.

After receiving 22% of the vote, or 5,398 votes, in the Democrat primary election, Harry Dunbar has decided to back Councilman Merdon’s candidacy for County Executive. “I have assessed the candidates remaining in the race and I wholeheartedly believe that a vote for Chris Merdon is the only vote for responsible growth,” said Dunbar. “I accept Mr. Dunbar’s endorsement and look forward to working in a bi-partisan manner to control growth,” said Merdon. Merdon has appointed Dunbar to his campaign steering committee to provide additional input on how to best manage growth.

From the Baltimore Examiner

Slow Growth Advocate Backs GOP’s Merdon

Harry Dunbar, former Democratic candidate for Howard County executive who ran with a message of slowing growth, has endorsed Republican candidate Christopher Merdon.

“Merdon is the only candidate who has acknowledged the need for responsible slow-growth measures,” said Dunbar, who campaigned to control development and reduce school crowding.

Dunbar said he supported Merdon’s voting record on growth, specifically his vote against Comp Lite, a controversial bill that included dozens of zoning changes.

“He voted with the citizens, against the developers,” Dunbar said. “[Council Member Kenneth] Ulman voted for the developers.”

Merdon has a video posted on the web site.  In it a reporter asks a question along the lines of Mr. Dunbar being critical of Ulman and Merdon accepting campaign contributions from developers and whether his concerns about that had been answered.  Dunbar replied:

“Of the candidates available to us Chris Merdon is the best candidate for slow growth, the best candidate for Howard County at this particular point in time.  I have taken my time coming to this decision.  I have been on the campaign trail with all of the candidates for Howard County Executive.  I have listened to them.  Mr. Merdon is the best candidate that will represent my interests as well as those people who supported the slow growth movement.”

Not a ringing endorsement, but none the less an endorsement by a former Democratic candidate for Howard County Executive who performed very well in the Democratic Primary against Ken Ulman.

Ken Ulman’s response?

Ulman said he knew Dunbar would support his opponent.

“We all knew what was happening with [Dunbar’s] candidacy from day one,” adding that Dunbar worked for Merdon four years ago.

Mr. Ulman seems to imply that from “day one” Mr. Dunbar’s campaign was a farce.  Well, if Mr. Ulman was hoping to keep Mr. Dunbar’s 5,400 votes in his column for the General Election I think he just insulted their intelligence and intentions.

In 2002 Jim Robey won the election by over 14,000 votes.  If one were to remove those 5,400 votes from the Ulman column to the Merdon column the differential would only be 4,000 votes in favor of the Democratic candidate.  Remember, Robey ran as an incumbent.

I would think that Mr. Ulman would be a little more thoughtful in his response given he “knew what was happening”.  Perhaps a more measured response would have been in order such as… “I am proud of my record on development.  As we reach out to Mr. Dunbar’s supporters I think we will make our message clearer and earn their support.”

Perhaps when the Sun and the Times report on the content of Merdon’s proposals:

• Solution One – Increased Impact Fees

• Solution Two – Stop Charette Process

• Solution Three – Hold On Increased Density

• Solution Four – Independent Traffic Studies

• Solution Five – Compatibility Review Board

we will hear Mr. Ulman’s response to the substance of the proposed zoning and development reforms.