Danny Glover has endorsed Donna Edwards for Congress in the 4th district, against corrupt DINO Al Wynn.
Last primary, despite assaults on Edwards staffers by Wynn staffers, she came within a few thousand votes of winning, despite running a campaign on a shoestring.
To contribute, go here.
Note that the 4th district is very reliably Democratic, it covers most of PG county, so the real election is in the primary, held Feb 12.
Despite pleas from the Governor, Speaker of the State House, and Senate President, lamd duck members of the Maryland State Board of Education voted to trenew Nancy Grasmick’s contract for another four years.
It should be noted that Grasmick tried to seize 11 low performing Baltimore City schools during the election for Governor, and was for a long time considered a potential running mate for then incumbent governor Republican Bob “Bad Hair” Ehrlich.
She also was front and center in Ehrlich’s attempts to take over the whole Baltimore City School District and to decertify the Teachers’ Union.
This is going to get ugly, and she’s a hack, in addition to being one of the most test crazy senior executives in the nation. Her policies got schools not teaching science or social studies for two months so that they can do test prep.
The Washington Post has a generally glowing review of Martin O’Malley’s handling of the special session. He comes across as engaged, hard working, and willing to listen, as opposed to this characterization of his predecessor, which is prize:
Del. Tom Hucker (D-Montgomery) said O’Malley won points for his openness to lawmakers’ ideas and a work ethic that contrasted with that of Ehrlich, whose tenure Hucker derided as “four years of press conferences and golf.”
Personally, I will still vote against the slots proposal, but it was a productive session because O’Malley did his homework.
It’s almost certain to get the votes to go on the ballot now.
Personally, I’m voting against it. I don’t approve of “Sin” taxes. It creates the meme that only bad people pay taxes. Everyone should pay taxes.
Go to Matthew Saroff’s Act Blue Page, and show her some love.
Washington posts notes Al Wynn has raised more money than Donna Edwards, though the difference is almost entirely PAC money.
Ever a class act, the Wynn campaign has decided to play that lovely bigotry card, and strongly implied that Edwards is taking “Jew Money”
The vast majority of our money comes from individuals in our district, in Maryland,’ said Wynn campaign manager Lori Sherwood. She said Edwards’ money seemed to come from ‘individuals and organizations she’s been affiliated with’ as executive director of the Arca Foundation. ‘Our opponent has special interest. She’s receiving money from Barbara Streisand, Hollywood money and New York money. I’m not sure if Barbara Streisand knows what the policies are in the 4th district.'”
(emphasis mine)
Go the link for my Act Blue page, and show Ms. Edwards that you do not approve of this.
Another endorsement for the primary in a true blue district (MD-4 will go Democrat until the apocalypse).
She ran against Al Wynn in the primary last year, and almost beat him.
Wynn is pro-War, he voted for the energy bill givaway to Exxon et al, he’s a bad guy, and may have stolen the last election (voting machines from his stronghold delivered votes days late).
Go to her siteDonna Edwards for Congress”, and check her out.
Democracy for America has officially endorsed her.
Maryland is not Sweden, and the plea by Dale G. Clark for not reporting computer consulting fees is no surprise.
Clark is a close friend and frequent staffer of Dixon.
He will also “cooperate in the state prosecutor’s probe into no-bid contracts at City Hall”, which implies that her honor is at least being looked at.
Seeing as how she has been reprimanded by the ethics commission at least twice for improperly employing relatives, we may be approaching a “pass the popcorn” moment in Baltimore City Hall.
I’m rather dubious about any involvement by Martin O’Malley, as they already tried to dig up stuff in his race for the Governor, and the best they could come up with was making up rumors about marital problems, and that was with a political hack in the US Attorney’s office up here.
Ever since before Paris Glendenning left office, Maryland has been in a situation where the state has a structural deficit. Basically, Glendenning beat Ellen Saurbreey in a VERY close race in 1994, and proceeded to implement her cockamamie tax proposals at the height of the dotcom boom in order to score political points, and in so doing left the state with a structural deficit.
The governor following Glendening, Bob “Bad Hair” Ehrlich (R-Cluelessville) who had defeated Glendenning’s Lt. Governor, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (Possibly the worst candidate in the history of…well…history, and definitely in the history of the Kennedys).
He was a big fan of slots, and it was the central plank of his campaign, as a way to close the deficit, which ignores the mathematical reality of the situation. He also was completely clueless, not having even the remotest plan about how to implement slots, so his first proposal when he was governor was so bad that the racetracks (horse, not NASCAR) who were the primary beneficiaries of his plan were aghast.
So, it went back and forth, between the House Speaker Mike Busch generally being opposed to slots, and Senate Leader Mike Miller generally supporting them.
Both houses passed slots bills in 2005, but they were very different. The Senate provided for gambling at the racetracks, and the house bill had (largely) state owned machines at state owned sites along I-95 towards Delaware (where there are slots) and in Western Maryland towards West Virginia (where there are also slots), the theory being to catch Maryland residents before they spend that money out of state.
Disclosure: I am opposed to slots, not because I oppose gambling, but because I think that an over reliance on “sin” revenue casts taxes as something for bad people to pay, as opposed to dues that everyone pays to be a member of society.
Well, now that Martin O’Malley is governor, both the legislature and the executive are willing to face reality, and as such there are going to be some revenue increases, both taxes and slots.
Truth be told, slots are going to be a pretty small part of the picture revenue wise, but Mike Miller is retiring, and feels the need to get slots implemented as part of his “legacy”.
O’Malley has been in negotiation with the legislature, and his plan includes income tax increases at the higher brackets, increases in the sales taxes, and an increase in the gas tax to take into account Ehrlich’s raiding of the transportation budget.
The funny thing is that his slots plan is largely identical to the house plan of 2005.
Logistically, it makes sense, put the slots on the way to where people are going, and let the state own them so as to get the most revenue (though there is about $100 million to subsidize horse racing annually* and $6 million a year would go to help problem gamblers).
It also ends up placing the slots in largely rural and largely Republican areas. (heh)
The question now is whether O’Malley will submit this on its own, which would get a lot of Republican votes, or as part of a whole revenue package, which forces the Republicans to choose between slots (which they like, since people are already doing it out of state anyway) and the tax increases (which is all they have left to campaign on).
My money is on it coming out together, to shiv the ‘Phants†, though the charitable explanation is that it will be harder to get this through the house, so you go with something that they have already passed.
Amazingly enough there are not yet any allegations of graft, which in Maryland is no small thing.
*I know, kind of silly to prop up a dying business, but horse racing in Maryland has a bizarre attachment to some folks, as leg two of the Triple Crown is at Pimlico, and all.
†Short for Elephants…Republicans that is.