Following up on the summary I published a few days ago, here is the real deal. Please take this to the polls with you and pass it on to others who share your values.
The theme for this year is disappointment. Dear Reader, you will see in my commentary below just how unenthusiastic I am about most races and most candidates this year. Where I think all the available candidates are bad news, I recommend voting against all of them by casting a write-in vote. In other races, I don’t actively oppose all the candidates, but can’t make myself recommend any, either. In those cases, I indicate “no endorsement.” In some of these cases, I still don’t know what I’ll do in the privacy of the voting booth.
In fact, I am only truly excited about four candidates this year: Jamie Raskin (Senator, D20), Sheila Hixson (Delegate, D20), Marc Elrich (County Council, At Large), and Beth Daly (County Council, at large). You’ll see that I have nice things to say about some other candidates, but none of them rise of the level of these four.
For Maryland Governor
Write in “Mickey Mouse”
It’s hard to believe that Maryland could not produce a single decent candidate for governor this year. At one time, I was feeling sorry for Virginia in it’s choice between 13th-century theocrat Ken Cucinelli and venal operative Terry McAuliffe. Well, now is the season to pity poor Maryland.
Anthony Brown is a nearly empty shirt whose only significant public accomplishment was completely screwing up Maryland’s health care exchange. He has refused to take positions on controversial issues and has run a nearly completely negative campaign against Doug Gansler (who deserves it), while getting an advance coronation from the entire Maryland Democratic establishment. If this man is able to accomplish a single positive things as governor, I’ll be surprised. He is currently leading both of his opponents by a 2-to-1 margin, so you might as well get used to him.
Heather Mizeur, is an ego-driven politician for whom tactics replace principles. She’s a darling to many on the left this year for staking out positions that most of my readers will agree with. If she thought she could get more attention by running as a centrist, she’d do so in a minute (I dare you to ask her about her support for Lockheed-Martin tax breaks). Mizeur’sa blind ambition is demonstrated by her twice abandoning the responsibilities as a public official. The first time was when she quit her two-year post as a city councilwoman in Takoma Park after a year. She had only run in the first place to burnish her credentials and quit as soon as she thought she had gained enough limelight. The second time was the past two years, when she nearly completely stopped showing up at events related to District 20, where she is still officially our delegate. In fact, her former “dream house” (as she called it) is sitting vacant in Takoma Park, while she spends all her time at her other house in the Eastern Shore. She’s bored with D20, you see, and this little run for governor is just for her own amusement. I mean seriously, she can’t possibly think that a back bencher with few substantive accomplishments and with no executive experience of any kind is ready to run a state. And she has insulted voters by selecting as a running mate a Prince George’s County preacher who is even less qualified than she is. This race is not about anything other than being in the limelight. Don’t reward the insult by giving this empty politician your vote.
Doug Gansler is a frat boy who thinks he’s above the law. The Washington Post exposés last year about his abuse of state police and disregard for traffic laws reveal Gansler as a danger to the public interest. If he already behaves this way, who is to say where the impunity would stop if he were to have executive authority over the whole state. Perhaps even worse are Gansler’s right-wing policy positions. A fan of the death penalty, Gansler’s main platform plank this year is a tax cut for wealthy corporations and he campaign’s incessantly against current governor Martin O’Malley’s highly responsible fiscal policies, including tax increases on the rich. Who needs Republicans when you have this crap coming from Dems?
For Maryland Attorney General
Brian Frosh is a principled progressive with a long record of accomplishments in the Maryland legislature. I often disagree with the Washington Post on local politics, but their re-endorsement of Frosh yesterday does more justice to Frosh (while highlighting the flaws of his opponents) than I can possible do. I encourage my readers to give it a close look.
Jon Cardin is best knows for improperly commandeering a police helicopter to propose to his girlfriend and, more recently, for missing 121 out of 164 committee votes in the just closed 2014 legislative session. If this man’s uncle weren’t a US senator, he would’t be so much as blip on public radar. Because of his name, though, he could win this race, which would be a disaster for Maryland.
Aisha Braveboy is another 13-century theocrat opposed to gay rights, reproductive freedom, etc. She is now pretending to be progressive, but it’s a lie.
