Blaine Young Guest on "All Things Political with George Wenschhof"

George Wenschhof

Originally published 8-2-2010

Blaine Young is one of twelve Republicans who are running for Frederick County, Maryland Commissioner. The results from the September 14 primary will determine the five Republican candidates who will move on to the General Election on November 2 and face five Democratic Party candidates.

Mr. Young is a short term incumbent, having been appointed to replace Republican Charles Jenkins, who was himself appointed to replace Maryland state delegate Rick Weldon (district 3-b) when he stepped down to take a position with the City of Frederick.

When you watch the show, you will see why Blaine will be one of the twelve Republicans to move on to the General Election.

My conversation with Blaine covered in length his political, business and family background. He was at ease with the interview, perhaps due to his own experience in hosting a daily radio talk show.

We spoke of his time spent as a Democrat and serving as chair of the local central committee. He also served as chair during the 1997 City of Frederick election in which he ran and was elected Alderman.

Some controversy erupted at that time as he favored the Republican incumbent mayor James Grimes over the Democratic Party candidate Fran Baker. I pointed out Ms. Baker had switched her party affiliation to Democratic to avoid a primary battle with Mr. Grimes.

In addition, we talked briefly about him being named in the "Black Book" scandal which involved the arrest of a Madam and subsequent legal proceedings pertaining to release of a "client list".

After his marriage, he moved outside of the limits of the City of Frederick and switched his political party affiliation to Republican.

Since that time, he became a partner in a local taxi business and has hosted a popular radio show.

We spoke of some of the issues likely to be on voters minds. Such as reducing the budget, disposal of trash, a move to Charter Government, the recent down zoning by the current Board of Commissioners and the overall issue of growth.

At one point he became animated when I challenged him saying this was the first time Frederick County Commissioners had discussion in executive sessions about the budget with heads of Departments. Fellow County commissioner John Thompson had refused to take part in those discussions.

Young may be correct in his assertion, but it has been done elsewhere according to Commission President Jan Gardner. I can see the reason for doing so in the early stages of discussion of the budget as personnel discussions are talking place which may or may not be part of what is presented.

When you watch the show, you will see Blaine Young came across as knowledgeable and straight forward in our conversation. I will be following his campaign closely as I go through a thorough process in determining who I will support.


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