Mayor and Board Sworn in Today

George Wenschhof

Randy McClement

The inauguration ceremony for the 61st administration of The City of Frederick takes place today.

The Weinberg Center will host the public event.  At 11:00 AM, Mayor Randy McClement (R) will be sworn in to serve his second term.  The board of aldermen will be consist of two Democrats who will enter their second terms; Kelly Russell and Michael O'Connor.

Joining them on the board will be newcomers; Phil Dacey (R), Josh Bokee (D) and former three term Democratic alderman Donna Kuzemchak.

It is expected Kelly Russell, who received the most votes in the election, will be made Mayor Pro Tem today.

Democrats, will once again hold a super majority on the board of alderman, while a Republican serves as mayor of a city that has a strong Democratic voter registration advantage.

Republican alderman elect Phil Dacey will be facing voter anger to the robo-calls made on behalf of his campaign that criticized Democratic alderman elect Donna Kuzemchak for failing to pay her property taxes on time.  Dacey has yet to comment on the issue.

Kuzemchak, once research has been done, may be setting a record for serving the most number of terms as alderman, when she serves her fourth term on the board.

She told me, when the seating arrangement was being set for the board of alderman, she requested a seat next to Dacey.

Stay tuned.

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Misdirected Calls Most Likely Data Error

George Wenschhof

Donna Kuzemchak

In the reactionary frenzy to the negative robo-calls to City of Frederick voters highlighting the failure of Democratic alderman-elect Donna Kuzemchak to pay her property taxes on time, rumors spread rapidly concerning calls that may have misdirected a few voters to the wrong polling location.

The robo-calls attempting to denigrate Kuzemchak were made on behalf of the campaign of Republican alderman-elect Phil Dacey.

Both candidates, would go on to win election to the five member board.

Interestingly, it was the local paper who first reported on May 14 of this year that newly announced alderman candidate Donna Kuzemchak had not paid her property taxes with an article and photo displayed above the fold on the cover of the newspaper.

I remember interviewing Kuzemchak afterward and her expressing disappointment they never published she had paid her taxes, despite several requests that they do so.

Immediately after the election, what followed the disclosure of the negative Dacey campaign robo-calls directed at Kuzemchak, was what began as a trickle of information about voters receiving calls misdirecting them to the wrong polling location.

The initial rumor had it the Dacey campaign was also behind these calls as some of the calls had been received from residents of Worman’s Mill. This was salacious, because as a member of the city board of appeals, Dacey had voted in favor of the developer and against residents in a dispute over a change in the proposed town center. Misdirecting those voters may have been advantageous to the Dacey campaign.

Not only was this information salacious, but if true, the rumor continued, might be a criminal offense and may be cause to remove Dacey from office, before he is even sworn in, paving the way for another candidate to perhaps take his place on the board. The Republican name heard most often was Katie Nash, who lost in her attempt to be a member of the board.

During the early days following the election, in this high tech world, sent to my cell phone was the recorded message that had been received from Republican alderman Shelley Aloi. No wonder they call them “smart phones”!

The fast growing and ever changing gossip now had alderman Shelley Aloi, who had lost in her bid for the Republican mayoral nomination behind the robo-calls that misdirected voters.

Well, it appears what happened is both the Republicans and Democrats inadvertently misdirected a few of their own voters and there was no apparent nefarious intent.

The Frederick County state Democratic Central Committee used volunteers to make calls to Democratic voters and at one point, off a prepared script, placed some to Worman’s Mill voters. They quickly realized they were giving the wrong polling location out when informed by the voters and quit making their calls.

Chair of the committee, Myrna Whitworth assured me they did their best to correct the calls, once they were aware of what happened.

Phone calling voters to get out the vote has always been present in political campaigns and this appears to have been an unfortunate event and very limited in the number of calls that were made.

The Aloi campaign sponsored robo-calls were directed at Republicans, highlighting she had been the only Republican elected alderman in the last election and the importance to get out and vote. The end of the call included a reference to their polling location.

In the case of the person who sent me the recording, it was the wrong polling location. Robo-calls are made by firms who use computers that work off of telephone numbers they have or are provided by the campaign.

When I spoke to alderman Aloi, she said it was a data error and to the best of her knowledge only involved a handful of voters.

As I mentioned previously, the errors made by Republican Shelley Aloi's campaign and the local Democratic central committee misdirected a few of their own voters.  This is not something they would aspire to do.

City attorney Saundra Nickols told me the city was looking into the calls that misdirected voters and that she had nothing further to say, other than the mayor may have something to say on this matter soon.

Having followed elections for a lifetime, one constant is voters complain about negative campaign mail and in recent years, about robo-calls.

Unfortunately, political operatives know negative spin and robo-calls often work and continue to convince candidates to use them.

However, it is the voters who have the final say.

Voters should not get discouraged with the political process. Let candidates know you oppose negative campaigning - stay informed, get involved, vote and make a difference.

Stay tuned..

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Majority Should Elect Mayor of Frederick

George Wenschhof

Mayor Randy McClement

The off year City of Frederick election ensured another low voter turnout with incumbent Republican mayor Randy McClement winning reelection by receiving the votes of only 12% of the registered voters in the city.

The official returns show mayoral candidates received 8,354 votes out of 35,498 registered voters.

Even more important, with three candidates running for mayor, he did not receive a majority and won with a plurality of the vote.

The 4,121 votes McClement received fell short of a majority and were 49.56% of the votes cast.

Democratic mayoral candidate Karen Young received 2,586 votes (31.10%) and Unaffiliated candidate Jennifer Dougherty received 1,588 votes (19.10%).

The remaining 59 votes cast were write-ins, over and under votes.

Interestingly, the combined votes for Young and Dougherty equaled a majority of the vote (50.2%).

This is not to suggest the voters of these two candidates would join to support the candidate who received the higher number of votes.

What a large number of cities across the nation do in this situation is they require and hold a runoff election between the two candidates who received the top votes in the general election.

The one negative associated with a runoff election is the added cost to an election.

With this being the first time three candidates have run for mayor in The City of Frederick, it is unlikely runoff elections would be a common occurrence.

On the other hand, with Jennifer Dougherty paving the way and showing that running as an Unaffiliated candidate can be done, it may encourage others to do so in the future.

It would be wise for the city mayor and board of alderman to address this issue.

After all, requiring the mayor to receive a majority of the vote has a democratic ring to it.

Stay tuned.

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Kudos to Mayor and Board for Closing Campaign Finance Loophole

George Wenschhof

Last night, during The City of Frederick mayor and board meeting, they passed an amendment to close the loophole that allowed individuals who also control entities to exceed the amount of campaign contributions allowed under the law.

The vote was 4-0 was alderman Shelley Aloi (R) abstaining.  The law will go into effect December 6, 2013.

Under the law, mayoral candidates are allowed contributions up to $2,500 and alderman candidates $1,000.

I was the first to report, after the candidates had filed their first campaign finance report on August 12, that Democratic mayoral candidate Galen Clagett had received a total of $30,000 from entities controlled by two people and that Democratic mayoral candidate Karen Young had received $7,500 via entitles controlled by one person.

This had been done legally by using multiple LLC’s with donations from each not exceeding the $2,500 limit.

 

Realizing, a law could not be passed in time to impact the remainder of the election, I asked candidates to pledge to not accept donations that exceeded "the intent or spirit of the law".

 

All of the candidates responded and agreed, with only Republican alderman candidate Katie Nash providing a convoluted and confusing answer to my question.

 

The city moved quickly to address these concerns and during a mayor and board workshop held on October 9, agreed the "loophole" should be closed. City attorney Rachel Depo presented them with a proposal modeled after a recently passed state of Maryland campaign finance law.

 

After, reviewing the law, I recommended a change in the definition of what constitutes a contribution from one contributor in Sec. 7-22. Limit on contributions. (d) (ii) which read "the business entities are owned or controlled by at least 80% of the same individuals or business entities.

In a conversation with assistant city attorney Rachel Depo, she informed me the state committee had recommended 50% and it evidently had been changed to 80% by the state legislature. 

 

In a column published on October 13, I expressed my hope the city would go with the 50% level to further restrict influence by a single contributor.

 

Last night, Democratic alderman Michael O'Connor made the motion, that passed 4-0, to approve the proposal presented by the city attorney with a change to "business entities owned or controlled by at least 51% of the same individuals or business entities.

 

The mayor and board should be commended for moving quickly to close this campaign finance loophole.

 

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McClement Wins with Plurality, Democrats Maintain a Super Majority on the Board

George Wenschhof

Aldermen O'Connor and Russell tally the votes

Sadly, as I had predicted, the off-year City of Frederick election resulted in a 22% voter turnout with about 10% of the registered voters electing the mayor. 

Republican mayor Randy McClement easily won re-election to a second term with 49% of the vote.  Democratic challenger Karen Young finished second with 32% of the vote and Unaffiliated Jennifer Dougherty was third with 19% of the vote.

The low voter turnout resulted in Randy winning with only 3,714 votes out of 35,500 registered voters in the city. There is no run-off provision in the city that would guarantee the winner would receive a majority of the vote.

This marks the fourth loss out of five tries for mayor for Dougherty. Her entry into the race as an Unaffiliated candidate combined with the endorsement of McClement by disgruntled Democratic Maryland state delegate Galen Clagett, who lost to Karen Young in the Democratic primary, once again contributed to a Republican winning the mayor in a city with a majority of Democratic registered voters.

The votes cast for Dougherty (1,480) were less than the number of signatures she obtained to qualify to run as an Unaffiliated candidate.

The combined votes of Young and Dougherty would have been 3,887 or 51% of the vote.

The board of alderman race, where voters elect five, went largely as expected.  Four Democrats and one Republican were elected, which maintains the super majority currently held on the board by Democrats.

The first and second place finishers were Democratic incumbents Kelly Russell (4,212 votes) and Michael O’Connor (4,169).  Democrat Josh Bokee came in third with 3,789 votes, followed by Republican Phil Dacey (3,781) and Donna Kuzemchak (3,656).

The under votes in the alderman election were 3,596 and there were only 25 under votes in the mayoral election.

Kuzemchak, who had previously served three terms as alderman, won re-election despite some dirty tricks run by the Dacey campaign.

Red Maryland Blog is reporting Ted Dacey, the brother and campaign manager for Phil Dacey was behind the robo-calls made by the Maryland Republican Party.  The negative calls were directed at Kuzemchak.

As, I reported earlier, the Dacey family are close supporters of former Maryland state senator Alex Mooney and Ted had worked for Mooney previously.

Another rumor has the Dacey campaign also behind robo-calls that were misdirecting voters from the Wormans Mill area to an incorrect poll location. Dacey, while serving on the city board of appeals, voted with the Developer and against residents who opposed proposed changes in Wormans Mill town center. 

The dirty tricks used by the Dacey campaign will certainly mar the alderman elect and it remains to be seen if criminal charges will result from the alleged robo-calls misdirecting voters.

There were a little over 800 absentee ballots sent out and as of Monday, about 400 had been received.

While, the order of finish may change between the top four finishers in the alderman race, absentee ballots are not expected to impact their win in the election.

Fifth place finisher Kuzemchak has a 164 vote lead over Republican Katie Nash, but in a multiple candidate race, it is unlikely Nash will be able to make up the ground to win a seat on the board.

Interestingly, the top four alderman-elect received more votes than Mayor McClement and Donna Kuzemchak was only fifty-eight votes behind him.

 

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City of Frederick Election Buzz

George Wenschhof

On Tuesday November 5, voters will weigh in on The City of Frederick election and choose their mayor and five member board of alderman.

The off year city election has me predicting a turnout of less than 22%.  It is going to be a partly sunny day with temps in the 50’s, so go vote and prove me wrong!

Polling locations are different than state/county and presidential election years.  If you are wondering where you go to vote you can use the following link.

http://spires2.cityoffrederick.com/elections/polling_loc.php

WYPR radio News Director Joel McCord was up in Frederick last week to check out the election.  He interviewed the candidates, some downtown business owners and me!

Democratic mayoral candidate Karen Young came across the best of the three candidates and Republican Mayor McClement was described as "plain vanilla".

You can read the story and listen to his report here. 

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Democratic Maryland state senator Ron Young held an art show hosted at Antique Imports Sunday and it was well attended.  Karen Young was also present and of course, the talk was on the election.

 

Lt. Governor Anthony Brown (D) recorded a robo-call on Karen Young’s behalf, urging voters to vote for her for mayor.  The calls went out on Saturday.

 

One woman, who attended, told me she had been a big Clagett supporter and was now supporting Karen Young for mayor.

 

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Republican alderman candidates Phil Dacey, Katie Nash and Dave Schmidt have been trying hard to run from their conservative background in a city where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans voters 17,300 to 10,750.

 

Sunday, upon returning home, standing on the corner was former Republican ultra right wing state senator Alex Mooney and the husband of Katie Nash.  Mooney told me Nash was going to win.

 

When I asked what he was up to these days, Mooney told me he had moved to West Virginia and was running for Congress.

 

 

Sad to see the exit from politics displayed by Democratic Maryland state delegate Galen Clagett.  After, losing by 10 points to Karen Young in the Democratic primary, Galen publicly endorsed Republican mayor Randy McClement.

Galen has long been involved in Frederick County Democratic politics.

Kind of makes you wonder why Clagett ran for mayor in the first place.

 

Looking at Mayor McClement’s donations from his most recent campaign finance report and you can see some connections to supporters of Clagett.

McClement received $2,500 from Blaine Young for Maryland and another $5,000 from LLC’s from outside the city.

Both Clagett and McClement advertised with signs atop Yellow Cabs in town, owned, in part by Republican board of county commissioners president Blaine Young. 

 

Frederick County state Democratic central committee did phone banking for their candidates over the weekend and did a lit drop on Saturday.

 

Election night, Democratic aldermen candidates will be at JoJo’s located downtown on E. Patrick Street.  So, stop by and say hello.

 

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Dacey, Nash and Schmidt Try to Hide Republican Party Affiliation in City Election

George Wenschhof

It is widely known voter registration highly favors Democratic candidates in The City of Frederick, so it is hardly surprising Republican alderman candidates Phil Dacey, Katie Nash and David Schmidt are trying to cozy up to Democratic voters by projecting a moderate voice.

Yet, when you look at their background, they are all proud conservative Republicans, a political philosophy that does not play well with progressive Democratic voters in the city.

Their political mantra has been to call for nonpartisan elections, because they don’t believe in party labels at the local level.

However, it is widely known and documented by numerous studies, nonpartisan elections actually result in a lower voter turnout at the polls.  Not a change, The City of Frederick, which averages less than 25% turnout, needs to implement. 

The reason for masking their political affiliation by these candidates is Democrats have 17,300 registered voters compared to 10,750 Republicans in the city.  Their combined cry for nonpartisan elections is also driven by their knowledge there are 8,160 unaffiliated registered voters in the city, who they hope to entice to vote for them.

During my interviews with the Democratic candidates for alderman and mayor, not one indicated to me support for a change to nonpartisan elections in the city.

Former alderman Alan Imhoff, the only Republican candidate with extensive municipal experience, opposes nonpartisan elections and favors moving the city election to coincide with the presidential election cycle.

It is also not surprising, there are no Republicans calling for a change to nonpartisan elections in the county, where they hold a voter registration advantage.

The road to victory by a Republican alderman candidate is tough, unlike the mayoral race, where Democrats have been beating themselves in every election, but one, since former four term mayor Ron Young was defeated in 1989.

Dacey, Nash and Schmidt are young and inexperienced in municipal government, but all have been involved supporting conservative Republicans in their party.

Phil Dacey shared with me “I became a Republican because I believed they were the party with better ideas and was influenced by former Congressman Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract with America” that promoted welfare reform and a balance budget.”  When, he noticed I was writing this down, he said “oops!”

Further earning his conservative spurs was the support by him and his family of former state senator Alex Mooney and his experience working as chief of staff to Maryland state senator Nancy Jacobs.

Katie Nash, in addition to serving on the local Republican central committee, also served as chief of staff to another state senator E.J. Pipkin.

Both Pipkin and Jacobs were former Republican senate minority leaders and known as far right conservatives in the state.

Dave Schmidt, has made no secret of his attempted love affair with Democrats, attending their local events and telling everyone party affiliation doesn’t matter in the city.

When I interviewed Dave, he shared with me his interest in politics started early when he knocked on doors for former sixth district Republican congressman Roscoe Bartlett. He also served as president of student government and started the first Republican Club at Frederick Community College (FCC). At FCC, he hosted the first alderman debate in 2005 which was moderated by Blaine Young, who is now president of the Frederick Board of County Commissioners.

All three have downplayed their Republican Party affiliation with the hopes to win Democratic votes and with them, a seat on the board of alderman.

Interestingly, while all three have extolled the importance of nonpartisan elections in the city, not one changed their political affiliation to Unaffiliated.

Registered voters in The City of Frederick will elect their mayor and a five member board of alderman on November 5.

Stay tuned.

 

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Democratic Dream Team Will Move Frederick Forward

George Wenschhof

The experience, passion and vision shared by Josh Bokee, John Daniels, Donna Kuzemchak, Michael O’Connor, and Kelly Russell clearly demonstrates why the Democratic candidates running for The City of Frederick board of alderman deserve your vote on November 5.

After conducting multiple interviews with the candidates and being closely involved in city government for many years, it is great to see these talented candidates recognize the uniqueness and diversity in the many neighborhoods that make up the city, are committed to working with the neighborhood advisory councils and know the value of giving citizens a voice in government.

It was encouraging to see them campaign door to door and hear from them, after they listened to voters firsthand, they understand the importance of addressing traffic congestion, increasing public safety, spurring economic development to create local jobs, providing cost effective and performance focused government services, and lobbying for city schools to get their share of state dollars for needed construction and renovation.

It is exciting the city, already a sought out place to live, is poised to become a sustainable friendly, safe, family community interconnected with pedestrian/bike walkways and trails combined with employment opportunities close to home.

It will take teamwork, expertise and dedication to ensure Frederick becomes the extraordinary city it can be. 

Josh Bokee, John Daniels, Donna Kuzemchak, Michael O’Connor, and Kelly Russell, have the drive, knowledge and the skill set to work with the leadership of mayoral candidate Karen Young to productively move Frederick forward. 

Make sure you vote on November 5.

Karen Young the Choice for Mayor

George Wenschhof

The City of Frederick is a wonderful safe place you want to call home and raise your children - electing Karen Young as mayor will help make certain it stays this way.

 

Karen Young is a strategic visionary leader who understands the mayor articulates the vision and leads the effort to move The City of Frederick forward to become an interconnected and sustainable community where families desire to live.

Her goal to make Frederick a regional economic hub is admirable and will help parents reduce their costly commute allowing them to be able to spend more quality time with their children.

Whether it is economic development, public safety, education, transportation or other issues facing the city, Karen understands the need to work with all levels of government.  Her time spent working with the Maryland Municipal League, The Washington Council of Governments and the Maryland General Assembly has prepared her well in this regard.  

Karen’s extensive experience in the public/private sector has given her the knowledge and training to ensure the city is using the best practices when it comes to human resources, risk mitigation, organization design and investment management.

She will use her financial analysis and management background to help right-size the city budget that has grown by 98% over the last ten years.

Furthermore, her term as alderman helps her understand the need to work early and often with the board of alderman to move an agenda forward.

What if you held an election and no one showed up to vote?

George Wenschhof

Sadly, with only two weeks to go until The City of Frederick election, we are about to find out.

I can confidently predict 10% or less of the 36,539 registered voters (as of January 1, 2013) will determine who the next mayor will be on November 5 and the mayor elect will not receive a majority of the vote.

City election law does not require a mayoral candidate to receive a majority of the vote. A runoff election between the top two finishers in a multiple candidate race, to ensure a majority vote, will not happen.

The three way race between incumbent Republican mayor Randy McClement, Democratic alderman Karen Young and unaffiliated Jennifer Dougherty has me predicting the winner will receive between 37-41% of the vote.

Assuming 22% of the registered voters go to the polls (the likely turnout based on past history), the winner will have been elected by only 9.1% of the registered voters, or 3,296 votes.  This represents just 5% of the estimated city population of 66,382.

For more years than I want to admit, I have been banging the drum to move the city election to coincide with the presidential election cycle.  The rationale is that voter participation would more than triple from the current anemic 22% average.  The bonus for taxpayers is the cost savings for the city would be in the $200,000 range and voters would go to polls in schools where they are accustomed to casting their ballot.

But, as most understand today, rational thinking does not often prevail in politics.  The naysayers main theme is the local election would be drummed out by the presidential election.

This is an interesting argument when so few voters are paying attention now. 

The other prevalent statement from opposition to a change in election cycle is the voters would not be as “informed”.

This argument is worrisome because it sounds eerily similar to the institution of the “poll tax” and the tests given to keep certain voters from the polls many years ago during the Jim Crow days. 

Of course, there is nothing in our constitution that requires a voter be “informed” when they go to the polls, or for that matter, a candidate be “informed” when they run for office.  I often wonder how these folks who make this argument determine the voters who are presently voting are “informed”.

Further confusing the change to coincide with the presidential election cycle are those few who clamor for nonpartisan or open elections, when nonpartisan data shows both reduce voter turnout.

Nonetheless, these collective arguments have been successful to date, primarily due to natural resistance to change.

In addition, why would the few people who are currently voting and determining the elected officials in the city want to give up their influence? 

What is known is that the national average of voter turnout for municipalities who hold off-year elections is 25%.

There is no current cry or political support to change the election cycle, so do not expect it to happen anytime soon.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, this allows less than 10% of the registered voters to determine the mayor of The City of Frederick.

Two hundred years of being wrong, doesn’t make it right.

Stay tuned.

 

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City Agrees to Change Campaign Finance Law

George Wenschhof

During The City of Frederick mayor and board of aldermen workshop yesterday, there was unanimous agreement to move forward with proposed changes to the city's campaign finance law.

Assistant city attorney Rachel  Depot submitted a proposal modeled after the recently passed state of Maryland campaign finance law.

Alderman Michael O'Connor(D), said during the city mayor and board workshop discussion "this loophole should be closed" and requested this amendment be presented during the first mayor and board meeting in November. Alderman Kelly Russell concurred with O'Connor and added her desire to rectify this prior to the end of their term.

The proposed change will not affect the current election and is scheduled to go into effect on December 6, 2013.

The proposed changes are designed to close some of the loopholes that allow individuals to make multiple donations from business entities owned by an individual, whose aggregate total contribution exceed the limit established by law.

The campaign contribution limits are $2,500 for mayor and $1,000 for alderman.

This is a welcomed move in the right direction by the city. 

However, I would recommend a change in the definition of what constitutes a contribution from one contributor in Sec. 7-22. Limit on contributions. (d) (ii) which reads "the business entities are owned or controlled by at least 80% of the same individuals or business entities.

In a conversation with assistant city attorney Rachel Depot, she informed me the state committee had recommended 50% and it evidently had been changed to 80% by the state legislature.  I would hope the city would go with the 50% level to further restrict influence by a single contributor. 

I  first pointed out the loophole after my review of the first candidate campaign finance reports revealed mayoral candidate Maryland state delegate Galen Clagett had received $20,000 from entities associated with local developer Marvin Ausherman and $10,000 from entities associated with Pleasants Construction. Also mayoral candidate Karen Young had received $7,500 from entities associated with local businessman John Fitzgerald.

In regard to the current election, I did request and received a response from all candidates in the General Election to abide by the "spirit of the law" on contribution limits for the remainder of this election.

Stay tuned.

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Clagett, Young Spend Most in City Election

George Wenschhof

The second candidate campaign finance reports submitted yesterday showed Maryland delegate Galen Clagett spent $82,000 in his losing effort to win the Democratic Party nomination for mayor of The City of Frederick. His contributions included a late $5,000 donation from himself.  The balance in his campaign account was $1,771.

Karen Young, who won the Democratic Party nomination, reported raising a total of $71,000, spending $53,000 and led all candidates moving on to the General Election with $18,535 in the all important cash on hand.

Republican Mayor Randy McClement reported raising a total of $27,310, spending $12,500, with a balance of $14,753.

Unaffiliated mayoral candidate Jennifer Dougherty, who did not participate in a primary, reported raising a total of $12,890, spent $6,604 with a balance of $6,235.

In the first finance report, Clagett reported receiving $20,000 from entities associated with Marvin Ausherman and $10,000 from entities associated with Pleasants Constructions.  Young reported receiving $7,500 from entities associated with local businessman John Fitzgerald.

I was the first to report this and call for an amendment to the candidate contribution law to close the loopholes that allowed candidates to receive greater funds than the amount ($2,500 for mayor, $1,000 for alderman) allowed by law.

In addition, I sent a pledge request to all of the General Election candidates for them to abide to the “spirit of the law” for the remainder of the campaign.  In my first review of the second finance reports, it appears none of the candidates used any of the loopholes available to them, which is a good sign.

On Wednesday, the city mayor and board workshop will discuss changes to the law to eliminate these loopholes.

Republican Phil Dacey ($18,000) and Democrat John Daniels ($13,000) led the alderman candidates in funds received.  Dacey had $8,801 cash on hand and Daniels $6,525.

Interestingly, Dacey was the only candidate to report paying individuals to go door-to-door for him.  This is an allowable expense, but not one that has been used by candidates in previous city elections.

Daniels and Dacey were also the top alderman candidate fundraisers in the first candidate finance report.

Incumbent aldermen Kelly Russell(D) and Michael O’Connor(D), who are heavily favored to win reelection, reported $3,255 and $5,253 cash on hand.

Josh Bokee, who came in third in the Democratic alderman primary, reported raising $9,756, spending $7,019 with a balance of $2,729.

Fraternal Order of Police FSK Lodge #91 followed up their endorsement of Democratic aldermen candidates Michael O’Connor, Kelly Russell, Josh Bokee and John Daniels with a $500 contribution to each.

All of the candidate campaign finance reports may be read online at The City of Frederick website.

The next candidate campaign finance reports are due Tuesday October 29, one week prior to the election on November 5.

Stay tuned.

 

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Lynch Wants More Citizen Involvement in Planning Process

George Wenschhof

Jack Lynch

Jack Lynch, who is a Democratic candidate for alderman in The City of Frederick election, is passionate about wanting to see more citizen involvement in the planning process.

He is concerned the city is on the cusp of growing out in a way that will destroy the identity of Frederick.

Lynch would like to engage residents in planning as he believes everything revolves around planning.  He would like to see the city use form-based zoning and codes that are focused on the form of buildings rather than land use.

He told me "It's not what uses or regulations determine our buildings, it's about whether it looks and feels good to people, if they want to walk around there and like it."

Jack added he sees the Carroll Creek development as being a destructive swath of concrete through historic downtown. He feels it has not returned a high enough return for the taxpayer money spent developing the site.

Lynch is also troubled private investment money is going to the north end of Frederick and not other parts of the city and does not see an overall plan for how the city will grow.

He believes citizens often wait until a public notice is posted before they state their opinion and feels it is often too late at this point.

Strengthening Neighborhood Advisory Councils (NACs) and allowing them to provide even more input into the planning process, is something Jack will support if elected alderman.

Bringing citizens together, perhaps by developing small area plans from all sections across the city to provide a vision of what the city could do, is something he would encourage.

He was especially concerned when he felt residents were not listened to in recent votes by the city board of aldermen when they approved a change in zoning for a proposed Wal-Mart and voted to annex the 97 acre Caidlyn property into the city. 

Mr. Lynch testified against both requests and was disappointed the golden mile small area plan and comprehensive plan were not followed.

Also, receiving thumbs down from Lynch is the proposed downtown hotel/conference center. He said the recent consultant report confirmed what he had been saying all along and that is "the economics did not work."

Another area Jack would like the city to focus on is building a more sustainable community and to develop a green infrastructure plan.  He would like to see N. Market Street become an example of green infrastructure where the curbs, sidewalks, etc. were reengineered and rebuilt to allow more water to be absorbed naturally.

Extending Baker Park eastward to be included in the East Frederick Rising plans is another way the city should move forward.

When the topic of waste disposal came up, Lynch said he would like to see the city require business recycling and for the city to provide weekly recycling pick up. He also would move to reinstate the city bulk trash pick-ups that were discontinued by the current mayor and board.

Furthermore, Jack would like to see the city opt-out of Frederick County government plans to build an incinerator.

Jack Lynch is one of eight Democratic and seven Republican candidates running for the five member city board of aldermen.  The primary election will be held on September 10.

Stay Tuned.

 

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Clagett, Young lead in fundraising among mayoral candidates

George Wenschhof

The first campaign finance reports were filed Monday by the candidates for mayor and aldermen in The City of Frederick election. The city website has them here.

As, one might have expected, Democrats; Maryland state delegate Galen Clagett and alderman Karen Young raised the most among the mayoral candidates. 

Clagett raised $60,425, spent $56,083.34 and had $4,341.66 cash on hand.  Young reported raising $49,351, with expenditures of $27,218.20 and with some carry over funds; she has a balance of $25,751.98 in the all important cash on hand.

Democratic mayoral candidate Carol Hirsch did not file a report.

On the Republican side, incumbent mayor Randy McClement raised $10,960, spent $7,890 with a balance of $3,070.

Alderman Shelley Aloi, who also had carry-over funds from her previous campaign, raised $3,532 and spent $5,064, leaving her with a balance of $3,077.  Former mayor Jeff Holtzinger reported $740 raised, $42 spent with a balance of $698.

Unaffiliated candidate Jennifer Dougherty reported a total amount of funds raised of $6,027.01, expenditures of $4,839.52 and a balance of $1,187.49.  Jennifer contributed the bulk of her contributions with a total of $4,631.

While, the amount of money raised by a candidate certainly signals financial strength, it does not always predict a winner.  In the 2005 election, Democratic candidate Ron Young raised over $135,000 and while he defeated incumbent Democratic mayor Jennifer Dougherty in the primary, he would lose the general election to political neophyte Republican Jeff Holtzinger.

With the first finance reports filed, you can bet campaigns will be pouring over other campaign reports, reviewing contributions and expenditures, looking for anything that may jump out and impact the primary election held on September 10.

Leading all candidates with $60,425 in contributions, you can expect Clagett’s report to be eyeballed closely.

A quick glance shows he received a total of $10,000 from five different entities with the same address of 24024 Frederick Road, Clarksburg, Maryland, and he received a total of $20,000 from nine different entities who shared the same address of 7420 Haywood Road, Ste 203 Frederick, Maryland. 

The campaign limits per entity is $2,500 and none of the entities exceeded that figure.

Karen Young sent me an analysis (you can read here) of the Clagett campaign fundraising and expenditures where she identifies the $10,000 coming from entities associated with Pleasants construction and the $20,000 coming from entities associated with Marvin Ausherman. 

Overall, her analysis shows the Clagett campaign received 67.3% from Developers/Real Estate, 17.8% from Individuals, 10.3% from political campaigns/PAC and 4.6% from Business.

 

Young shared with me "I am pleased with the results of my fundraising to date.  My fundraising goal was to raise money from a broad and diverse group of constituents.  To date, my contributions are 64% from individuals and 36% from business."

Interestingly, Young herself also received contributions with the same address of 114 Baughmans Lane Frederick, Maryland from three different entities totaling $7,500.  The business at that address is Fitzgerald.

With $25,751 cash on hand, Karen Young is positioned best for the home stretch prior to the primary election, among all of the mayoral candidates with Clagett having $4,341 and Republican candidates Mayor McClement ($3,070) and alderman Shelley Aloi ($3.077) lagging far behind.

The Democratic and Republican primaries for mayor promise to be tight. With Karen Young having six times the cash on hand that Galen Clagett has, you can expect the Clagett campaign to be actively raising funds over the next four weeks.  Look for a close race in the Democratic primary.

The Republican mayoral primary also looks too close to call between Aloi and McClement.  Don’t underestimate Aloi, who surprised many with her strong alderman showing four years ago.

Republican Phil Dacey ($10,066) led all alderman candidates in funds raised, followed by Democratic candidate John Daniels ($8,145).

 

When I asked John Daniels how he felt about raising the most money among Democratic alderman candidates he said "I am really appreciative of the financial contributions and encouragement I have received through out this campaign. I will continue to work hard, spend those contributions wisely and, when elected, I will work hard for all residents of Frederick."

Other alderman candidates who were top fund raisers were Republicans Katie Nash ($7,225) and David Schmidt ($7,035) and Democratic candidates Josh Bokee ($4,460) and Derek Shackelford ($4,029).

The primary election is only four weeks away when Republican and Democratic voters will determine their mayoral candidate and five alderman candidates to move on to the general election on November 5.

Stay tuned.

 

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