George Wenschhof
Incumbent Republican Sheriff Chuck Jenkins will now be the only candidate for Sheriff to appear on the ballot this fall.
Karl Bickel had announced back in April his intent to run as an "Unaffiliated" candidate for Sheriff. Bickel then followed up his announcement by filing a Declaration of Intent to seek nomination by petition.
As I reported back then, in order to appear on the ballot, he needed to obtain signatures from at least one per cent of the registered voters in Frederick County. The signatures would then need to be verified by the Frederick County Board of Elections.
Today, at 5:00 PM ET, the deadline to submit the signatures came and went without Mr. Bickel submitting any signatures to the Board of Elections.
The Elections Director informed me he received a phone message from Mr. Bickel a little after 2:00 PM that he had fallen short and would not be coming to submit signatures for verification today. As of 5:00, the Elections Director was deleting Mr. Bickel from the data base as a potential candidate for Sheriff.
The number of verified signatures needed for Mr. Bickel to have appeared on the ballot was 1,449. Interestingly, I received news from various sources who work in downtown Frederick, that they were approached for signatures for Mr. Bickel today.
The Frederick County Democratic Party did not field a candidate for this position, the Register of Wills position, or the State's Attorney position.
Voters still have the option to "write-in" a candidate in the election. However, no one can remember anyone being elected for a county wide position as a "write-in" candidate.
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Monday, August 2, 2010
Frederick County MD Sheriff to Run Unopposed
Daily Political Wire 8-2-2010
George Wenschhof
Today, President Obama will travel to Atlanta - he will attend the national convention of The Disabled American Veterans. The president will be addressing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the efforts of his administration to improve assistance to Veterans. Time.com has more here.
Later, the president will speak at a fundraiser for the DNC.
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Elena Kagan to be confirmed by Senate this week - the Senate debate on her nomination as Justice to the Supreme Court. She is assured approval as five Republicans have publicly stated their support for her. TheHill.com has more here.
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Will 26.1 billion state aid bill Pass the Senate? - a vote is expected today to see if 60 votes are there to get through a Republican filibuster and then be followed by debate and vote. The bill would provide 16.1 billion toward the cost of medicaid to states and another 10 billion toward education. State governors have been pleading for this assistance. Politico.com has more here.
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As Mid terms Near - Eyes are on Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen - the four term congressman is serving his second term as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. he was credited with helping steer the Democrats to the current majority in the House with wins in the 2006 election. This year, his challenge is making sure the Democrats do not lose that majority. Republicans need a net gain of 39 seats to take a simple majority in the House. The Washington Post has a good read here.
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Sunday, August 1, 2010
Daily Political Wire 8-1-2010
George Wenschhof
Uni-Tea Party Rally Falls Flat in Philadelphia - billed as a huge rally to show the diversity of the movement, less than 500 attended the rally held in Independence Park. Interestingly, the non-white attendees were few. TPM.com has more here.
The tea party movement bolstered by main stream media, has begun to sputter out, as the tired old refrain of less taxes and less government espoused by many of the Republican Party right wing is no longer catching on with voters, who instead, want concrete proposals on issues.
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Senators Kerry and Lugar call for Pakistan Enterprise Fund - Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) want President Obama to use funds already authorized by Congress to establish a 1.5 billion a year non-military aid program for Pakistan. TheHill.com has more here.
Not sure this proposal will go over well with the recent revelations from wikileaks.org that Pakistani intelligence agencies have been helping the Taliban battle the U.S. in Afghanistan. The idea of helping economic growth is basically a sound one, but the U.S. can no longer engage in long term nation building efforts in countries who's regimes are fragile and mutual support suspect.
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Wikileaks Cause Rift in Britain-Pakistan relations - on the eve of a trip by Pakistan President Asif ali-Zardari to Britain, remarks made by British Prime Minister David Cameron are causing a bit of an uproar within Pakistan. Cameron, while in India, (a bitter rival of Pakistan) referred to the fact Pakistan is doing little to root out militant extremist in their country. Reuters.com has more here.
Zardari, already hanging onto his position by a thread, and also arguably corrupt, is now under fire by opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who is using the nationalism angle to say Zardari should not meet with Cameron. Both Sharif and Zardari have their sordid pasts in a country that has been beset with corruption.
The fact remains the military is the strength in Pakistan and the corrupt civilian government continues to have little influence on a country beset with extreme poverty.
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House votes to lift 75 million cap on Oil Spills liability - interestingly, with billions of barrels of oil in the Gulf due to questionable drilling and operations by BP and others, the vote was close; 209-193. In addition, the measure calls for increased and new safety measures. CNN.com has more here.
The Senate may take this up in their latest watered down version of a energy bill this week. However, reconciliation between the two chambers would not take place until after the August recess.
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