O’MALLEY MAKES RUN FOR PRESIDENT OFFICIAL

George Wenschhof

Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley made his bid for the Democratic Party nomination for president official yesterday.

He makes the third Democrat to announce a run for president, joining Senator Bernie Sanders and heavily favored former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee will make it four when he is expected to announce on Wednesday this week.

Interestingly, Sanders has been a Independent Senator from Vermont and Chafee was a Republican who became an Independent in 2007. Chafee would serve one term as Independent Governor of Rhode Island and chose not to run for reelection in 2014. Chafee served as co-chair of President Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012.

While the most recent national poll shows O’Malley at only one percent and Sanders at fifteen percent, he is the only long time serving Democrat to challenge Clinton in the Democratic primary.

Having watched the announcement speeches given by Sanders and O’Malley, Sanders had a larger and more vocal crowd of supporters on hand.

Sanders was also much more emotional and emphatic on his progressive stands on issues while O’Malley was more measured as he read a prepared statement.

While, O’Malley remains a long shot, I would not count him out. National polls are not what wins state primaries and O’Malley has a long history of working at the grassroots level.

O’Malley is also much more charismatic in smaller settings. If, he can learn to project this when addressing a national audience, it will aid his campaign.

He lengthy experience in politics began when he was in college when he volunteered to work in Iowa for the 1984 Gary Hart campaign.

O’Malley was also named state field director for Senator Barbara Mikulski’s U.S. senate race in 1986 while he was attending law school.

After law school O’Malley would run for state senate and lose by 44 votes to John Pica.

Since the initial loss, O’Malley would serve two terms on the Baltimore City council, two terms as mayor of Baltimore followed by two terms as Governor of Maryland.

While serving as Governor, he would be named the chair of the Democratic Governors Association. This would give him much needed national exposure.

It has also been reported his ‘O’Say Can You See’ PAC donated to races in Iowa during the 2012 election.

I met him shortly after he became mayor and for those of us who got to know him somewhat, a race for the White House was never in doubt.

A major negative for O’Malley will be that his Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, who he threw his support behind would lose to Republican Larry Hogan in his bid for Governor of Maryland. This loss coming in a state where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans voters 2-1.

O’Malley has demonstrated a long history of winning campaigns and a willingness to work hard at the grassroots level.

This may help him in the Iowa caucuses where the Democratic primary gets underway.

Stay tuned.

THE SILLINESS CONTINUES IN FREDERICK COUNTY POLITICS

George Wenschhof

It should not be surprising in today’s political environment to see the same absurd actions taking place at the local level that we see exhibited at the national level.

Two political factions in Frederick County who primarily hold opposing views on how to manage growth continue the back and forth pendulum swings on who wields power. This silliness has now existed for over the last two decades.

The change to charter government has done nothing to end the nonsense.

It is painfully apparent it would have made little difference who won the county executive or council races.  The result would be the same with these two groups visibly displaying their dislike for each other.

Since winning the executive race, Democrat Jan Gardner has been overreaching her authority taking actions to nullify or reverse what was done by the previous board of county commissioners led by Republican president Blaine Young.

Two holdovers, Republicans Billy Shreve and Kirby Delauter from the previous administration controlled by Blaine and Company are frustrated by the new control exercised by executive Gardner and her neutering of their power by arranging for their fellow Republican council member Bud Otis to be elected president of the council.

While being loyal to Gardner, a bumbling Otis has looked totally lost in the presidency role.

The latest cartoon playing at Winchester Hall has to do with ethics in government.

Republican Kirby Delauter, whose family owns a construction company has had a long standing flap with the ethics commission since first being elected commissioner in 2010.  His question has been: Can his family business bid on county projects?

Under the former board of county commissioners, the ethics commission first issued a negative opinion and after an appeal by Delauter, it was deemed it was okay for his firm to do business with the county.

Now, with a new form of government and Delauter serving as a council member, he requested a new opinion from the ethics commission.

The present day ethics commission, with a majority of it’s members appointed by the former board of commissioners led by Blaine and Company, issued an opinion allowing Delauter’s company to bid on county projects.

This opinion set off a firestorm among Gardner supporters who claimed foul and urged Gardner to take action.

Gardner responded by issuing an executive order which in effect nullified the ethics commission opinion. An action questionable under the new charter government.

After all, why have an ethics commission if the county executive will take action to nullify their opinion.

What followed was the resignation from the ethics commission of the members who voted for the opinion.

Supporters of Delauter countered by pointing out Democratic council members Jessica Fitzwater and Jerry Donald are teachers and as such should not be allowed to vote on the Board of Education budget.  In addition they point out Fitzwater serves on the board of directors of the Frederick County Teachers Association which lobbies Frederick County government.

Ironically, Gardner responded to those accusations at a press conference by using a previously issued ethics commission opinion that stated it was okay for teachers who also serve as elected officials to vote on the budget.

Throughout this spat over the last four plus years, there has never been any charges filed against Delauter of any wrong doing while serving in office.

All of this hullabalo has created much fodder for media and supporters of both political factions.

Instead of county elected leaders focusing on taking action to develop higher paying jobs, more affordable housing, and other important issues facing voters today, the focus by the county executive and some members of the county council has been on silly tit-for-tat politics.

It will be a long  three and a half years until the next election if Gardner and members of the council continue to spend time and energy on retaliatory measures. Another pendulum swing will also likely result in the next election.

Unfortunately, the losers in all of this blather are the residents of Frederick County.

What is needed in Frederick County and across the country is a change in the divisive and polarized politics of today. Politicians who exhibit common sense, reason and a cooperative spirit should prevail.

Maybe then voters would receive the effective government they deserve.

ETHICS SQUABBLE ILLUSTRATES POLITICAL DIVIDE IN FREDERICK COUNTY

George Wenschhof

The opinion issued by the Frederick County Ethics Commission allowing the firm owned by Republican council member Kirby Delauter to bid on county projects has caught the ire of Democratic Frederick county executive Jan Gardner.

In a hastily crafted letter co-signed by executive Jan Gardner and council president Bud Otis(R), they state “We will take immediate action to remedy this situation through Legislation and Executive Order.”

However there is first a question as to whether Gardner can use an executive order to nullify The Ethics Commission opinion.

Secondly, council president Bud Otis signed the letter in an official capacity without the issue coming before the council for a vote.

Delauter and fellow Frederick council member Billy Shreve(R) are holdovers from the former board of county commissioners (BoCC) led by Republican Blaine Young.  Young was defeated by Gardner in the county executive election last year.

The change to charter government has done little to end the political divide between two political factions whose primary difference over the last couple of decades has been on how to handle growth.

In the last administration of a board of county commissioner form of government, Blaine Young and Company would add goals of the privatization of government services and less money for education to their mantra.

In the county executive race, Gardner highlighted ethics as an issue in her campaign and upon winning, she appointed with much aplomb, a committee to recommend a new ethics ordinance for the county.

The primary reasons for her push to highlight ethics was former commissioner and current council member Kirby Delauter being allowed to have his company bid on county projects and a myriad of questions swirling around the actions taken by former Republican president of the BoCC Blaine Young.

Of course, supporters of the other faction point out that newly elected Democratic council members Jerry Donald and Jessica Fitzwater work as Teachers in the Frederick County school system.  In addition, Fitzwater sits on the board of directors of The Frederick County Teachers Association.  This leads to ethical questions pertaining to their voting on the board of education budget, an amount that is nearly half of the total county budget.

These tit-for-tat squabbles are an ongoing battle between the two factions who hold substantial differing opinions on growth.

Gardner moved swiftly after her election to obtain majority support from the council when she persuaded the three Democratic council members to support Republican Bud Otis for president against Republican Billy Shreve.

This has left Republican council members Billy Shreve, Kirby Delauter and Tony Chmelik on the short end of votes.

This was reminiscent of two terms ago when her infamous “Dream Team” comprised of fellow Democrat Kai Hagen along with Republicans David Gray and John “Lennie” Thompson ran and won.

After that election, she had the newly elected board vote to change the requirements of how the president of the BoCC was determined to allow her to claim the presidency.

Never questioned was what gave the newly elected board the authority to change the requirement pertaining to themselves.

Typically, the presiding board can take actions, such as an increase in salary that will take place in the following elected board, meaning they would need to be reelected to benefit.

Growing pains in the implementation of the new charter government have been evident ever since the swearing in of the newly elected officials.

Whether Gardner can take executive action in regard to this recent ethics opinion or whether Otis acted properly by co-signing the letter with Jan without him taking the issue before the council for a vote are just the latest examples of the growing pains.

In this case of a firm being owned by council member Delauter, being allowed to bid on county projects, the opinion issued by The Ethics Commission looks and smells bad to voters. If something smells bad to voters, it is typically wrong.

Council president Bud Otis should take this issue to the council and obtain legal advice on the proper manner to proceed to take action to reverse the ill advised opinion issued by The Ethics Commission.

Hopefully, the committee appointed by Gardner to update the county ethics ordinance will also conclude their effort soon.

Stay tuned

AND, SO IT BEGINS…

The 2016 race for president is officially underway now that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton made her run official with an airing of a 2 minute video on social media Sunday around 3:00 PM ET.

This approach was made to highlight a more personal message from Hillary to voters.

In her 2008 presidential announcement, the message was more that she was adorned the Democratic Party nominee with her statement “I’m in it to win it”.

This time, Hillary did not appear until the last 30 seconds of the 2 minute video.  Her youthful and energetic appearance coming after several couples discussed their dreams.  Women issues, a Hispanic couple, a same sex couple and an African American couple were all highlighted followed by Hillary saying she was going to start a listening tour and ending with her saying “I want to earn your vote”.

Off to Iowa her campaign will go to begin the six week tour before a more formal announcement and rally takes place the end of May.

Mainstream media has been waiting impatiently for this announcement.

Hillary, already the leader in polls by a huge margin among Democratic wanabees for president, will now have to earn voters support by what she says and does over the next 18 months.

The opposition Clinton will face in her campaign for president is weak among Democrats and Republicans.

While a contested primary is generally a good thing as it makes a candidate articulate their positions on the issues, there just is no serious Democratic contender.  Former Governors Lincoln Chafee (Rhode Island) and Martin O’Malley (Maryland) are not registering in the polls and there is no reason they will as time goes by.

Former Virginia senator Jim Webb would certainly be an interesting candidate.  But, it is doubtful he has the fire in his belly to do so.

Instead, it will be Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and to a lesser extent economist Robert Reich who will influence the Democratic Party nomination.  Warren’s influence will not come as a candidate, but as a senior spokesperson in the U.S. Senate.  Reich’s from his closeness to the Clinton’s (he served as Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton’s administration) and his position as chair of Common Cause, a group that also supports much of the change that Warren calls for.

Their influence was noticeable in the 2 minute Hillary Clinton announcement video.  After the couples filmed previously in the video talked about what their needs and desires were, Hillary spoke to the issue of inequality, saying “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.”

The huge income gap between the few percent at the top and the rest of Americans has been stressed by both Reich, who produced a movie “Inequality for All” and Warren.

The Republican Party looks hopelessly caught in an earlier time and out of touch with the reality of today, making their prospects for a victory in 2016 very daunting.

Hillary Clinton, in a 2 minute video touched women (a major voting block), African Americans (who traditionally will vote Democratic), Hispanics and same sex voters.

That leaves aspiring Republican candidates to focus on White male voters; a losing proposition in today’s politics.

The huge number of 20 possible Republican candidates also reflects a fractured party, lacking in leadership and the ability to reach consensus on issues.  Their war hawkish approach to Iran and opposition to the nuclear treaty being negotiated by the Obama administration is also out of touch with American voters, where 60% of Americans favor reaching an agreement with Iran and avoiding war.

It is, of course, way early to make predictions.

However, it was this time prior to the 2012 election I predicted the candidates would be Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney.  I also correctly predicted Romney would lose convincingly to Obama.

This longer and more low-key roll out of the Hillary Clinton campaign is a good approach for someone who is already well known by voters.

With a heavily financed and well organized campaign, look to see Clinton emerge as the Democratic candidate.

Her likely Republican opponent for president will be well known Jeb Bush who also has a strong financed and organized campaign.

The 2016 vote margin will be closer than Obama vs. Romney, but I see Hillary Clinton earning the votes to become the first women elected president of the United States.

Stay tuned.