Jimeno's Retirement Shakes Things Up

The retirement of Senator Phil Jimeno is going to have some interesting consequences for our distict and our county.

Who will the Democrats run? Mike Miller, in the article, seems concerned as to who his party will put forth. Will it be School Board Member Ned Carey from Brooklyn Park? Will it be Senator Jimeno's son Gregory? Will somebody else jump in the fray?

Will John Lepold once again drop out of the County Executive race to run for State Senate? Leopold traditionally quits the County Executive race in the May-June timetable, so quitting to run for State Senate, instead of continuing on, is surely something on his radar.

What happens to the four candidates continuing on in their race for County Executive? Will more drop out? Will more run?

And what about the candidates running for office already in District 31. The Republican side has four announced candidates for State Senate, plus six announced candidates for Delegate. If Leopold does quit, how will all of that shake out?

Jimeno's retirement leaves us with so many more questions than answers this morning.

More on Gas Prices

To add on to the previous post, Forbes notes that despite the high gas prices, people are not adjusting their behavior(hat tip: Instapundit):

But what's more interesting about these stories is what they don't tell you. For example, the Associated Press reports that "surveys indicate drivers won't be easing off on their mileage, using even more gas than a year ago." Now why is that? If prices are rising, one would expect consumers would use less.

The answer might be in some of the long-term trends that the short-term media lens is too cramped to see. Energy prices may be rising, but energy itself is much less important to consumers and to the overall economy than it once was.

This graph is handy to note that the cost per BTU declined rather steadily from over $18 per BTU in 1973 to just over $10 per BTU in 2000.

And let us not forgot that when adjusted for inflation, the price of a gallon of gas reached its peak during the Carter Administration.

The ultimate question becomes this: what will be the tipping point that makes people change their use of gasoline? Let's just hope that we don't have to return to the bad old days.

O'Malley Owes a few apologies

Looks like Martin O'Malley jumped the gun when he bad-mouthed those who were critical of his record on crime fighting:

Nearly five months into the year, the Police Department is grappling with stubborn spates of violence and property crimes in six of the city's nine police districts. Some districts, such as the Northern, have seen a double-digit percentage increase in violent crime. The Southeastern District - composed of such areas as Fells Point, Canton, Patterson Park and Highlandtown - has seen a sharp uptick in property crimes.

Homicides and shootings also have increased over last year, with 86 killings so far this year - 13 more than in the comparable period last year.

That paints a happy picture.

Amazingly, O'Malley managed to get through the entire Sun article without blaming it on the Governor, which may be considered miraculous.

This just proves the point that things are not well in our state's most important city. The Mayor claims to be making progress on crime and on education, and we have seen time and time again that it just isn't the case.

What's more, there have been many people who have been critical of O'Malley's record. Usually, the O'Malley campaign (and his apologists at The Sun), claim that those who bash O'Malley are bashing Baltimore, and that has just never been the case. The fact of the matter is that O'Malley (and any candidate for Governor) deserves a critical look at their record, and frankly O'Malley's record is not a good one. More crime, more taxes, and now ethical problems on his watch do not bode well for the state of Maryland were he to be elected.

Given the stinging rebukes that O'Malley has leveled towards his detractors, he really owes them an apology. The facts in this case are not on his side.

Gassing on Gas

I never cease to be amazed at the lengths that Martin O'Malley will go to in order to blame everything bad on Governor Ehrlich.

This week, it is gas prices:

O’Malley, standing in front of three city gas stations, charged the Ehrlich administration with not doing enough to fight higher gas prices. Linking the recent rise in fuel prices to poor transit planning and lax regulatory enforcement, the mayor said the rise in the cost of fuel is hurting working families.

Follow that logic. Apparently, the Governor can control what gas stations charge, in the eyes of the Mayor. And then there is the obligatory price-gouging complaints:

To fix the problem, the mayor called for tighter regulatory enforcement to prevent price-gouging, including a hot line that Marylanders could call to report prices as well as “find out what they should be paying.”

In September, I proposed a simple solution: cut the gas tax. But that didn't really take off in this Democratic controlled legislature. Instead, the legislature (and O'Malley) immediately jump to price controls and more regulation, with O'Malley's father-in-law playing both sides as The Sun's Jay Franklin also noted in September. At least is not the Excess Profits Tax that Congressional Democrats want to run up the flagpole.

It just reminds me of what the Governor said about O'Malley"

Dogs bark, cows moo, O'Malley whines.

Incidentally, not all of O'Malley's solutions on this are bad. Increasing the number of hybrid vehicles in the state fleet and tax credits for companies making alternative fuels are good for the environment and good for the economy. But proposed price-gouging laws and further regulation is anything but.

And let us not forget about the bills signed by Parris Glendening from the 2001 Legislative Session, the "Sam's Club" law that prohibits gas stations from selling below cost in order to drum up business. It is hard to say if gas prices would be lower is SB687 and HB736 were not law. And remember; John Leopold was the only sitting member of the General Assembly from Anne Arundel County to vote for both the House and Senate versions of the bill. And I think will make Delegate Leopold very uncomfortable as he runs for County Executive in the current environment of high gas prices, with consumers looking for relief.

Appropos

Apparently, President Clinton's wedding ring is MIA from his new official portrait.

Apparently no one noticed the ring was missing before the unveiling of the likeness by renowned realistic painter Nelson Shanks. Camp Clinton spent much of yesterday figuring out how to explain its absence.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, asked about it after a press conference, stammered, referring inquiries to her husband. "You know, I think that I ... you'll have to ask him or his office," she said.

His office blamed Shanks.

"I guess it's called artistic license for a reason because President Clinton, as usual, was wearing his wedding ring when he posed for the portrait," said spokesman Jay Carson.

Tell you the truth, the portrait itself is kinda creepy. Not quite as creepy as Parris Glendening's portrait and its Lands End gone wrong vibe, but still pretty unnerving.

It Doesn't Help

Local media can run as many stories about I Hate Jeffrey Maier as they want; he still did it, and it still cost the Orioles a shot to win the World Series.

I am convinced to this day that if umpire Rich Garcia does the right thing and calls Jeter out (and little did we know that this would be the start of a decade-long trend of gift calls that Jeter and the Yankees would get), then the Orioles win the game and probably the series.

Sorry, a movie doesn't heal that pain.

A Matter of Trust(eeship)

My alma mater, the College formerly known as Western Maryland College, elected more trustees over the weekend at their meeting. Two trustees, one WMC graduate, one non-graduate, were elected along with the re-election of other Board members.

One of my biggest problems with my alma mater, obviously, was the name change. I led the charge against the name change, attempting to keep the name of the school as Western Maryland College. Obviously, we were not successful; only the name "Western Maryland College Alumni Hall" (the school theater) remains today.

But I think the election of the directors, as well as the re-election of two non-grduates as Chairman and Vice-Chairman, once again shows the fundamental problem in that the college does not believe in its traditions. This goes back to a point that I made in March discussing the new athletic building. A trustee who did not graduate from the institution does not have the kind of connection to the school that a graduate trustee would. Am I saying that all trustees should be graduates? Absolutely not. But to have the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of a college so rich in tradition and scholarship as WMC has not proved to be particualrly productive in the last five years.

Do I think James Melhorn and Martin Hill are bad people? Absolutely not. But just because the two men have connections to the Westminster and Carroll County business community, it does not necessarily mean that they are in tune with where the college's alumni sit on issues. And that is the key to tradition and community. I get the phone calls (sometimes twice a day) from WMC solicitors asking for donations. I don't even pick up the phone. After the name change, the school is not going to get a donation from me. I might help individual clubs (I offered to help WMC's MSL delegation this year) but I cannot bear the thought of donating to any funds put forth by the school. Not after the name change.

It is time for WMC to have more alumni trustees. It is the only way to go to maintain our traditions.

New Site is Up

The new BrianGriffiths.com is online as we gear up for the Central Committee election this fall. Please peruse it at your leisure.

A Strange Idea

Well, Democrats want to get the President one way or another:

State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) has sponsored a resolution calling on the General Assembly to submit charges to the U.S. House so its lawmakers could begin impeachment proceedings.

It would be the first state legislature to pass such a resolution, though the measure faces a dim future in a Republican-controlled Congress.

Hat tip: RedState

Apparently, the legislators believe that they can use Jefferson's A Manual of Parliamentary Practice, which is a document that even me the uber-political science geek am not familiar with. Since the manual is apparently a supplement to the House rules, the Illinois legislators think they have a window.

I can only imagine what the backlash would have been had a legislator in Idaho, Montana, or Nebraska (for example) had attempted to do something similar to President Clinton.

The fact of the matter is that this is just a waste of everybody's time. I think given the recent conviction of former Governor Ryan, Illinois has problems much more important, complex, and locally relevant than impeaching the President. If Democrats want to complete that this President has done more posturing than leading, how do they think stunts like these look to your average voter.

Furthermore, the use of this provision could have disastrous consequences. If Illinois is successful with their charge, that opens up not only the President to charges of impeachment, but every member of Congress, every federal judge, every federal official would be potentially subjected to impeachment investigations instigated by the states. It would be the tyranny of the minority: I am sure that there are legislators in Maryland that would go forth and waste the peoples' time and money on a frivolous impeachment attempts.

The bottom line is that this idea is a bad one for the sake of our system of government and of our political sanity. But the Democrats need to realize that President Bush is in office for another thirty-two months; they better learn how to deal with it in a civilized manner, or else they will never be able to make political gains.

Only the Sun...

...could have a new columnist resign the day before her first column.

Really makes you wonder about the climate in the newsroom on Calvert Street.

Superintendent Search Shows Need for Elected Boards

The most important task that the Board of Education undertakes is the selection of a new Superintendent. The Superintendent is the one who ultimately makes the day-to-day operating decisions regarding school policy and school operations. Last time around the Board of Education gave us Eric Smith, and in the minds of many that decision was either a good one or a bad one. But his departure gave us a vacancy, and I think that the current Board should be commended for the openness of this particular selection process.

Ultimately though, it is the Board of Education who selects the Superintendent. The new leader's successes are the Board's successes, and the new leader's failures are the Board's failures. And this is just another reason to have a fully elected Board of Education. Board members should be accountable for the selection that they make. If the members pick a wonderful Superintendent, I am sure that the members would be rewarded at he ballot box. If they make a bad choice (or a Superintendent who abandons the school system as Eric Smith did), then they will have to answer to the voters for their decision.

The choice of Superintendent is the most important decision the Board makes. Ultimately, the public should have the opportunity to voice their approval or disapproval with their selection.

Poll Results

Completely proving the unscientific nature of this poll:

Bissett: 94.1%
Leopold: 5.9%
Everybody else: 0%

I heard from several voters who were having difficulty voting, saying that their computers had been blocked from voting because somebody had already voted from their location. Not sure what it means, but take these results for whatever they are worth.

An Experiment

I have decided to try a Blogpoll, just to gauge where my readers are at on a few subjects. And the first decided non-scientific poll up regards our County Executive primary in 2006:




If you are interested in other polls for elections far away, Hugh Hewitt's April GOP Presidential Straw Poll is up.

The Games They Play

No matter how The Capital tries to spin early voting as a good thing for Anne Arundel Republicans, it just does not pass the smell test.

I am not going to question the constitutionality of these laws; I am sure that there are constitutional arguments both for and against early voting, and early voting has been used in other states for years. Oregon went as far as switching to all vote-by-mail elections in 1998. The legality is not the point, nor is it the problem.

The problem is with the history of our fair state. Due to the machinations of the Democratic General Assembly, the preponderance of early-voting precincts are in (surprise!) heavily Democratic precincts. Given Maryland's notorious history with shady elections, the last thing we need are to have mechanisms in place that could bring the validity of election results into question.

The overall Democratic strategy of messing around with election laws might give one the impression that Maryland Democrats have no confidence in their chances to defeat Governor Ehrlich, retain Paul Sarbanes' seat, or to increase their majority in the statehouse this November.

Odds and Ends

• If the Titans do not want to allow QB Steve McNair to practice at the team's facilities, maybe they should just release him. I can think of one team that may be more than a little interested to let him train.
• Maybe this will discourage teams from giving outrageous bonuses. The Titans owe McNair a $50 million roster bonus soon.
• If you think you have tax problems, read this article from ESPN dealing with franchise ownership and estate taxes, particularly in passing NFL team ownership from parents to children.
• And if you think that these rich team owners have problems, imagine passing a family business or family farm down from in the family. All the more reason to permanently eliminate the death tax.
• Mike Gravel? For President? I'm not even sure Democratic voters are ready for that concept.
• The Orioles team ERA at the moment is 5.12. The team ERA for all of 2005 was 4.56. Does that mean Leo Mazzone is failing (answer: no. Can you imagine how much Brower, Byrdak and Cabrera skews that right now?)
• The Braves, on the other hand, have jumped from 3.98 to 5.72.
• If the Orioles are going to stay in contention, they are going to have to score more runs early in games. The team just won't be able to rely on come-from-behind victories all season. The team is tied for second at the moment with Tampa Bay, and will need to get ahead early to stay in this race.
• Yes, Tampa Bay is in second place.
• I cannot understand for the life of me some car manufacturers. My Ford Taurus rental (which is from after my accident; a whole other story itself) has no remote door control, yet has no key hole in any door but the passenger door. How does that work?
  

Growing Pains

I still support the concept of the Examiner being a competitor to the Sun, but you can tell that the new paper is still getting its feet wet. One staff writing wrote this in a story about local bills today:

The stroke of midnight Monday also signaled the end of a few Anne Arundel delegates’ tenure in the General Assembly. Leopold and Republican Del. David Boschert have both resigned their seats to run for county executive.

Of course, neither man has actually resigned his seat. If they did resign, the Central Committee would still be responsible for choosing a nominee for the Governor to appoint to the seat, even though the term of office expires before the next regular General Assembly session. And I am also certain that, since there are still 82 days until the filing deadline, that both men will want to retain their incumbency if they decide to drop out and run for re-election.

The point here, however, is that the Examiner needs to make sure they get the little things like this right before they will seriously challenge the Sun's primacy.

I Get Letters...

Apparently I have readers in the Lowe Building, and in these closing days of the General Assembly session, some of these readers have little to do than catch up with some of my old writings:

Subject: You Fool
From: "Delegate Don Dwyer"
Date: Wed, April 05, 2006 2:49 pm
To: brian@briangriffiths.com

Brian,

Just thought you should know that the entire delegation DID NOT SUPPORT HB24. McConkey, McMillan and Dwyer opposed the bill and the option to make it a delegation bill. If you question my information, please contact Del. Love.

A PDF copy of the e-mail is here. The post referenced was posted six weeks ago, and apparently the issue is that I wrote:

It seems like that even the House Delegation cannot decide on which bill it supports. Some delegates support HB24, some delegates support HB1375. The situation is so completely out of hand that Delegate Dwyer is, according to the Capital, in the absurd position of opposing a bill that he is sponsoring.

Now to be fair, Don Dwyer did vote against the bill in the delegation meeting and voted against the bill on the floor.

However, that does not change the fact that Don Dwyer was a consponsor of the original version of the bill when it was prefiled by he and Delegates Leopold, Busch, and Love in September.

Nor does it change the fact that Dwyer co-signed this factually incorrect letter to the editor to the Capital, along with John Leopold, in response to a letter I sent blasting HB24.

What I don't understand is why Don Dwyer flip-flopped on this important issue. Why sponsor a bill if, ultimately, you choose to vote against it?

The Fight Begins Tomorrow

Tomorrow, the Baltimore Examiner launches its daily operations. I have added the Examiner to the list of news links on the right hand side of the page. And it could not come a moment too soon.

The truth is that The Sun has been unopposed in this one-daily town since the News-American went out of business twenty years ago. Since then, what have we seen? A slowly declining paper that has strayed so far from its journalistic course that it now openly cheerleads to Democratic measures and Democratic lawmakers.

Will the Examiner change that? Probably not. But competition of any sort is good for the people of the Baltimore metropolitan area. We all should wish the Examiner well, welcome them with open arms, and be sure to check out the new kid on the block. The fight for the Baltimore newspaper market begins tomorrow...

Safe Again

The Capital reported today that HB24, the School Board bill, was killed by the Senate Delegation yesterday. And good riddance to the bad bill.

Mark Fontaine, Chairman of the School Board Nominating Convention (and Mark is a good guy with one tough job on his hands every year), said a lot of what I have been saying all along:

Mark Fontaine, the nominating convention's chairman, opposed the bill. At yesterday's Senate delegation meeting in Annapolis, he said the new system would have "disenfranchised" taxpayers and parents who have a strong voice with the current system.

"The bill limits people, and I think that's bad," he said.

It is still appalling that the supporters of this bill wanted to refer to this as an elected school board, especially considering that the bill sponsors could not explain the bill to the public.

We are safe for this year, however this kind of nonsense will rear its ugly head once more. The only saving grace for county residents is that Delegate John Leopold is running for County Executive. Due to his run for County Executive, the kind of nonsense that was in HB24 will lose its biggest cheerleader (assuming that Delegate Leopold does not drop out of the race for County Executive...again).

Only by electing Delegates and Senators who support real reform through an elected school board will we be able to fix this mess and enact real reform in the way parents and taxpayers choose board members.

DeLay's Departure

I'm not sure how much more can be said about the resignation of Tom DeLay. As his resignation as Majority Leader was good for the party and good for the country, the end of his Congressional career will be as well. Was Tom DeLay the victim of a zealous prosecutor? Absolutely. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has a history of trumped up charges against Republicans from around the state, due to election law cases being tried in the state capital. But that is not what matters in this case. What matters is perception. DeLay's indictment, the conviction for two DeLay staffers, combined with the Abramoff scandal led to this ultimate, defining moment today.

DeLay had become a polarizing figure in the public discourse. There was no way that Congressional Republicans could avoid a stigma, no matter how undeserved, if he stayed on board. Democrats have attempted to link just about every living, breathing Republican to DeLay in one manner or another. I don't think they will have Tom DeLay to kick around anymore.

He probably stayed longer than he should have, but DeLay's departure is the best of all possible outcomes.

Indict McKinney

Capitol Police have asked prosecutors to indict Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for the scuffle that occured last week between McKinney and a Capitol Police Officer. I hope that prosecutors do issue the indictment.

An indictment of Cynthia McKinney will remind all members of Congress that they are not above the law (though Cynthia McKinney is certainly not represenatitive of a normal member of Congress). As much as McKinney supporters would like to turn this into a race issue, it is an issue of process. The fact of the matter is that in a situation such as this one, John Q. Public would likely be indicted in the same circumstances. McKinney should face a similar indictment. Besides, whose fault is it that McKinney chooses not to wear her Member of Congress pin?

An indictment of McKinney, like the prosecution of Duke Cunningham, will hopefully remind Congressman that there are standards they must keep in order to keep the public trust...and their jobs.

The Ghost of Chicken Littles Past

The next time somebody comes to you with a dire prediction about the effects of global warming, remember this.

"There are ominous signs that the Earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production -- with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now.... The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it."
- "The Cooling World": From Newsweek, April 28, 1975, as reprinted in this morning's Washington Times.

We all should do what we can to protect the environement, but not in the name of alarmist, reactionary environmental concerns. Clean air and clean water is good, as we have seen with the air that is cleaner than it has ever been in modern times. But as we can see from this Newsweek story, scientists are sometimes wrong, and doing something for the sake of doing something often can take us in the wrong direction.

Seeing Red

I am glad to see that The Capital finally discovered what most commons sense people already understood. Red light cameras generate tickets, generate millions in revenue, but do not improve traffic safety.

A Bad Day

Yesterday was the General Assembly's commemoration of April Fool's Day, just one day early. Yesterday was a bad day for common sense in the state of Maryland, thanks to the General Assembly:

• The legislature has voted to fire the Public Service Commission, making four of five members subject to legislative appointment. The bill, though, does not change the power of the PSC, and a new PSC would have absolutely no way to act any different in regards to the BGE rate hikes than the one appointed by the Governor did.
  
  
• Sentenced students in eleven Baltimore City schools to another year of underperforming schools by voting to delay the state takeover of those schools by one year.
  
  
• Passed a bill requiring cabinet secretaries to be reconfirmed if they stay for a second term.
  
  
• The House passed the Dick Hugh Campaign Finance Act to limit political activities by members of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents.
  
  
• The House also passed a bill establishing precincts and polling places on college campuses,
  

Unfortunately, it looks like some of these bills have veto-proof majorities voting for them. I am not sure what has possessed the Democrats in the legislature to unleash an all out assault on gubernatorial power in this, the final year before the election, but it is a sad commentary on the leadership abilities of the legislative Democrats. The facts seem to spell out the fact that Democratic leadership in this state has a sense of entitlement, an entitlement to run the state how they see fit. To them, Governor Ehrlich and legislative Republicans are just a road block to the getting their way.

Of course, perhaps this blatant display of partisanship will give common sense votes the impetus to throw out uncompromising, ineffective legislators at the ballot box this September and November.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Deregulation

The fact of the matter is that the current rate hikes and the current deregulation scheme was foisted upon Marylanders by Democrats. There is no other way to articulate it.

It was in 1999 that HB 703 and SB 300 were passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Paris Glendening. Democratic leadershp shepherded the bill through the process. The Senate bill had two sponsors; the primary sponsor, Senate President Mike Miller. His effort was joined by Sen. Thomas Bromwell. The bill was passed, and put into effect during the time Max Curran served as Chairman of the Public Service Commission. The bill itself was barely deregulation; it is hard to promote competition among energy companies when prices are capped.

Fast-foward seven years. Democratic leadership is blaming the Ehrlich Administration for the impending rate hike. Miller is calling for the head of the Bromwell, himself now Chairman of the Public Service Commission, for not doing enough to stop this. Mayor O'Malley is criticizing the administration for decisions made when his brother-in-law chaired the PSC.

Do legislative Democratics think the public is buying this stuff? The facts are the facts; the same Democrats criticizing the Ehrlich Administration for their handling of the situation were the same Democrats who created the situation in 1999. This is their baby. This is their fault. Their reaction, quite frankly, has been no better. First came the blame game. Next came a "legislative remedy,' in the form of a serious of reactionary bills that do not seem as if they were written understanding the full implacations. While they were at it, Democratic leadership decided to take a few more swipes at the power enjoyed by Governors in this state by attempting to reform the appontment process of the PSC.

I understand the fact that something needs to be done concerning the rate hikes; the percentage of the hikes proposed by BGE are obscene. But did anybody stop to ask how many employees Constellation Energy has in Maryland?

The truth about this deregulation mess is uncomfortable to everybody. But the Democrats have made a brazen attempt to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the rate hikes, and that is just plain dishonest.