Get Steinereized

I will be returning to The Marc Steiner Show tonight from 6-7 PM on WEAA 88.9 FM.

We'll be talking about the political, economic, and social divisions in the US and how it relates to this past weekend's anniversary of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech and the Restoring Honor rally.

And if you have listened before, you know that I will be the guy on the air that's making sense....but I hope you can catch the show.

Letters to the Beyond

Sometimes I get letters. Sometimes Derek Fink sends them to Republican voters in Council District 3. And this one is quite the doozy. Please read it for yourself.
Fink Letter

Bud hit a lot of the points on Friday, but a lot of them deserved continued discussion.

In the third paragraph, Fink declares that he likes to get right to the point. Except for the obvious fact that if you are two paragraphs in and haven't made a point yet, then you probably don't like to get right to the point.

Fink says: "We must begin, at the local level, to take back our government from those out-of-touch liberal politicians and bureaucrats." Which of course is a very interesting statement. For you see, incumbent County Councilman Ron Dillon is a Republican. Our three Delegates are Republicans. Our State Senator is a Republican. Our County Executive is a Republican. Our Register of Wills, Clerk of the Court, Orphans Court judges are Republicans....

....so has Derek Fink called out his own party as being full of liberals. As Bud notes, "if there's a problem at the local level, then it's only fair to blame the party in power," which in this case is our party. Which if there is a problem at the local level, does that mean he is declaring Delegates Nic Kipke and Steve Schuh, two guys who stuck their necks our early to endorse Fink, as liberals? I tend to believe that both of those gentlemen would dispute that notion, but apparently their guy might think otherwise.

Fink goes on in the letter to do the really classy thing of attacking his opponents personally, just not by name:

My opponents in the Republican Primary have records of supporting "Big Government" along with checkered pasts and both political and legal baggage. They have been members of the Democrat Party, one has a criminal record, and there are countless bankruptcy filings, financial problems, and foreclosures in their pasts.

Well, there is a rich irony in Fink's campaign putting out a statement like this, especially given the controversy surrounding Fink's campaign and his separation in his business dealings with Cookie Kiser. But of course, the implication that all of his opponents have legal baggage is also easily debunked by searching the Court Records; former County Councilman Dutch Holland, for example, is only listed in court cases related to his duties as a County Councilman. Why would Fink insinuate that Holland had legal problems without naming names OR providing any evidence?

There are other less interesting parts of the letter. Fink lays out an alleged "Six Point Plan" for success that goes into no more detail than the unoriginal, not at all detailed bullet points that have been on his website for a year.He does talk about one of my pet issues, direct election of the Anne Arundel County School Board, without actually acknowledging that he has zero power as a County Councilman to make a change to our current process.

What does this letter ultimately tell us about Derek Fink. It tells of of a campaign that remains in a continued panic. A campaign that does not connect with voters in District 3. A candidate that is desperate to win and remove roadblocks from his campaign, regardless of the methods. It also talks a little bit about the character of Derek Fink, which given the things that we have already discussed and some of the unsubstantiated rumors that surround Fink continues to be in question. If the guy who throw Nic Kipke and Steve Schuh under the bus for political gain, what will this guy do if he gets elected to the County Council?

I for one will not be voting for Derek Fink on September 14th.

Judd Legum Smacked Down

Judd Legum has been running around spinning a yarn implying that Delegate Ron George bought his seat in the House of Delegates in 2006.

"Four years ago, the Republican incumbent in our district reached into his own deep pocket and dumped $80,000 into the race to win by 53 votes."

Kudos to Paul Foer for picking up on this, and for giving Leugm repeated opportunities to back up his claims, as well as giving Delegate George the opportunity to respond.

Well if you know about Judd Legum, you already know that he didn't respond. But Ron George did:

There is a fundraising note going out from the Legum campaign that makes claims and I want to set the record straight. I do not have "deep pockets", nor did I spend $80,000 of my own money. I started my campaign in 2006 by paying for some mailings and start-up costs myself instead of doing a start-up "loan" like other candidates do. Then as the campaign went on, my wife Becky and I made loans from our IRA and savings but never paid it back to ourselves. By the end of the 2 year campaign, we spent $40,000 of our own money which we had saved up for over a number of years. In addition, we raised another $122,000 almost entirely from people within the district. We were supposed to pay ourselves back what we loaned, but were so committed to the race that we did not. It left us broke but we were determined to invest in Maryland as our children wished to stay here and we were concerned for the environment, economic opportunity, and safety. Our deep love for Maryland drove us to be involved in a greater way.

The note from Legum attempts to play class warfare by claiming I have "deep pockets" and that I "dumped $80,000 into the race to win by 53 votes." Not true. The amount he claims rises each time he tells this story. He has used such language in the past saying his opponent is "independently wealthy", "entrenched", "sells diamonds" (that one is true but what is his point?). Becky and I work hard and scrimp and save just like everyone else. Michael Busch had $750,000 in his campaign account in the Spring of 2006. I had $50,000. Mr Legum has raised most of his money this cycle from interests outside the state and is doing very well. My donations are almost entirely from the hard working citizens of Anne Arundel County, mostly District 30.

What does Foer think of this entire mess:

So I repeatedly asked Legum to substantiate such charges. He did not. I would have thought that Legum, a lawyer and master in online and opposition research who ran Hillary Clinton's research department when she ran against Obama, would have easily been able to prove these claims to me....

...The big difference, among many differences between Legum and George is that George has both a voting record and one as a business owner in the area. Legum's record and background, although he is a local native, is less clear and less readily available. While he has been campaigning vigorously and knocking on doors, I'd much rather see him explaining who he is and what he intends to do as a delegate rather than attacking his likely Republican general opponent. Another big difference is that George came forward to explain his side of the story while we are still waiting for legum to provide some real data instead of telling me to dig it up.

So what lessons have been reinforced from this little exchange?

1. Judd Legum wants to be a Delegate in a bad, bad way;
2. Judd Legum will spin any yarn and tell any lie in order to become a member of the House of Delegate;
3. Judd Legum is more concerned with advancing his political career and obtaining power than either being honest with or representing the interest of the people of District 30.

Delegate Ron George is not basing his entire campaign on telling tales and is not relying on Washington insiders to buy his seat. Contact the Ron George campaign to see how you can help keep a responsible conservative in the House of Delegates.

Legum's Well Runs Dry

Judd Legum raised tens of thousands of dollars from out of state interests....but apparently he is having trouble raising $5,000 over two weeks these days:

Friend:

So close!

We need to raise $425.53 in the next 14 hours to reach our $5,000 goal before the campaign finance deadline. If you haven't had a chance yet, can you pitch in $20 right now to help us over the finish line?

http://www.JuddLegum.com/donate

As I campaign relentlessly around the district for Maryland State Delegate, a common question from political activists is: are you viable? In other words, before they support me and risk angering an incumbent, they want to know whether I have the resources to win.

With your help, we can send a strong signal across the district that this campaign should not be underestimated.

Sincerely,

Judd

On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 10:35 AM, Judd Legum <judd@juddlegum.com> wrote

Friend:

I'm extremely pleased to report that in five days, we've raised $4,005.47. That means with less than 48 hours to go before the campaign finance deadline we are just $994.53 from our $5,000 goal. If you haven't contributed to this effort yet, can you pitch in $20 right now?

http://www.JuddLegum.com/donate

I'm the only candidate in this race that's turning down money from state lobbyists and PACs. That's because I'm running to represent the people of this district and not any special interest seeking to exert influence over the State House.

But that also means I'm counting on you for the resources we need to win.

Best,

Judd

Judd Legum for Maryland
275 West St, Suite 305
Annapolis, MD 21401
443-510-8880
JuddLegum.com

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By Authority: Judd Legum for Maryland, Shane Nikolao, Treasurer

Apparently raising nearly $50,000 from out of state interests isn't enough for Legum. Of course, that may have something to do with the tall tales that he is telling about Ron George, but we will save that for a little bit later...

Hype, Reality, Gimmicks

If you listen to Martin O'Malley, you would think that Maryland is the land of milk and honey when it comes to job retention and job creation.

Of course, the reality of the situation could not be any different for the working men and women of our state:

Two well-paying blue-collar employers in Washington County are shuttering their businesses, adding to the woes of this Western Maryland county that already has a jobless rate among the highest in the state.

Read the whole story to learn about the bleak economic picture out in this region of our state. The recession impacts Western Maryland worse than many other areas of the state because the businesses in this region are competing against two states for businesses and job creation. Both Pennsylvania and West Virginia have a climate that is more conducive for economic growth given the fact that businesses face fewer unnecessary regulations and are no subjected to such a high cost of business through overtaxation.

Martin O'Malley has not been inclined to deal with the issue of economic growth and job creation throughout his term, as you know, since he insists on expanding the scope of government and raising taxes on businesses and individuals alike.

But that does not mean that the administration is doing nothing in an effort to pretend like they are creating a conducive economic climate. The Democrats in Annapolis still insisted on bringing back the sales tax holiday each August as part of the Saturday Night Massacre back in 2007. As part of their effort to raise taxes to historic and immoral levels, Democrats decided that the least they could do is to give citizens the facade that their care by overhyping a sales tax holiday on small purchases that does little more than prove to citizens how much they actually pay in taxes on even the most basic of items. The sales tax holiday is little more than a gimmick designed to make people think that the Democrats in Annapolis care about them.

There are fewer than 90 days until the election. And on November 2nd we will have the opportunity to elect a Governor and members of the General Assembly who will take steps to improve instead of destroy our economy.

Judd Legum Hugs Thugs

Our favorite bought and paid for Washington insider "Progressive Democrat" Judd Legum was as proud as a peacock today:

Proud to be endorsed by the working men and women of @SEIU

That's kinda funny that Judd Legum is tripping all over himself to talk about his proud endorsement by the Service Employees International Union.

But....does anybody remember the last time we mentioned the SEIU? Let us take you back to May when members of the SEIU decided that instead of participating in reasoned discourse that they would instead decided to intimidate a 14-year old boy. Just in case you forgot, here's the video of that:



I suppose then through his acceptance of the endorsement and his complete lack of silence on this heinous act that Judd Legum supports political violence and intimidation of his political opponents.

Of course that's not the only issue that we have seen in recent months with the SEIU. Let us take you back to April when the SEIU was involved in an attack add falsely accusing Governor Ehrlich of being a lobbyist, notwithstanding the fact that the SEIU's own President was an unregistered lobbyist working with the White House.

Then again, maybe the SEIU endorsement has nothing to do with Legum's non-response on union thuggery and has everything to do with the involvement of both the SEIU and Legum's Center for American Progress in the secretive Democracy Alliance project that funneled money between liberal interest groups without the needless hassle of disclosure of their donor lists.

Regardless of this, one thing has remained perfectly clear throughout the entire length of this campaign in District 30. Judd Legum has no principles. He will take any endorsement, no matter what the organization is. He will spare no expense to raise tens of thousands of dollars from out of state if it means that he can advance his political career at the expense of the residents of Maryland and the residents of District 30. He continues to refer to his mentor John Podesta, a guy who is so out there that he is a UFO-truther. And it is perfectly clear that by getting in bed with the SEIU leadership that Judd Legum has no problem with intimidation of those people who disagree with him.

Judd Legum may have gotten into bed with thugs....and maybe that has something to do with the fact that Judd Legum has no balls and is too yellow to actually defend himself....but it is unmistakable that Judd Legum has willingly taken the endorsement of those that condone political violence. And I do not find such an endorsement acceptable of somebody who wants to serve in the House of Delegates.