OMG: Julius Henson to Challenge Sen. Nate McFadden // Bob Ehrlich's Convicted Robocall Consultant Talks Serious Smack

UPDATE:  A Maryland Juice reader Tweeted us a link to an Examiner article by Hassan Giordano that dishes the details on Julius Henson's campaign for State Senate. Henson has some particularly incendiary comments about State Senator McFadden (excerpt below):

EXAMINER: Announcing his run on Friday, on the Frank Conaway Show on WOLB1010AM; Henson shook up the local political world doing something he hasn't done since 1972, run his own campaign for elected office....

"I've known I was going to run for this seat for about 6-months now, and it's about time someone shined a bright light on Senator [Nathaniel] McFadden as being a symbol of what's wrong with politics today," said Henson, who pointed to the Senator not even living in the East Baltimore district he's been elected to serve.

"Everyone knows he lives in Cross Keys, and he'll sell you out [the constituents] in a heartbeat to the high powered lobbyists [like Bruce Bereano] for a $5 chicken box."

Baltimore politico Doni Glover posted on his Facebook page that Julius Henson is challenging State Senator Nathaniel McFadden (District 45, Baltimore City). Henson (a Democrat) was convicted last year of charges relating to voter suppression robocalls on behalf of former GOP Governor Bob Ehrlich. WJZ described the charges as follows (excerpt below):

WJZ: [Prosecutors] say the call was an illegal trick to try to get Democrat voters to stay home by telling them Governor Martin O’Malley had already won.

"We’re OK. Relax. Everything is fine. The only thing left is to watch it on TV tonight," the call said....

Check out the following screencap of Doni Glover's announcement about the Julius Henson campaign:

WATCH TV DEBATES: Maryland Juice vs. Red Maryland, Del. Heather Mizeur vs. Gov. Bob Ehrlich, SEIU vs. Help Save MD

As we get closer to the November 6th election day, numerous media outlets are beginning to cover the various candidate horse races and ballot question battles with greater scrutiny. Some local TV reporters are also beginning to host right-left dialogues to tease out the arguments (and spin) from both sides. Today, we highlight a few worthwhile TV debates, including one tomorrow night featuring Maryland Juice! You can also watch Del. Heather Mizeur debate former Gov. Bob Ehrlich below:

TOMORROW NIGHT: MARYLAND JUICE ENCOUNTERS RED MARYLAND ON TV - Maryland Juice (aka David Moon) will be appearing on a televised "Political Roundtable" on the MPT show "State Circle." I'll be appearing alongside Red Maryland blogger Mark Newgent. Catch us on MPT Friday night (Oct. 5) at 7:30 pm.

The left-right dialogue is billed as a conversation between "a Republican blogger and a Democratic blogger to discuss the latest happenings in the state government." But I suspect we'll be talking about topics like so-called voter fraud, the ballot questions, and issues in the 6th Congressional District race. Watch the show tomorrow night on MPT @ 7:30 pm. We'll also post the online version of the discussion once it is available.

WARNING: Turn your eyes away from the stretched photo of my face above!  :)

WATCH ONLINE: DEL. HEATHER MIZEUR VS. GOV. BOB EHRLICH DEBATE THE DEBATE - News Channel 8's Bruce DePuyt today had a segment featuring Del. Heather Mizeur and Mitt Romney's Maryland Chair - former Gov. Bob Ehrlich. The Democrat and Republican appeared on air to discuss the impact of last night's debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney:



ALSO ON MPT FRIDAY NIGHT: SEIU VS. HELP SAVE MARYLAND ON THE DREAM ACT (QUESTION 4) - In addition to Maryland Juice & Red Maryland, tomorrow night's "State Circle" broadcast will include a debate over the Dream Act (Question 4). The segment will feature Mark McLaurin from SEIU and Brad Botwin from Help Save Maryland. SEIU is one of the leading members of the Educating Maryland Kids coalition, a group promoting a "vote for" Question 4. Help Save Maryland is a nativist group that is airing radio ads urging a "vote against" Question 4. Watch the debate on MPT Friday night (Oct. 5) at 7:30 pm.

SNEAK PREVIEW: Divisive Direct Mail Propaganda & Lawnsigns From MD Marriage Equality Opponents // SCANNED IMAGES

An anonymous source reveals that the obsessive, anti-LGBT lobby in Maryland is continuing to use divisive, hate-mongering tactics to try and stop marriage equality at the ballot this November. They have formed a new ballot issue committee called Jump the Broom for Marriages, which appears to be run by relatives of Bob Ehrlich's disgraced robocall consultant, Julius Henson (see filing documents at bottom of post). Our source provides the following commentary about this group and their disgraceful new propaganda campaign:

ANONYMOUS SOURCE: See attached files for materials from the press packet being prepared by an anti-marriage equality group - Jump the Broom for Marriages.  They have filed with MD Board of Elections as a Ballot Issue Committee.  Interesting to note that the Treasurer for the Committee is Raymond Henson, who I was told is a relative of Julius Henson (who worked for Ehrlich's 2010 gubernatorial campaign and was responsible for the "stay at home" robocall on election night). 

Attached you will find correspondences and pics of the lawn signs they are offering and pics of the glossy 9" x 4"mailers that are targeted at various demographic groups.  Note that the mailers include some truly perjorative pitches -- one shows scantily clad marchers in a Pride parade, another shows a group of babies who seem confused about their parents' gender.  The others include a pitch to Afr Amer, Latinos; cowboys who love big busty women and young caucasians.

A press packet for the anti-civil rights group is included below (scroll to bottom), but it notes the following goals for Jump the Broom for Marriages (excerpt below):

JUMP THE BROOM FOR MARRIAGES: Jump the Broom for Marriages is a Maryland Ballot Issue Committee formed to run a political campaign to encourage Maryland voters to vote against--and defeat--the same-sex. marriage ballot referendum. The referendum will appear on the Maryland ballot as Question 6 in the 2012 Presidential Election. This referendum is titled "Marriage Equality," but we know that same-sex marriages are counterfeit marriages. You share our belief that this gay and lesbian agenda runs counter to God's intentions....

In order to successfully defeat the same-sex marriage ballot referendum, we need to mobilize voters, particularly the African American community in Maryland. While we believe that a concentrated campaign must be waged statewide to all voters, the final outcome-success or failure -- will be determined in the African American precincts of Baltimore City, and of Prince George's, Baltimore, Howard, Harford, and Charles Counties. Montgomery County, Prince George's County and Baltimore City comprise the largest population centers of liberal Democrats who are most likely to support same-sex marriage, or so called "Marriage Equality." The other twenty-one counties are smaller conservative population centers of Republicans, and they are the least likely to support same-sex marriage....

Our campaign budget is $2,500,000. We believe that our efforts will result in 250,000 more voters going to the polls to vote against the Question 6 ballot same-sex marriage referendum. Jump the Broom for Marriages is looking for funding for this campaign.

The materials being used by Maryland's civil rights opponents are particularly vile, because they are clearly attempting to stoke racial and religious divisions. Meanwhile, they are almost completely lacking in substance and the postcards instead using the mere sight of people to stoke opposition. All of this is a complete distraction from the unequal legal rights and protections facing families in Maryland. See what I mean below:


EXHIBIT 1: USING PHOTOS OF GAY PRIDE PARADES TO STOKE OPPOSITION -Here is a mailer that attempts to generate opposition to civil rights by simply showing photos of people at a gay pride parade. This non sequitur of a propaganda piece has no purpose other than to try and incite ungrounded negative feelings:

EXHIBIT 2: INVOKING CHILDREN TO STOKE OPPOSITION TO LGBT RIGHTS - It should come as no surprise to see the haters trying to mislead voters by vaguely invoking children. In fact, supporters of marriage equality have been warning that these images would be coming, given that the haters have been using such spurious arguments in other states:

EXHIBITS 3-4: STOKING RACIAL DIVISIONS TO GENERATE OPPOSITION - In another predictable move, civil rights opponents are attempting to divide and conquer various racial and demographic groups. The series of mail pieces below demonstrate an extremely cynical attempt to market bigotry to Maryland voters:

PROPAGANDA FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN VOTERS

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler Secures $1 Million Voter Suppression Judgment Against GOP Gov. Bob Ehrlich Aide

BACKGROUND: In 2010, one-term Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich tried to reclaim his office from Martin O'Malley, after losing to the Democrat in 2006. As we now know, Mr. Ehrlich was trounced by Democratic Gov. O'Malley in the November 2010 rematch. Full disclosure: Maryland Juice was employed by the MD Dems Coordinated Campaign for the 2010 General Election.

One of the despicable aspects to Mr. Ehrlich's 2010 race was revealed following his pathetic come-back attempt. The Republican Governor's campaign team tried to suppress African-American votes through targeted mis-leading robocalls to black households through the Free State. Ehrlich's campaign taped a call for thousands of African-American voters, telling them that Obama and O'Malley had already succeeded -- ergo, they didn't need to turnout to vote.

The campaign aide responsible for the calls, Julius Henson, faced criminal voter suppression charges for his work on the Ehrlich campaign, but this month many were disappointed to see that a jury failed to convict him of the most serious charges. The Baltimore Sun reported earlier this month:

JuiceBlender: Dead Body Found at Rep. Steny Hoyer Event // PLUS: Sen. Mike Miller Undermines Marriage Equality & More

Here's a random blend of political tidbits from recent news, starting with news of the weird regarding Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer:

Indicted Anne Arundel Exec John Leopold Spied on "Enemies" // Flashback to Ehrlich Spy Scandal, Democratic Complacency

The emerging story of Anne Arundel's recently indicted County Executive paints an embarrassing caricature of small-town political corruption in the Free State. Yesterday, we talked about how Anne Arundel's top Republican official John Leopold (aka "Indictment-Guy") allegedly forced on-duty police officers to:

1. deliver his campaign lawnsigns
2. aid and abet in his sexual conquests,
3. and even empty his urinary catheter bag (eww!)

POLICE MONITORING REVEALED: The Baltimore Sun today reports on more details within Mr. Leopold's indictment, including allegations that he used police to research and monitor his political enemies:

The indictment handed down Friday against Leopold, who is in his second term, accuses Leopold of requiring executive protection officers to assemble dossiers on people he considered to be political rivals. According to the document, those people included Joanna Conti, who unsuccessfully ran against him in 2010, Carl O. Snowden, who heads the state attorney general's civil rights office and is a local activist, and potentially others.

The indictment says Leopold's security detail "did not consider these people to be a security risk."

FLASHBACK TO THE EHRLICH ERA: This sounds eerily similar to GOP Governor Bob Ehrlich's spying scandal. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the details of that case, Adam Pagnucco of Maryland Politics Watch wrote a great deal about it. In short, during Mr. Ehrlich's tenure as one-term Governor of the Free State, State Police were used to spy on ordinary citizens engaged in ordinary political protest (ie: Quakers marching against the death penalty or young people protesting war). Only three-and-a-half years ago, Pagnucco commented on the need to reign in the government's abuses of power and willy-nilly attitude toward privacy:

Spygate is the ultimate example of big, arrogant government seeking power over law-abiding citizens. So we would expect the Free State’s conservatives to condemn it, right? Wrong....

Editorial Juice // Blaine Young for Gov?, Prince of Darkness Endorses Marriage Equality, The Sun Disses English Laws

UPDATE: A Maryland Juice reader calls into question whether Blaine Young is actually planning a run for Governor. They point out that his name was also incorrectly floated for CD6. The allegation originally comes from Frederick politico Joe Volz's Gazette column (noted below).

Maryland Juice presents two tidbits of editorial commentary from the Free State's politico pipeline.

Editorial Juice #1: Prince of Darkness Endorses Marriage Equality - Former Gov. Bob Ehrlich's hatchet-man Joe Steffen (aka the Prince of Darkness) recently endorsed marriage equality in Maryland. He also weighed in on Cowardgate (aka the GOP's cover story for hate) and defends First Lady Katie O'Malley's remarks:

Look, no matter where you stand on the marriage equality issue – and for the record, and despite the fact it’s going to light up about half of my friends, I favor passage of the bill – I think the question should be “Why did she apologize?”

The way I’m hearing it, there were a few legislators who switched sides at the last minute out of fear of reprisals if they voted for the bill. To those legislators who have strong beliefs either in favor of or in opposition to the bill, that’s fine. Vote your conscience. BUT, if you’re going to jump at the last moment out of fear of what may happen if you don’t – you’re a coward.  And no apologies will be forthcoming from this end.

Maryland Juice agrees with Mr. Steffen and doesn't think there was need for an apology. Either way, I'm glad that The Prince of Darkness is no coward!

Editorial Juice #2: Blaine Young for Governor? Plus, The Baltimore Sun Disses "English Language" Stunts - The Sun's editorial board yesterday called out the stupidity of Frederick and Anne Arundel County proposals to designate English as the official language of County government (excerpt below, full article at The Sun):

Arundel English-only bill: A hostile, empty gesture
Our view: Proposals to make English the 'official language' are code for demonizing immigrants

County Councilman Jerry Walker wants to make English the official language of Anne Arundel County. That would make perfect sense if English weren't already, for all practical purposes, the county's official language. When was the last time you heard someone complain they couldn't read a county parking ticket or other official document because it was written in Urdu or Farsi?

The fact that this never occurs ought to be a clue: This is not serious legislation but rather a piece of political theater that would achieve nothing more than puffing up the councilman's reputation among the anti-immigrant crowd....

Advocating such laws is, as Mr. Walker openly admits, code for "you're not welcome here," and politicians embrace the tactic because it's a way of giving the appearance of responding to voters' concerns about illegal immigration without actually doing anything about it....

JuiceBlender: Updates on Ocean City Mayor, Andy Harris' Drunk Intern, Sam Arora on Marriage, Redistricting & MORE!

SPECIAL EDITION: "Don't Shoot the Messenger"

Maryland Juice was distracted with work last week and missed a few screwy political headlines. Let me try and catch you up with a quick whiz-bang through recent "news of the angry." See miscellaneous juice below. Note: these aren't my words, just my curation. Where appropriate, I'll note the writer/speaker's name in bold:

JUICE #1: UPDATE on Ocean City Disgrace: Last Friday, Maryland Juice wrote about how Ocean City's Mayor was embarrassing the Free State by inviting an extremist, Jerry Boykin, to be his honored guest. The story is now snowballing as The Washington Post provides more background on Mr. Boykin (who refused to respond to their reporter about this issue):

Washington Post: A Pentagon investigation in 2004 concluded that Boykin had violated “internal regulations” by giving speeches marked by fiery religious rhetoric while in his U.S. Army uniform. The controversy surfaced after videos of his speeches were picked up in the nation’s press.

In one instance, Boykin mocked a Muslim adversary in Mogadishu for believing he would be protected by Allah. “I knew that my God was bigger than his,” Boykin said. “I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

Boykin described the war on terror as a battle against satan, and said that then-President George W. Bush had been installed in his position by God. Despite the controversy, Boykin remained deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence under Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, and retired in 2007.

JUICE #2: UPDATE on Rep. Andy Harris' Underage Booze Party: At the start of the New Year, Governor Ehrlich's former "Prince of Darkness" Joe Steffen revealed that GOP Rep. Andy Harris may have tried to sweep under the rug misconduct from his Chief of Staff Kevin Reigrut. We previously wrote about how Mr. Reigrut allegedly bought alcohol that resulted in an underage intern getting trashed and booted from her program. Baltimore's Inside Charm City blog updates on this story:

Former Ehrlich Aide's Wild Accusation: Underage Intern Got Wasted in Rep. Andy Harris' Office, Chief of Staff Supplied Booze

Former Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich once employed Joe Steffen, a shadowy GOP operative who later became known as "the Prince of Darkness." At one point, Steffen's job was to target Democrats for firing from government jobs, and he was ultimately canned for spreading rumors about Martin O'Malley. Mr. Steffen now writes a Maryland politics blog, and a Maryland Juice reader forwarded us a WILD new blog post from the so-called Prince of Darkness.

Joe Steffen is alleging that Congressman Andy Harris' Chief of Staff bought booze for an underage intern's goodbye party in their Congressional office. According to Steffen, the intern supposedly got trashed and was then thrown out of the program -- on her last day. Steffen also claims Rep. Harris's Chief of Staff tried to blame the whole affair on another aide. You should read Mr. Steffen's accusations at his blog. He claims his version of the "facts" is supported "by three very reliable sources." We reprint some excerpts from his piece below, but you'll have to read the original to see his full accounting of the alleged events:

A little background: Kevin Reigurt is Andy Harris’ Chief of Staff, a top gun position that involves him overseeing Harris’ Washington DC office....

Late last summer (and I’d previously heard bits of the story – can you guess which parts were just recently brought to my attention?) Kevin Reigurt did something that boggles the mind....

Ehrlich Aide Found Guilty of Voter Supression // Maryland Dems Respond

 CHAIR YVETTE LEWIS RESPONDS TO VOTER SUPPRESSION VERDICT

ANNAPOLIS (December 6, 2011) – Maryland Democratic Party Chair Yvette Lewis issued the following statement today after a jury found Paul Schurick guilty of conspiring to violate Maryland election laws, attempting to influence a voter’s decision through the use of fraud, and failing to provide an authority line on campaign material. The verdict is a result of deceptive automated phone calls made on November 2, 2010 intended to suppress minority and Democratic voter turnout.

“Voter suppression has a long and disgraceful history in our country, and the dirty tricks we’ve seen in Maryland aren’t new. The right to vote is precious and a critical part of our democracy. Paul Schurick and the Ehrlich campaign sought to take away that right for some of our fellow citizens. Having been a target of this misleading automated-call, today’s verdict is a step towards stopping voter suppression in Maryland.”

Meet Our New Reporter: Police Chief Moose // Today's Blotter: MoCo Fights Police Referendum, Ehrlich Aide's Trial & More

Several readers asked if Maryland Juice would ever feature guest writers. We've decided that the customer is always right, so we've brought on a very special reporter to periodically present law enforcement news. Since we live in the Internet era, our new crime and justice correspondent will be reporting to us from the beaches of Hawaii. We decided to introduce him E True Hollywood Stories-style, and find out what he's been up to.

Those of you who were living in the metro region during the terrifying sniper attacks may remember Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose. TIME Magazine named him person of the week on October 10, 2002 and wrote:

Charles A. Moose is in a bit of a bind. As Montgomery County Police Chief, Moose wants desperately to identify the sniper who has terrorized the Washington D.C. suburbs for the past eight days, most recently killing a man at a Virginia service station. But this strong-willed, inveterate leader wants to do it his way.... For his role as the unofficial spokesman for the sniper investigation, Charles Moose is our person of the week....

You may recall that during the sniper investigation Chief Moose found himself at the center of sudden international fame and global news coverage. The U.K.'s BBC News had this article about him as the sniper investigation concluded:

In October, the character of Chief Charles Moose, the Montgomery police chief who led the investigation into the Washington DC area sniper killings, will appear in a film dramatising the attacks which terrorised the area in 2002. The killings transformed Mr Moose from an obscure local police chief into an international name. He is reported to have been paid $170,000 to write his new book - Three Weeks in October - but his fame has not come without controversy....

The enduring impression however, it was widely agreed, was of an officer who appeared committed and persistent in the face of the ongoing attacks. Nonetheless, his decision to write a book about his experiences has sparked a heated debate.

Earlier in 2003, the Montgomery County ethics commission ruled Mr Moose could not write a book about the case and remain its police chief. A public employee should not use the prestige of office for private gain, the board ruled As a result, he decided to leave his job, although not before filing lawsuits to try to overturn the decision....

We turned to Wikipedia to discover Chief Moose's whereabouts. His last known location was Honolulu, Hawaii in 2010:

Moose later graduated from the Honolulu Police Academy and reported for duty as one of the members of the Honolulu Police Department. On Aug. 4, 2010 The Gazette reported that Moose is no longer employed at the department.

It turns out Chief Moose is still in Hawaii and has some idle time, so he's agreed to highlight some interesting Maryland-related law enforcement news for Maryland Juice readers. Here's his first installment: