Maryland Republicans Respond to Criticism of GOP Chair Alex Mooney // Senator Garagiola's Opponent Attacks

10 days ago, Maryland Juice highlighted Maryland Republican Party Chair Alex Mooney's miserable fundraising job in 2011. After promising to bank hundreds of thousands of dollars for GOP candidates, Maryland's biggest marriage equality opponent has the State's GOP struggling to pay the bills and still fund campaigns. We also highlighted a fishy entry in Mr. Mooney's last expense report that describes a payment from the GOP to himself with the simple note "Chairman's Expenses."

Below we publish a spirited response to Maryland Juice's article from Dwight Patel of the Western Maryland Republican Club. Mr. Patel was State Senator Rob Garagiola's General Election opponent in 2010. Mr. Garagiola won the seat for Democrats, beating Mr. Patel 2 to 1 and earning 63.6%  of the vote to Mr. Patel's 36.4%.

But first, Maryland Juice would like to remind readers about the content of the article that prompted Mr. Patel's response. We previously analyzed every entry in Mr. Mooney's most recent expense report to the Federal Elections Commission. One entry in particular stood out as improperly recorded:

GOP & Tea Party Voices Respond to Montgomery Dems // Fred Grandy For Governor in 2014

Earlier this week, Maryland Juice released a letter from a number of Montgomery County Democrats blasting the County's GOP. Several officials have taken issue with their choice of speaker for a September 24th Chevy Chase Republican Women's Club event: former Congressman Fred Grandy. Other recent events featuring Mr. Grandy have been cancelled in Virginia, presumably because he uses terrorism as an excuse to stoke fear of innocent Muslims living in America (note: he was canned from his WMAL radio show because of this).

Even still, Tea Party and GOP voices are thumbing their noses at the County Democrats' letter. Maryland Juice highlights a few responses below, but we are kicking off the series with the following Twitter message from Red Montgomery blogger Caleb. Perhaps controversy and the resulting exposure are motivating Grandy's speaking tour. If so, he may be taking notes from Sarah Palin's playbook:

Maryland Juice hopes the GOP chooses Grandy. Good luck in 2014!

Montgomery Democrats Issue Letter Condemning Local GOP Extremist Speaker

UPDATE: Council President Valerie Ervin is also a signatory to the Montgomery Democrats' letter. Also, the Chevy Chase Patch reports that Democrats have decided to engage the Montgomery GOP in dialogue, as they're now hosting a 9/24 discussion prior to the Fred Grandy event: 

Earlier that day, a panel presentation—"Is 'Creeping Shariah' a Real Threat or a Trumped Up Scare Tactic?"—will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Wisconsin Place Community Center (5311 Friendship Blvd., Chevy Chase).

The speakers invited to this event include Jamie Raskin (Maryland state senator and professor of constitutional law at American University), Corey Saylor (national legislative director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations), civil liberties activist Thomas Nephew and Fred Grandy ("or any designated representative," the invitation says).

Maryland Juice previously broke news of the Chevy Chase Republican Women's Club hosting an event featuring controversial speaker Fred Grandy. In our prior coverage, we noted:

Fred Grandy is a former member of the U.S. House from Iowa, but he is better known as 'Gopher' from the television series the Love Boat. He recently gained notoriety after being fired from his most recent gig as a morning radio personality on WMAL. Grandy's increasingly anti-Muslim show was pushed off the air after on-air comments his wife made....

Today, a number of Democratic officials issued a letter condemning the Montgomery County GOP. Their letter, which appears below, is signed by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett, Senate Majority Leader Rob Garagiola, House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, and a number of state and county officials:

Saqib Ali vs. Maryland GOP "Crazies" // Plus, an Op-ed Steel Cage Match: Young Dem vs. Old GOP

UPDATE: Montgomery County GOP Chair Mark Uncapher responds to this article in the comments section. Check it out!

Earlier this month, Maryland Juice broke the story about a controversial Republican Women's Club event being held in Chevy Chase. At issue was/is their choice of speaker: former Congressman and local radio personality, Fred Grandy. In our prior coverage, we noted:

Fred Grandy is a former member of the U.S. House from Iowa, but he is better known as 'Gopher' from the television series the Love Boat. He recently gained notoriety after being fired from his most recent gig as a morning radio personality on WMAL. Grandy's increasingly anti-Muslim show was pushed off the air after on-air comments his wife made....

The fight is now blowing up, with the Montgomery County GOP Chair stepping into the fray, multiple protests, and a lot of angry right-wing blog entries.  

Read Maryland Juice's snapshot below -- and -- check out our new blog feature: "Op-Ed Steel Cage Match." Today's competitors? Young DEM vs. Old GOP.

Chevy Chase GOP to Host Anti-Muslim Speaker, "Gopher" from Love Boat tv series?

UPDATE: Former Delegate Saqib Ali has launched a Facebook group to protest the Chevy Chase event.

I received the following email this morning, which I will re-print in full (anonymously), below. Essentially, the allegation is that the Chevy Chase Women's Republican Club is hosting a meeting with disgraced radio host and former Congressman Fred Grandy, and purportedly using anti-Islamic rhetoric. I can find no evidence of the anti-Islamic rhetoric, but I did find out more about the event in question.