OUT WITH THE NEW, IN WITH THE OLD: An anonymous source brings Maryland Juice readers news that Prince George's County residents in Maryland's District 24 now have a new member of the House of Delegates.
Previously, the saga to fill the D24 seat brought lawsuits from Greg Hall (an activist who was originally nominated for the vacancy) and Tiffany Alston. But Maryland courts ruled that O'Malley had ultimate authority to select a replacement, in this instance. See the Governor's press release below:
Below Maryland Juice highlights a few articles that may be of interest to Free State politicos, starting with some amazingly disingenuous excuses from Tea Party lawmaker Don Dwyer:
JUICE #1: MARYLAND GOP LAWMAKER DON DWYER BLAMES DRUNK BOATING ACCIDENT ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY - Media figures are beginning to highlight (and deride) amazing comments that Delegate Don Dwyer made about his drunk boating accident. As you may recall, Dwyer (a supposed "family values" -- read: anti-gay -- politician) admitted being trashed on booze when he crashed his boat, resulting in an accident that left several children seriously injured. Now he's blaming the accident on marriage equality (translation: blaming it on the gays): The Washington Blade reported on Dwyer's outrageous comments (excerpt below):
WASHINGTON BLADE: A Maryland lawmaker told a local newspaper last week that legislators who voted for the state’s same-sex marriage bill contributed to his alcohol abuse. Delegate Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel County) told the Maryland Gazette in an interview the newspaper posted to its website on Saturday that he felt “betrayed” when Dels. Wade Koch (R-Baltimore County) and Robert Costa (R-Anne Arundel County) and then-Del. Tiffany Alston (D-Prince George’s County) in Feb. 2012 backed for the measure that Gov. Martin O’Malley eventually signed into law....
WONKETTE: It is not funny that Maryland Delegate Don Dwyer drunkenly crashed his boat last year, fracturing the skull of a five-year-old girl. But it is funny that he is blaming gay marriage for the alcoholism that made him drunkenly crash his boat last year, fracturing the skull of a five-year-old girl! Oh, did we say “funny”?...
JUICE #2: O'MALLEY TO MAKE DEATH PENALTY REPEAL A LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY - The likelihood of finally banning government executions in Maryland increased greatly this week. News outlets and advocates are reporting that Gov. Martin O’Malley will sponsor death penalty repeal legislation and put the weight of his office behind the effort in Annapolis. Check out the following report from The Death Penalty Information Center (excerpt below):
DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER: On January 15 at a press conference with leaders of the NAACP, Maryland's Governor Martin O'Malley announced he will be making the repeal of capital punishment a priority in the upcoming legislative session and will submit a repeal bill to the legislature later this week. Among the concerns about the death penalty expressed by the governor were its high costs and the lack of any benefit to society: "Is it worth wasting taxpayer dollars on a policy that does not work?" Senate President Mike Miller, who supports the death penalty, said the bill will be given a vote in the full Senate and will likely pass this year. Maryland has not had an execution or death sentence since 2005, and the state's lethal injection procedures have not been approved by the courts.
WASHINGTON POST: Though the governor’s decision does not guarantee passage, “it makes a huge difference,” said Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where repeal bills have stalled in past years....
A repeal “can’t get done without the governor, and having his active engagement will be vital,” said Frosh, who favors the abolishment of capital punishment.
With O’Malley’s name on the bill, it is certain to get heightened media attention, as well as the focus of a team of lobbyists employed by the governor’s office and personal attention from O’Malley himself....
JUICE #3: PRINCE GEORGE'S DEMOCRATS RETRACT GREG HALL'S NOMINATION FOR TIFFANY ALSTON'S DELEGATE SEAT // 3 NEW NAMES SUBMITTED - The unusual saga surrounding efforts to appoint a replacement for former Delegate Tiffany Alston (District 24) lurched forward today. As you may recall, the Prince George's Democratic Central Committee's (PGDCC) choice for the seat was activist Greg Hall. But news of Hall's dark past gave some PGDCC members pause and last night they voted to revoke his nomination. The Prince George's Democrats also forwarded three new names to Gov. O'Malley. Check out the report from The Gazette (excerpt below):
GAZETTE: The Prince George's County Democratic Central Committee revoked its nominee to fill a vacant delegate seat Tuesday night, leaving the task of filling the seat firmly in the hands of the governor.
In a contentious meeting that saw Greg Hall, the committee's original choice, trading barbs with committee Chair Terry Speigner, the committee put forward three non-binding recommendations that Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) is free to disregard if he chooses....
"At the end of the day, the governor gets what he wants, and Prince George's County once again gets screwed," Hall said....
WASHINGTON POST: O'Malley's spokeswoman Raquel Guillory said the governor "will take into consideration" the panel's recommendations. They are: Vicky L. Orem, an orphans' court judge; Clayton Aarons, an attorney; and Phillip Raines, a defense contractor.
Below Maryland Juice presents several recent political tidbits to
take note of, starting with an update on everyone's favorite
gay-bashing, drunk-driving Delegate Don Dwyer. Sorry for the length of
this JuiceBlender, but I'm playing catch up on a bunch of story threads
below.
Maryland's Drunk-Boating Delegate Don Dwyer
JUICE #1: CRIMINAL CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST TEA PARTY LAWMAKER DON DWYER // SPOTLIGHT ON HYPOCRISY
- Maryland Delegate Don Dwyer stunned political observers with his
moral hypocrisy earlier this year when he admitted driving a boat with
over three times the legal blood alcohol content (BAC). Dwyer is a
self-proclaimed family values, Tea Party lawmaker who previously led the
charge against marriage equality in Maryland. But Dwyer's drunk-boating led to serious injuries for several children, and now The Baltimore Sun reports that the Republican lawmaker is facing criminal charges (excerpt below):
BALTIMORE SUN:
Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. is facing five charges in connection with an
August boat crash that sent him and six other people — including four
children — to the hospital....
Dwyer, 54,
was charged Thursday by Maryland Natural Resources Police with
operating a vessel while under the influence of alcohol, reckless
operation of a vessel, negligent operation of a vessel, failing to
register his boat and a rules-of-the-road violation.
If convicted, Dwyer could face a year in jail and up to $1,940 in combined fines.
The
operator of the other boat, Mark "Randy" Harbin, also was charged in
the crash; none of Harbin's charges were related to alcohol....
CAPITAL GAZETTE:
...after seeing Dwyer win three elections, we know he has a core of
supporters who see his fundamentalist view of the world as their own.
They have ignored his failing as a delegate, the inability to pass a
single piece of legislation. Instead, they have been content with a
representative focused on other people's morals, values and their lack
of respect for the law. Now poor judgment has turned the table and the
public must consider Dwyer's morals, values and lack of respect....
We
should not tolerate a lawmaker who violates the laws passed by the very
body he serves. Given the serious of the charges against Dwyer, he
should resign.
With a blood-alcohol level measured at
.24 -- three times the legal definition of intoxication -- his decision
to take that boat onto the water represented a complete lack of respect
for the lives of others. Police say he was negligent and reckless. He
should have been charged with being oblivious.
It is less sensational yet of equal concern that Dwyer was piloting a unregistered boat. The
man who has made his career lecturing us all on right and wrong decided
he could ignore the law. His hubris was so great, so galling that he
had the audacity to do it behind the wheel of a boat named Legislator.
Dwyer said he has no plans to step down....
JUICE #2: MD SENATE MAY SHIFT COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP TO PASS WIND POWER BILL, BUT FROSH NOT INTERESTED IN DOING SAME FOR DEATH PENALTY
- Maryland Juice has been hearing rumors of potential shifts to the
membership of various committees in the Maryland Senate. The reason for
this would be to remove members who have been obstacles to various bills
and allow the legislation to come to a full vote on the floor. The Associated Press (via WNAV) this month noted that Senate President Mike Miller wants a vote on a wind power bill (excerpt below):
ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller says he will consider changing
the membership of the Senate Finance Committee, if that's what is needed
to get an offshore wind measure to the Senate for a full debate in the
upcoming legislative session....
Maryland
Juice has been hoping that if the State Senate is going to be making
changes to pass wind power, that President Mike Miller will do the same
to finally get the death penalty off the books in Maryland. Notably,
Miller is an advocate of executions by the government and seems to be
unexcited about bringing Maryland in line with global norms on the
issue. Meanwhile human rights group Amnesty International noted the United States' embarrassing position on the issue last year:
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: The United States stayed in its dubiously bad place on this fundamental human rights issue. The U.S. was the only country in the Western hemisphere or the G8 to kill its prisoners,
and was responsible for the fifth most known executions in the world,
behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. (As an independent country,
Texas would have ranked 7th, between North Korea and Somalia, with its
13 executions in 2011.)
This issue (and others)
continue to fuel my belief that Maryland's legislative leadership is
much more conservative than the voters they are supposed to represent.
More surprising, however, is the fact that liberal State Senator Brian
Frosh seems to be pulling his punches against the immoral and Dark Ages
practice of conducting state-sponsored murders in Maryland. The Baltimore Sun reported last month that the NAACP planned to make repeal of government executions their top priority in Maryland. But The Sun's
coverage also noted that Frosh, who chairs the Senate committee with
jurisdiction over state executions, does not believe that Miller should
change the composition of the Judiciary Committee to abolish the death
penalty. This is an odd view for Frosh (a death penalty opponent), given
that he is no stranger to using strong-arm tactics to advance or kill
legislation, as he did when he unilaterally overruled his colleagues and
killed student voting rights in Montgomery County this year. It is also
an interesting position, given that the composition of Senate
committees is pretty arbitrary to begin with. See an excerpt from The Sun's coverage below:
BALTIMORE SUN:
The NAACP is vowing to mount in Annapolis its largest-ever effort to
abolish the death penalty in a state, saying Maryland's historic role in
the civil rights movement makes it an appropriate place for the
push....
The NAACP has historically
opposed the death penalty for a variety of reasons, including racial
disparities in how it is applied. [NAACP President Ben] Jealous said
Maryland is especially important to the NAACP because of the state's
civil rights history — including the careers of native sons Thurgood
Marshall and Frederick Douglass....
To
get a repeal bill to the Senate floor under standard procedure, the
Judicial Proceedings Committee would have to approve it. A 6-5 majority
on the panel has consistently supported the death penalty....
Frosh,
a Montgomery County Democrat, said he has little enthusiasm for one
strategy suggested by repeal proponents — persuading Miller to shuffle
committee memberships to dislodge the bill. "I don't think it's good
policy to shift members of committees to pick up a vote on one issue,"
he said....
I agree that its not good practice to do this willy-nilly,
but surely there are instances where it makes sense. When a state
government grants itself the right to kill people, I think that might be
a good time to dust off the old "committee membership switcheroo"
tactic. Come on, we're doing it for wind power! I think that stopping state murder is at least as important as promoting renewable energy and halting climate change.
JUICE #3: SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI TO CHAIR APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE // TEA LEAVES: NO RETIREMENT COMING - Numerous outlets are reporting that U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (aka BAM!)
has been tapped to chair the body's appropriations committee, which
(naturally) has jurisdiction over how the Senate spends money. Mikulski
will be the first woman to hold the powerful post, and already Maryland
politicos are thinking about how this may benefit the Free State. One
Maryland Juice source noted, "This makes it much easier to get federal
funding for both Red Line and Purple Line... if we can just get the
state to come up with some transportation revenues." In any case, The Associated Press reported on the development via The New York Times (excerpt below):
ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski is set to become the first woman to
chair the prestigious Senate Appropriations Committee, a position left
open this week by the death of Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye.
A
Democrat, Mikulski was first elected to the Senate in 1986 after
serving 10 years in the House. Last year, she became the longest-serving
woman in Senate history.
With her ascendancy to the
chairmanship of Appropriations, she enters a male-dominated realm that
in the past has had sweeping power in deciding how federal dollars will
be dispersed around the country....
JOSH KURTZ:
...for all the cheering about Mikulski in Maryland, there was also a
perceptible, if mostly silent cry of pain last week among ambitious
younger politicians looking to move up the food chain: My God, now she’ll never leave!
It’s
already been widely suspected that the 76-year-old senator wasn’t
planning to retire anytime soon, that she’d seek a record-breaking sixth
term in 2016. Now there shouldn’t be any doubt. Mikulski, whose
political career has been her life, has extra reason to stay....
JUICE #4: CONGRESSMAN-ELECT JOHN DELANEY TAPPED FOR HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE // WILL THE 1% BE GOOD FOR THE 99%?
- A former campaign aide
to Congressman-elect John Delaney reports that the 6th Congressional
District Democrat has been tapped to serve on the U.S. House's Financial
Services committee. Maryland Juice caught the following post on
Facebook a few days ago:
Depending
on what type of official Delaney turns out to be, this could either be a
great thing or an unfortunate development. Remember when Dick Cheney
let oil industry lobbyists make energy policy for the White House?
During
Delaney's heated campaign for Congress this year, his opponents marched
out a series of stories about his company Capital Source, including allegations that Delaney was essentially insensitive to the plight of ordinary people affected by his company's activities.
I have no idea if those characterizations were accurate or not, but it
does lead me to be slightly skeptical about whether it is a good thing
to put a member of the 1% in charge of financial services in Congress --
especially if it is unclear if that one-percenter is committed to
advancing social & economic justice. Note that I don't mean to use
the 1% term pejoratively here; rather, I'm merely reflecting the reality
that Delaney is (as a matter of fact) very, very, very rich, and he got that money through the very sector he will be regulating. Hmm.
On
the other hand, Delaney could understand that most of his constituents
are not interested in seeing further consolidation of wealth in the
United States, and so maybe he will turn out to be a refreshingly
forward-thinking voice on fiscal issues. After all, it should be obvious
to those with at least half a brain that it is not healthy for our
economy to have a shrinking body of wealth among middle-class consumers.
But for now, we'll all have to keep close tabs on John Delaney's votes
and priorities in Congress.
JUICE #5: STATE SENATOR BILL FERGUSON OF BALTIMORE MAY FACE 2014 PRIMARY CHALLENGE FROM FORMER SEN. JOHN PICA - State Senator Bill Ferguson of Baltimore is having an "interesting" month to say the least. We recently reported that his car was vandalized with horseshit and acid, and now a former State Senator who served 16 years ago wants to primary Ferguson in 2014. See a quick excerpt from The Baltimore Sun's coverage below:
BALTIMORE SUN:
Former state Sen. John A. Pica Jr., who has been out of office the past
16 years, is considering a return to the political arena with a
possible Democratic primary challenge to Baltimore Sen. William C.
Ferguson IV....
"I wouldn't be looking at this if I
didn't think I could be a much more effective senator," Pica said. He
said that while his votes on issues would not be much different from
Ferguson's, he could be more effective than Ferguson in bringing back
state money to Baltimore....
Ferguson, the youngest
member of the Maryland Senate at 29, knocked off seven-term incumbent
George W. Della Jr. in the 2010 Democratic primary. After a bitter
campaign marked by harsh accusations on both sides, the young teacher
trounced the veteran by almost 60 percent to 40 percent.
The
incumbent said he will seek re-election. If Pica does run, Ferguson
said, the race will be seen as a contest between "old politics" and a
"new way of doing business...."
JUICE #6: GOV. O'MALLEY PUSHING MARYLAND ASSAULT WEAPON BAN // FMR. LT. GOV. MICHAEL STEELE CONDEMNS NRA STATEMENTS
- In the wake of Connecticut's school shooting, Maryland Democrats are
making gun control legislation a priority in 2013. Governor O'Malley and
Democratic state legislators are proposing a ban on assault weapons and
other measures. WAMU reported a couple weeks ago on O'Malley's plans (excerpt below):
WAMU:
Last week's shooting presents three main areas of legislative focus,
the governor said: laws relating to assault weapons, mental health
treatment and school safety....
Indeed, in tandem
with O'Malley's push, several Democratic lawmakers are introducing bills
to curb gun violence. In a follow-up article, WAMU detailed some of the bills that are being proposed by State Senators Bill Ferguson of Baltimore and Jamie Raskin of Montgomery County (excerpt below):
WAMU:
In the wake of last week's mass shooting in Connecticut, a group of
state senators in Maryland is unveiling a series of gun control bills
they will push during the upcoming session of the General Assembly.
The
bills are wide-ranging, including an assault weapon ban, mandatory
reduction of ammunition clip size and banning concealed gun permits for
people who've been committed involuntarily to a mental institution in
the past five years....
"This madness must stop," Ferguson says. "We can not continue to have a community in which gun violence is accepted...."
"There
is simply no reason for any civilian in the United States of America to
be carrying around a military style assault weapon like an uzi," Raskin
says....
GAZETTE:
Del. John W.E. Cluster Jr. (R-Dist. 8) of Parkville has crafted a bill
requiring school resource officers — sworn, active-duty police officers —
to be assigned daily to every public school in the state....
Cluster
made clear that his proposal would only include sworn, active-duty
police officers, and that they could become good role models for the
students in the schools they serve.
He also said he is skeptical
of proposals such as the state assault-weapons ban, which he doesn’t
feel would keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people....
In
an interesting aside, former Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele
recently weighed in on the gun control debate by condemning the NRA's
call for teachers to start packing heat. In comments that appeared in Politico, Steele called the proposal "disturbing" (excerpt below):
POLITICO:
“I don’t even know where to begin. As a supporter of the Second
Amendment and a supporter of the NRA — even though I’m not a member of
the NRA — I just found it very haunting and very disturbing that our
country now is talking about arming our teachers and our principals in
classrooms,” Steele said on MSNBC immediately after LaPierre finished
his comments.
Steele continued: “What does that say about us?
What does that say about us? I do not believe that is where the American
people want to go. I do not believe that is the response that should be
coming out of the tragedy out of Newtown....”
While
Maryland Juice is glad to see the surge in interest in common-sense gun
control legislation, I am curious why American policymakers continually
wait for tragedies to occur before addressing obvious problems. We seem
to lack a proactive or predictive policy apparatus in this country.
Again, I point to the Minnesota bridge collapses, the flooding of New
Orleans, the NUMEROUS school shootings in America, and many, many other
tragedies as examples of dangerously reactive policymaking. When will Americans get macro and start working to preempt problems, rather than waiting until tragedy strikes to act?
JUICE #7: ALONZO WASHINGTON SWORN IN TO REPLACE DELEGATE JUSTIN ROSS // MEANWHILE GREG HALL STILL IN LIMBO
- Prince George's County's political team has been undergoing constant
shifts in recent years, and 2012 was no exception. A few days ago,
Delegate Jolene Ivey posted a photo on Twitter of Alonzo Washington
being sworn into the House of Delegates. Washington is replacing
Democrat Justin Ross who vacated his seat earlier this year. I have to
admit, I ~love~ Alonzo Washington's bad-ass hairdo:
Meanwhile,
Maryland politicos are still awaiting the final outcome of litigation
regarding Prince George's County's other vacant State House seat.
Tiffany Alston and Greg Hall continue to battle in court for the right
to represent Maryland's District 24. But with the case still in front of
Maryland's high court, we may have to wait until 2013 to see how this
shakes out. JUICE #8: NANCY NAVARRO BEGINS MOCO COUNCIL PRESIDENCY, BERLINER REFLECTS ON HIS TERM AS PREZ
- Councilmember Nancy Navarro became the first Latina to serve as
President of the Montgomery Council this month. She succeeds
Councilmember Roger Berliner, who ended a one-year term as President
this month. Note that the MoCo Council Prez position changes every year,
with the Councilmembers themselves voting on the leader of their body.
Below you can see a video interview with Navarro where she describes her
plans for the year. You can also see Berliner reviewing his year as
President.
This morning, Maryland Juice appeared on Bruce DePuyt's News Channel 8 show Newstalk. The two of us had a free-ranging conversation about two hot topics in Maryland politics right now:
Former Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan's decision to run for Exec again in 2014
The stalled appointment of Greg Hall for the District 24 State House vacancy
For those who are unaware of these stories, let me quickly catch you up. First, MoCo's 2014 County Executive race is heating up, and the newest combatant is former County Exec Doug Duncan. Earlier this week he announced he would be entering the race for the Democratic nomination. In the interview below, I suggest that Duncan surely starts with some name recognition but may have a harder time in a modern MoCo primary than some are acknowledging.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Prince George's County, the fate of the District 24 House seat formerly held by Delegate Tiffany Alston is up in the air. Alston copped a plea after facing charges that she used her State House budget for private purposes. The powers that be have decided that means she was suspended from the legislature. She's lawyered up and is challenging that view. But even still, the vacancy appointment process has proceeded, and a group of elected Prince George's Democratic leaders met to select Alston's replacement. The group's Chair Terry Speigner battled local activist Greg Hall for the appointment, but Hall won by a hair. Shortly thereafter, news reports surfaced of the newly nominated Delegate's violent past. Decades ago, Greg Hall was involved in a drug-related shootout that resulted in the death of a child, though Hall's bullet was not the cause of death. Some are now expressing second-thoughts about his nomination, while Hall's backers make the case for his new life and for belief in "redemption." Governor Martin O'Malley, in the meantime, has asked the P.G. Dems to retract Hall's name. Hall too is has now lawyered up to seek a temporary restraining order. The next decision point should come on Tuesday.
Below Maryland Juice comments on both stories (watch video below):
BACKGROUND: Just days ago, local news outlets were abuzz with news that Greg Hall, the choice of the Prince George's Democratic Central Committee (PGDCC) to replace Delegate Tiffany Alston (D24), had previously been involved in a drug-dealing gun-shootout that resulted in a dead child. The PG Democratic Central Committee had appointed Hall to replace Alston after she copped a plea on criminal charges involving misuse of government resources. Maryland Juice highlighted a few news articles indicating that the PG Dems were uncomfortable with the revelations and began changing their vacancy appointment process to preempt this kind of a problem in the future.
WASHINGTON POST: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has asked Prince George’s County Democrats to withdraw the name of businessman Greg Hall to replace Tiffany Alston in the House of Delegates until the state’s attorney general rules on whether the seat is actually vacant....
Assistant States’s Attorney General Dan Friedman had advised the General Assembly that Alston’s seat was vacant upon her conviction. But an Anne Arundel County judge last week agreed to modify Alston’s one-year suspended jail sentence to probation before judgment, essentially striking her conviction....
[PGDCC Chair Terry] Speigner said the 24-member panel is already scheduled to meet Tuesday. At that meeting, he said “we will comply with the governor’s request to rescind Hall’s nomination.” He said the committee would do what O’Malley asked.
O'MALLEY DODGES BULLET: Governor O'Malley may have caught a very lucky break with the sudden legal ambiguities about whether Tiffany Alston has been suspended from the legislature or not. After all, if Hall's nomination for the vacancy had proceeded, O'Malley himself would have had to ultimately appointment him to the D24 seat. It seems pretty easy to imagine how O'Malley's rivals could have used this issue either in a primary or a general election.
Even more interesting to think about is what will happen to Tiffany Alston. Did she just find a way to stay in office? We shall know soon enough!
Things continue to remain a little crazy in Prince George's politics.
First, it should be noted that two of Councilmember Will Campos' aides
just received vacancy appointments from the PG Dems Central Committee:
former aide Greg Hall and Chief of Staff Alonzo Washington. Hall won a
close vote to replace Del. Tiffany Alston (D24) right before the
presidential election, while Washington won his appointment to Del.
Justin Ross' seat (D22) with a fairly large margin last night. But the
way in which these appointments are being handled is going to differ.
The reason being that after Hall won the vote for Alston's seat, The Washington Post's Ann Marimow reported that the soon-to-be District 24 lawmaker was involved in a drug-dealing, gun shootout that resulted in a dead child:
WASHINGTON POST:
Two decades ago, Gregory A. Hall was a 21-year-old crack dealer who
took part in a gun battle that killed a seventh-grade honors student as
he and his family left a church service in Capitol Heights.... County
Democrats named him to finish Alston’s term, which ends in January 2015.
But
Hall’s troubled past has resurfaced as Gov. Martin O’Malley (D)
considers the appointment. Some local Democratic activists have said
privately that Democratic Central Committee members are having second
thoughts after choosing the 42-year-old in a 12-10 vote....
O’Malley
has until Thanksgiving to approve Hall’s nomination, and the governor’s
spokeswoman has said the administration is aware of Hall’s criminal
record and that “everything is being taken into consideration.”
PG DEMS TO START SUBMITTING TWO NAMES FOR VACANCIES? - Shortly after
Hall was appointed to fill Tiffany Alston's seat, the Prince George's
Democrats had occasion to fill yet another seat -- that of retiring
Delegate Justin Ross. Fresh off the Greg Hall controversy, it
appears that the PG Dems may start submitting two names to the Governor
for vacancies. The press accounts are not perfectly clear on this point, but at a minimum candidates will go through more vetting than in the past. The top two Democrats for Ross' District 22 seat were Alonzo
Washington with Karren Pope-Onwukwe in second place. Check out the following report from The Gazette (excerpt below):
GAZETTE:
The submission of two names to the governor is a break from tradition,
said Terry Speigner, chairman of the central committee.... “The
committee feels it needs to do a better job of vetting candidates,”
Speigner said....
Speigner said the committee would take the top
two vote-getters for the District 22 seat [Alonzo] Washington and
[Karren] Pope-Onwukwe and do more thorough research into their
backgrounds before submitting a name to the governor. “That’s totally different than we’ve ever done before,” he said.
WASHINGTON POST: The decision to take a closer look at Washington comes as the 24-member committee has been circulating reports that Greg Hall, 42, selected two weeks ago to replace Del. Tiffany Alston (D-Prince George’s), had a criminal history. The committee plans to do more research on its selections before sending them to the governor, beginning with Washington, said Terry Speigner, the committee chairman who had sought Alston’s seat and lost to Hall.
After Washington’s selection, committee members huddled in private to discuss Hall. Hall said he has not hidden his history and discussed some of the details as he pressed his candidacy two weeks ago during the selection meeting. Campos told The Washington Post, “It’s never been a secret. He talks about it....” The committee came to no consensus about Hall’s nomination, and Speigner said it will now be up to O’Malley. Hall defeated Speigner in a 12-10 vote on Nov. 2.
It is worth noting that the man who lost the vacancy appointment to Greg Hall was the current PG Democratic Chair himself -- Terry Speigner. This creates an obvious self-serving aura in his pursuit of complaints against his rival - but even still, there is something to be said about Speigner's view that this just looks bad. Remember that the Prince George's Democrats are filling a seat that is currently left vacant due to Del. Tiffany Alston's alleged misuse of taxpayer and campaign funds -- and they are filling that seat with someone who was involved in a gun shootout that left a child dead. No wonder Tiffany Alston is hanging around making her case!Even still, Speigner would do well to state clearly that he will not seek the D24 seat himself, and instead try to ensure a process that works for the public. This seems impossible to achieve when the person in charge is seeking the seat himself -- and it also just looks bad. CONCLUSION: Here's the real question for the Prince George's Central Committee -- how did it come to this? In a County of thousands, were there honestly no other Democrats worthy of appointment to the State House? Perhaps the real problem is that machine politics continue to take priority over sound outcomes. Surely there were more Democrats to consider other than political aides and members of the Central Committee itself?
If the Prince George's Democrats want to really clean this up, they're going to have to try harder to undo machine politics -- not simply replace one machine with another. I'm beginning to think this pressure is going to have to come from the outside though, unless there is a miraculous shift in mentality among politicos. In the meantime, it'll be interesting to see who runs for these seats in 2014. After all, just because someone has been appointed by insiders doesn't mean they can win an election. Maryland politics has a few examples of appointees who were unable to win their seats outright.
Fingers crossed for a #CleanSlate for Prince George's Democrats.
Below Maryland Juice provides a quick round-up of more post-election angling and political tidbits, starting with more on the continuing saga of embattled Prince George's Democrat Tiffany Alston:
JUICE #1: FORMER DELEGATE TIFFANY ALSTON MAY SUE TO KEEP DELEGATE SEAT - Maryland Juice recently reported that the Prince George's Democratic Central Committee voted to replace Delegate Tiffany Alston's seat with former candidate Greg Hall. The switch came after a plea entered by Alston led to her suspension from the Maryland legislature. The Washington Post reports that Alston is not giving up and may sue to keep her seat. Additionally, it appears that she is ready to stage some sort of sit-in in Annapolis (excerpt below):
WASHINGTON POST: She was convicted in June of stealing $800 from the Maryland General Assembly to pay an employee of her private law firm. But on Tuesday, attorneys for former delegate Tiffany T. Alston suggested that she was the one who had been robbed — of her seat.
After a court hearing, Alston’s attorneys said that the Prince George’s County Democrat is prepared to sue, if necessary, to continue serving in the House of Delegates. And even though she no longer has the keys to her old office in Annapolis, they said she may try to occupy it anyway—a move that could set up an awkward, if not tense, standoff in the halls of the State House.....
The Post's most recent coverage noted that Alston was at last check choosing "diplomacy over litigation," but we'll have to keep an eye on this story!
WASHINGTON BLADE: Heather Mizeur, a lesbian member of the Maryland House of Delegates, said she’s seriously considering a run for governor in an exclusive interview with the Washington Blade this week.
“I’m taking a very serious look at it,” Mizeur said. “I can’t say for sure what 2014 is going to bring but … I know that I would make a good chief executive. I have good ideas for keeping Maryland moving forward....”
“Right now we’re taking stock of what happened in the last election,” she said. “It was incredible to see a big win with Tammy Baldwin being elected the first openly gay senator and Kyrsten Sinema making history in Congress. It really has inspired us to keep pushing forward. So, yes, I’m seriously considering running for governor because we need more diverse voices at that level of government....”
She added that she won’t get in the race unless she can be competitive financially.... When asked whether he had any thoughts about Mizeur’s potential gubernatorial campaign, O’Malley told the Blade on Tuesday, “Not really, I’m supporting Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown wholeheartedly for governor of Maryland....”
JUICE #3: TEA PARTY ACTIVISTS URGE MARYLAND TO SECEDE FROM USA - Maryland Juice has been alerting politicos to a new effort by Tea Party enthusiasts around the nation to launch petitions asking permission for their state to secede from the United States. WBFF (a rightwing Baltimore Fox News affiliate) reports that Maryland is now one of the states where the Tea Partiers are urging secession (excerpt below):
WBFF: Maryland is now one of the 49 states that have started online petitions to secede from the United States in response to the re-election of President Barack Obama.... If the petitions reach 25,000 signatures, they get an official response from the White House. Maryland has only around 1,700 signatures calling for secession, but the number is quickly growing.
You can check out the Maryland secession petition at the White House's online petition site (Hat tip: Maryland Reporter). Maryland Juice first found out about the secession effort after receiving a national Tea Party email blast highlighting a Louisiana secession petition. Since then, rightwing activists are launching petitions in every state. Check out an excerpt from the original Tea Party message below:
TEA PARTY: On Nov. 6, Americans voted to return Barack Obama to the White House; then on Nov. 7, some folks in Louisiana petitioned the White House to peaceably withdraw their state from the Union.... Join the Tea Party REVOLUTION! It’s time to double-down and fight harder! The petition reads....
“…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government…”
WASHINGTON BLADE: ...One of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s staffers wrote on a napkin during lunch on Election Day that the referendum would pass with 53 percent support....
Josh Levin, campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, was backstage with the governor, Rawlings-Blake and several other elected officials watching the results come in.... Levin and others remained hesitant to declare victory because Montgomery County had yet to report election results. (Question 6 passed in the county by a 65-35 percent margin.)
“Once we figured that out then I started breathing a little more deeply,” O’Malley says. “Then when the Montgomery County numbers came in and we were up to 51 [percent,] the night seemed to be coming into perspective....”
Election Day capped off a long and often tumultuous effort for Maryland’s same-sex marriage advocates that began in 1997 when three state lawmakers introduced the first bill that would have allowed nuptials for gays and lesbians.....
[Sen. Rich] Madaleno, who once again proposed to his husband Mark on stage at the Baltimore Soundstage after Question 6 passed, plans to have what he describes as their “renewal of vows” once they and their two children return from a family vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida in January....
UPDATE:An anonymous source adds a great deal of color to the battle for the D24 vacancy. Apparently, this was a battle between the good guys and the bad guys (see below):
ANONYMOUS SOURCE: There is sooooo much you're missing about what went down Friday night- this was a proxy fight between the progressives (Joanne Benson, SEIU, Wil Campos and Victor Ramirez) versus the old boys *corrupt* network (Camille Exum, al Wynn, Michael Vaughn and Carolyn Howard)- Arms were twisted, mud was thrown- they ALMOST prevailed by Terry Speigner taking the extraordinary step of VOTING for HIMSELF, but that one act was so offensive that one or two key people defected to our side and for once, the good guys won one !
Tonight the Prince George's County Democratic Central Committee (PGDCC) met to appoint a replacement for District 24 Delegate Tiffany Alston. We previously noted that the PGDCC chair himself, Terry Speigner, had been openly campaigning for the job. But the Prince George's Young Democrats earlier today joined others in endorsing one of Speigner's competitors, Greg Hall. The Washington Post is now reporting that Greg Hall has prevailed and was appointed to the D24 seat earlier tonight (excerpt below):
WASHINGTON POST: Prince George’s County Democrats on Friday selected businessman Greg Hall to replace Tiffany Alston in the Maryland House of Delegates. Alston, a first-term Democrat, was suspended from the legislature last month after she was sentenced for misconduct in office....
Hall’s nomination by the 24-member Democratic Central Committee after voting Friday night requires the approval of Gov. Martin O’Malley (D). The vote was 12 to 10, according to Terry Speigner, chairman of the committee, who said he was runner-up....
Earlier today, the Prince George's Young Democrats sent out an email endorsing Greg Hall for the D24 appointment. Their message also contained a few items from Hall's resume. See an excerpt from their email blast below:
PRINCE GEORGE'S YOUNG DEMOCRATS: Good Evening Juice, As you may know Tiffany Alston, former MD Delegate representing the 24th legislative district, has been suspended from office after entering a plea agreement to settle two separate criminal cases. The Prince George's County Democratic Central Committee will make a formal recommendation to fill the vacant seat, to Governor Martin O'Mally, who will most likely confirm the recommendation. Greg Hall, a former Prince George's County Young Democrats President and a major supporter of ours is in the running -- And now PGCYD is supporting Greg Hall!
This isn’t Mr. Hall's first time seeking office. In November of 2010 he sought to represent the 24th legislative district as delegate and earned over 3,000 votes from the Prince George’s County populace. Mr. Hall came close to victory with a shy margin.Greg Hall is a community activist, an entrepreneur, and a devoted citizen focused on the success and growth of the 24th legislative district. Additionally, he’s worked with the environmental and business communities to identify new opportunities for economic growth in the district....
Respectfully,
Prince George's County Young Democrats Executive Board
