Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown Fundraiser in MoCo to Feature VA Gov. Doug Wilder and MoCo & PG Execs Ike Leggett & Rushern Baker

A number of Maryland politicos I have spoken to recently have been surprised to see Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown allowing Attorney General Doug Gansler to build a sizeable cash advantage early in the race for 2014 Governor. After all, with roughly two years until the June 2014 Democratic Primary for Governor, Mr. Gansler has over $4.1 million banked to Mr. Brown's roughly $810,000 campaign war chest.

Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out that Mr. Brown seemingly launched his gubernatorial effort (for real) two weeks ago. We reported that the Lt. Governor had setup a website independent of the O'Malley-Brown site. Mr. Brown is now following up his PR efforts with a push to start banking cash. An anonymous source emailed Maryland Juice a fundraising calendar compiled by Annapolis influence-peddler (aka lobbyist) Bruce Bereano.

Our source wanted to draw readers' attention to one particular event. On Monday, June 18th, Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown is holding a fundraiser in Potomac, Maryland, a wealthy suburb in Montgomery County. His three special guests are among the areas most prominent African American politicians (see event listing below). If the guests are actually endorsing Anthony Brown for Governor, it would appear the LG is walking into the race with the support of the MoCo and Prince George's County Executives:

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Advances Marijuana Decriminalization for "Racial Justice" // Dems Losing Races Over "War on Drugs"

Cuomo Trailblazes Another Issue for 2016 White House Run

UPDATE: MarylandReporter.com today published a long piece about racial disparities in the Free State's prison system. Like much of the United States, people of color in Maryland are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement. The article comes after a Maryland committee heard testimony about the problem of overincarceration in Maryland. Can the timing of Mr. Cuomo's effort be a coincidence? I think not! See this excerpt from Maryland Reporter:

National Tech Blog Calls AOL-Huffington Post Hypocrites for Threatening Maryland Juice // DLA Piper Idiocy EXPOSED

UPDATE: The national legal blog "Above the Law" picked up on the story of DLA Piper attorneys harassing Maryland Juice. Thanks for the lift!

Last week Maryland Juice reported on a disturbing threat we received from AOL-Huffington Post's law firm DLA Piper, on behalf of Patch.com. After excerpting portions of a Patch article in our commentary about accessory apartments in Montgomery County, we received a nastygram from AOL.  In spite of "fair use" principles, they claimed we were infringing on their intellectual property and demanded that we remove article excerpts and photos from MarylandJuice.com. Their threat letter stated, "we require that you immediately comply with our demands" and noted that they might "pursue any additional avenues."

Today, the technology bloggers at TechDirt picked up on DLA Piper's threats and called out AOL for complete and utter hypocrisy. Read this excerpt from TechDirt's article:

AOL Threatens Blogger With Copyright Infringement Charge... For Doing The Exact Same Thing AOL Has Done On A Large Scale

There have been plenty of accusations made against AOL's the Huffington Post concerning its habit of "over aggregating" content from other sites.... it would be pretty damn hypocritical for AOL to then threaten another blogger for doing exactly the same thing that HuffPo does, wouldn't it?....

Enter, Maryland Juice. A local Maryland blog, which recently had a post about some happenings in Montgomery County, which included relatively large excerpts of parts of an article from Patch, another property owned by AOL. It also included an image from the article. The Maryland Juice article included a significant amount of commentary about the article and, in particular, the photo, which was used to illustrate the point (that it was not a representative sample of county residents at the local meeting). And, yet... AOL lawyers sent a cease and desist letter....

... a few years ago, when HuffPo tried to do its own "hyper local site," it was accused of doing more or less the exact same thing (but with less commentary, and more copying)....

SHADY: Anti-LGBT Group Hides Contributors in Fight Against Maryland Marriage Equality // 7 of 10 Donors from Outside MD

Maryland Juice has received a copy of the campaign finance report from the Maryland Marriage Alliance (MMA). The anti-civil rights group is leading the effort to overturn the Free State's newly signed marriage equality law.

Harford Executive David Craig Wins MD Young Republicans Straw Poll for 2014 Governor // Lt. Gov. Michael Steele is #2

Maryland Juice will be very curious to see how Free State Republicans behave in their 2014 gubernatorial primary. After all, it seems like without a shake-up of some sort, the Maryland GOP is destined to remain a regional party for the forseeable future. I truly believe that the tone of the Republicans right now is waaaaay too screechy, racist and homophobic to compete in Maryland's suburbs (example: exactly one GOP legislator Senator supported marriage equality this year-- ONE -- and we're in the year 2012). I think these politicians are being half too cute by thinking they can get away with this or turning a blind eye to it. My hunch is that they are turning off a lot of independent, moderate, and suburban voters. It remains to be seen how long the taint will last, but it could be a long time.

SUBVERSIVE ART: "Modern Day Warrior" by the JaH-HaHa Collaborative // Annapolis Flashback to Jimmie's Chicken Shack

#OccupyLife

Maryland Juice recently picked up a piece of art at a fundraiser for a jazz project in my neighborhood. The print below is called "Modern Day Warrior" by the JaH-HaHa art collaborative, and it jumped out at me due to the subversive imagery of Guy Fawkes/Anonymous. What I didn't know when I picked up this piece, is that the JaH-HaHa collaborative is based in Annapolis and comprised of artists Jeff Huntington and Jimi Davies (aka Jimi HaHa). Jimi HaHa happens to also be the singer/guitarist from the band Jimmie's Chicken Shack, who I once booked to play a show at Tufts University (where I did my undergrad work).

In any case, check out the print below, along with a quick flash-back to the Chicken Shack:

JuiceBlender: Van Hollen for Minority Leader, Tea Party on MoCo Muslims, MD Redistricting, Anti-Immigrant Blaine Young

Maryland Juice is playing a bit of catch-up this week, after spending a few days on the Left Coast. Unfortunately, my return flight had "mechanical failures," and so I was forced onto a midnight "redeye" flight and didn't get to post yesterday. Below you can read a round-up of interesting political tidbits from the recent news cycle:

JUICE #1: REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN FOR MINORITY LEADER? - A few weeks ago, Maryland Juice noted that if U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi retired, Minority Whip Jim Clyburn was set to take on Maryland's Steny Hoyer for the top Democratic leadership position in the House. Josh Kurtz of Center Maryland, however, notes that if Pelosi leaves, Rep. Chris Van Hollen would be better positioned to vie for Pelosi's job (excerpt below):

CENTER MARYLAND: ...the emerging thinking on Capitol Hill goes, Pelosi, who is 72, will decide to leave — either retire outright, or take a plum ambassadorship if Obama is re-elected.

After that, House Democrats scramble to replace her — and all hell breaks loose.