text:
Never surrender
I've been seeing some comment about a blog post recently penned by outgoing Delegate Michael Smigiel regarding the Maryland GOP not assisting Mike McDermott in his Maryland Senate run against Jim Mathias. There are two damning allegations therein, so I'll speak to both.
First, we have the financial angle:
The Republican Party found it possible just two years ago to support three Republicans running for local county council seats to the tune of $40,000 in a Cecil County race! Now in a pivotal State Senate Race they can not offer the same support? Correct that, they can not offer any support? Even if the party claims financial inability, where are the dollars from Congressman Harris who two years ago gave $40,000 to the party to help those local candidates? Where is the help from the State Senators who have no challengers in their races but have tens of thousands of dollars in their war chests?
I know Smigiel has some sour grapes against certain Cecil County Republicans, but a quick check of campaign finance records finds only a few thousand dollars in contributions to these candidates from the local Republican club and Central Committee – nowhere near $40,000.
As for Andy Harris, he's already assisted Delegate candidate Carl Anderton (as have others) and it may be he's going to chip into McDermott's cause as well.
But the last sentence of Smigiel's is a valid question, particularly in light of his next paragraphs.
Republican State Senators have been told by the Democrat Senate President, "If you get in the McDermott v. Mathias race, you will be punished." So Republican Senators with the ability and the desire to help are not helping because of a concern over their own political comfort. Shame on any Senator in a position to help who fails to help out of fear they may be punished by the Democrat Senate President.
I call it Political cowardice to kowtow to the Democrat leadership on the decision of whom the Republicans should support for election to State wide office.
The Party and individual members of the Senate need to stand up to Democrat leadership and show they will not be intimidated into allowing the Democrat leadership to keep the growth of the Republican party stifled. Rhetoric about freedom and liberty rings hollow when you fail to stand up to tyranny when confronted with it in government. Republican Senators need to stand up and be counted. If you have no opponent and have tens of thousands of dollars in the bank you need to donate to and assist in every way possible in elected fellow Republicans. If you are threatened with loss of your committee seat or any other punishment by the Senate President, then make it public and double your efforts on behalf of the Republican candidate.
So is this a Senate or a fiefdom? Bear in mind that Senate President Mike Miller (Maryland's version of Harry Reid) has a Republican opponent himself, Jesse Peed. Those of you reading this in District 27 should note accordingly.
I did take a peek at Smigiel's last filing, which was the May filing, and it showed he had about $21,000 remaining in his account (with loans outstanding.) Obviously we have nothing newer to go by, but I haven't seen any transfers out from his account yet.
Now I don't know anything about the inner workings of the Maryland General Assembly but I do know bullshit when I smell it. Simply put, the way those bodies are conducted during the 90 days of terror we endure each year reeks to high heaven. Bills which would do a lot of good are stashed in the desk drawers of committee heads, arms are twisted in grotesque ways to get other less palatable bills to pass, and the public's voice is often ignored.
Thus, it doesn't really surprise me that such a punishment threat as Smigiel alleges might exist, but we need someone to stand up and say so. There are some who are no longer in office who could verify such statements because I'm sure these threats aren't new. Maybe Senator Simonaire would have something to say since he was the lone voice of opposition to Miller's re-election as Senate President.
As for the would-be Senator McDermott, he's come out with some interesting items of his own lately. I had intended to take a look at them, but there's one thing I need to put it all together so it can wait a few days. It's all good.
A post-primary look back
I actually started this a couple weeks ago, when writing about Ron George's last stand, and just added to it here and there every couple days – if only to keep it atop the queue. Regarding Ron, it was unfortunate that such a good candidate couldn't get much traction in the race.
But as the race comes to an end for three of the four gubernatorial hopefuls, I'm convinced that my initial instinct was correct and there was really only money enough for three candidates. Blaine Young saw this early on and, despite a solid period of fundraising, opted to drop out of the gubernatorial race and focus on a local campaign for the newly-created Frederick County Executive post. "We have a tendency to eat our own," he said.
To me this is yet another legacy of the Ehrlich era, which in some respects set our party back several years. With the most direct connection to that administration, Larry Hogan was perhaps the second-most natural successor – besides Michael Steele, who took a pass in 2014. More and more I see 2010 as a completely missed opportunity in this state, and its domino effect is hurting us in 2014.
So Hogan starts out about 15 points down, just like Ehrlich ended up in 2010. How does he close the gap?
Out of the box, he's taking the approach which he used a little bit in the primary: Anthony Brown as incompetent.
Driving up negatives is generally a conventional wisdom play, but there are a couple downsides. First of all, Brown is, well, brown and the inevitable comparison to Republicans picking on Barack Obama will occur. I also don't see the counter of a positive agenda from the Hogan camp, which seems to be focusing more on undoing things than doing new things.
I mentioned Ron George early on and it was interesting how he accepted his defeat, as a letter to his youngest son Tommy:
Tommy, I lost. But that is okay. Many took my ideas, and I know those ideas will help our state. Your dad is now able to go camping with you and have more time with you, and that alone makes me glad I lost. I can go on trips with you and Mom visiting your nieces and nephew, and I look forward to that also. I did what God asked of me and did my best and that is all we are to do. I never wanted to do anything that took time from you, so I am happy to say I am not a governor but I am Tommy's dad. Love you, Dad.
Perhaps had Ron been given a do-over, he may have decided to devote full-time to running for governor. Surely he had people to run his business, but while David Craig had a staff to help him do his job as County Executive, Larry Hogan the same for his business, and Charles Lollar was granted extended leave from his duties, Ron had to also function as a Delegate. That was 90 days basically off the trail in the formative part of the campaign. It may be disappointing to me because it was one of two decisions that cost him my vote and endorsement; otherwise Ron had perhaps the best overall platform and he came very close to getting both from me.
But Ron ran the best campaign insofar as staying issue-based and not going off on personal attack tangents.
For David Craig, he pretty much spent the last three years trying for this. Obviously the blogger meeting he had early on didn't do him much good.
There have been people who opined privately that Craig should have attacked Hogan earlier, just as there are people who believed attacking Charles Lollar was a mistake. I would place myself in the latter camp, but what did Craig in was the lack of money to overcome Larry Hogan's advantage there. Once Larry got the public financing, the race was over and Craig couldn't chip away at the double-digit lead.
It's the Charles Lollar supporters I worry about, as in my opinion they are most likely to stay home in November. Charles tried to convince them otherwise:
Wow, family, what an experience! I can honestly say that the past 16 months have been filled with such excitement and joy as my family has had the chance to meet so many good people across the state of Maryland. I could not be happier with the extended family that I have acquired as a result of this campaign. While the results may have not been exactly what we wanted at least we know that there were many out there who share our vision for a better Maryland and a New Way Forward. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank everyone who played a role in making this such a successful campaign.
As many of you know there is still more work for us to do. A New Way Forward for Maryland is still out there for us to obtain and together we can make this happen. I want to congratulate Larry Hogan on a job well done as well as David Craig and Ron George for successful campaigns of their own.
I look forward to coming together in unity to win the state of Maryland and I urge all of my supporters to do the same and ensure unity within our state across the board.
It makes me wonder what Charles will do with the next few months, although his July 5th event for supporters and volunteers will likely have a lot of clues.
Looking down the ballot a little bit, there were some interesting upsets from both parties.
Two incumbent Senators lost in their primaries as ambitious House members ousted them: Republicans David Brinkley and Richard Colburn were knocked off. By the same token, many of the nine House members who were defeated were victims of redistricting: Republicans Joseph Boteler, Don Dwyer, Donald Elliott, and Michael Smigiel, and Democrats Keiffer Mitchell, Melvin Stukes, Michael Summers, Darren Swain, and Shawn Tarrant. Mitchell and Stukes were drawn, along with winner Keith Haynes, into one Baltimore City district.
In particular, Boteler was one of the good guys, and the reigning monoblogue Accountability Project Legislator of the Year. That district's voters made a serious mistake by pushing him aside.
Aside from the shocking margin of Addie Eckardt's victory, the Wicomico County results were pretty much what I expected. Obviously I was disappointed by Muir Boda's loss but apparently county Republican voters like mushy moderates. If things hold as expected, we will still have a significant GOP majority on County Council but it won't always govern like one.
It should be noted, though, that my advertisers went 3-1 for the primary. Mary Beth Carozza easily had the most primary votes in District 38C and Chris Adams and Johnny Mautz paced the field in District 37B. Mautz carried three of the four counties, with Adams second in all four (Rene Desmarais won Wicomico County.)
This brings up one of my favorite comments along the way in the campaign, from an old NetRightDaily colleague of mine, Richard Manning. It was in response to a Facebook post I put up to promote this post.
(A)ll those ads along the side pay Michael for his great work. He should be commended that he has created something from nothing that has enough value that people want to advertise on it to reach his readers. That is the essence of the entrepreneurial spirit that those on the right claim to embrace.
So that brings me to the final race, which was my own. I posted this on the soon-to-disappear Facebook page for my campaign:
I'd like to thank my supporters. Looks like I'm going to come up one spot short this time, but with so many good people running I knew I was the most vulnerable incumbent because I only made it by a little bit last time.
So after November it looks like I may have some free time on my hands – or maybe not.
It does look like the Central Committee will have a little more TEA Party influence because Julie Brewington and Greg Belcher got their start as part of that movement, so that's good.
As I've said all along, this will be my last election as a candidate. I was only planning to run this term anyway, and I would have definitely preferred to go out a winner. But I came home and got a hug from my treasurer, who happens to be my fiance. So everything is okay. I lost an election, but elections don't define me anyway. In fact, in some respects this can be liberating.
Obviously there's still the prospect of my involvement with the Central Committee, at least as secretary (it can be a non-voting position.) If they wish, I'm happy to stay on in that capacity.
But this will be the last time I have to go through all the hassle of getting a treasurer, filing campaign finance reports, and so forth. In the next few days we'll close the campaign account, file the necessary paperwork to wind up this committee, and it will be time for a new chapter in political involvement.
So in a few days this (Facebook) page will also go away. Congratulations to the winners and hopefully many of those who tried but fell short will try again. But this will be it for me on the ballot.
Again, I appreciate the kind words from my supporters and thanks to those who voted for me.
A lot of those remarks have appeared on my Facebook page or in e-mails to me. I appreciate the sentiment, but I have an observation on this whole thing.
Of the nine who made it, six were already on the Central Committee and had name recognition for various reasons. I've lived in the county for less than a decade and, quite frankly, had the 2006 election featured more aspirants than candidates I probably wouldn't have won my first term, let alone the second. Look at the three newcomers who won: two are doctors, and the other ran for the House of Delegates in 2010.
On the other hand, two of the other three who lost had been active in Republican circles but had little name recognition otherwise. Tyler Harwood probably knocked on hundreds of doors on behalf of himself and other candidates and was rewarded by finishing last. Jackie Wellfonder had bought signs and cards, and made her way around polling places yesterday to no avail. The gap between us and ninth place suggests that people just went with the names they knew, and that's sort of a sad commentary.
I'm not going to lie to you and say I'm happy about losing this election, but I knew going in this time that I would have a hard time keeping my spot. I originally figured that only five or six incumbents would run, but with seven that made it really difficult.
So here we are. Even if I'm selected as secretary again (a non-voting secretary and treasurer are allowed) October will be my last meeting as an elected Central Committee member. It would be strange not having something to do on the first Monday of the month, but life changes and so we have to as well.
I didn't plan on being a Central Committee member my entire life anyway, but now that this election is over my thoughts are on seeing our candidates through and working where I can to improve the process. It may not be completely universal, but one thing I think I've achieved over the last eight years is the respect of my peers.
PlanMaryland repeal redux will get a hearing
I'm glad conservatives are playing the game liberals in the Maryland General Assembly play – if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Many of the restrictions and regulations we're currently saddled with came on the second, third, or later try in the General Assembly.
So it's nice to see that a PlanMaryland repeal bill is being introduced again, by Delegate Michael Smigiel. It was pre-filed this session as HB74.
Understandably, the Maryland Liberty PAC was pleased to see this:
Plan Maryland is a statewide development plan designed to consolidate everyone's property rights into one simple document.
Centralized government planning has never and will never work, but that won't phase (sic) Martin O'Malley.
The agenda behind Plan Maryland is not to improve our state, it's to kill all new development that doesn't match the left's green agenda.
Many of you, especially those who are property owners or business owners in the development industry know all too well the headaches caused by Maryland's radical land use policies.
Well now, Plan Maryland is just another headache that we have to deal with statewide.
I used to talk about things which were in the category of "duh" and the last three sentences of this portion of their notice fit the bill. But this bill will get a hearing in the Environmental Matters Committee on Thursday, January 30 at 1 p.m. Delegate Maggie McIntosh is the chair of that committee, and she is definitely the keeper of all things Radical Green in this state.
The MLPAC notice goes on to note the bill introduced last year, but in reality this is the third straight year a similar bill was introduced. However, the 2012 version had many more co-sponsors.
In both cases, though, the votes were there to kill the bills in committee. And even though they were both 17-6 against the side of good, it's worthy to note that Delegate Herb McMillan switched sides between 2012 and 2013, voting to kill the bill in the latter case. Delegate Patrick Hogan, who was excused from the 2012 vote, voted the correct way in 2013.
Bear in mind this is not the same bill as the one which attempted to rescind the 2012 Septic Bill, a proposal which was introduced by Delegate Mike McDermott last year but failed. The Smigiel bill simply tries to eliminate the aspect of a statewide plan in favor of leaving things to the local jurisdictions which best know their own situation.
There are a lot of bad ideas which eminated from the General Assembly over the last several years, so many more repeal bills need to be introduced. This is one which has merit – if a county wishes to be less than developer-friendly it's their right. But don't impose those restrictions on places which may seek to utilize their resources in the highest and best manner.
Creeping back into the fold
There were a number of critical articles (like this one) and even a resolution before the state party stemming from the decision of Cecil County Executive Tari Moore to bolt from the Republican Party so she could pick her own successor on the County Council. But count me among those who figured she'd return to the GOP. Indeed, she did so back in November.
Needless to say, the local party didn't exactly welcome her back with open arms, particular county Chair Chris Zeauskas:
Today, the Cecil Whig published a story announcing County Executive Tari Moore's switch back from Unaffiliated to Republican.
By changing her Party affiliation, she confirms, yet again, that her switch was nothing more than political calculation.
For Tari Moore, it wasn't about conscience and it wasn't about doing what was best for Cecil County.
As you might remember, just after being elected County Executive, Tari Moore changed her Party affiliation in a politically motivated move to control who her successor would be in filling her then vacant County Council seat.
She chose to steal the right of the duly elected Cecil County Republican Central Committee to nominate candidates to fill her vacancy on the Cecil County Council.
As per the County Charter, when a vacancy opens on the County Council (assuming that seat is held by a Republican), the Cecil County Republican Central Committee nominates 3 individuals for the County Council to select for appointment.
Rather than stand for the conservative Republican values of Cecil County voters, Tari Moore decided to undermine them.
She undermined the democratic process and the will of the voters for her own political gain.
Not only was it wrong for Moore to betray Republican voters who helped her get elected, she's betrayed all Cecil County voters in her time in office.
As our representative, Moore has:
- Increased taxes and fees several times
- Increased and voted for huge spending increases
- Piled on massive new debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay for
- Voted against our property rights by supporting government purchases of land and centralized planning initiatives
Tari Moore is not a Republican, she does not stand for any Republican values, and she has proven herself to be yet another self-interested, self-serving politician.
Between now and her next election we hope to educate all voters in Cecil County about what Tari Moore truly stands for and we ask you today to do the same.
You know, I could say all that about a lot of Republicans all around the state. Anyway, I'm reading that as Tari Moore having a primary opponent the next time she's up for election. Cecil County, though, is sort of an odd duck in that they will have perhaps the most significant of the local elections come 2016. Unlike most other counties, they elect certain officers (such as their County Executive) in a Presidential year rather than a Gubernatorial one; thus, the election will be one of the most closely watched in the state.
You may recall Zeauskas is the Central Committee chair who sponsored a resolution in 2012 accusing Moore of accepting party money "under false pretenses." The resolution was tabled in that meeting and not brought up in the chaotic spring 2013 convention that followed.
In fact, this news wasn't revealed as the county filed suit against Delegate Michael Smigiel to recoup legal costs incurred in the Zeauskas lawsuit against Cecil County. My post happened to be the day she switched back, but it turns out I was correct in assuming she would wait until the legal coast was clear.
I find it very intriguing, though, that Zeauskas will get very little feedback about being critical of a fellow Republican elected official – but let a conservative blogger do the same thing and the cries of disloyalty spring up from several quarters. I'm sure what passes for a Democratic Party in Cecil County is enjoying the show, not that they have nothing else to run against since most county officials there are Republicans.
So I'll welcome Tari back, even if her motives for leaving weren't the purest. Let's allow the debate to focus on policy, both now and once the candidates are known.
2013 Maryland GOP Fall Convention in pictures and text
I think I can get all this in one part. To be quite honest, this convention didn't match the buildup.
It was sort of strange. I noted earlier in the week that the whole Lollar controversy in the blogosphere overshadowed the months-long debate over the open primary question, and then the prospect of a Larry Hogan gubernatorial announcement upstaged several other events.
These were the scenes around the main ballroom on Friday night after arrival.
There was no doubt that they were proud of their achievements.
And something tells me that most of these stickers were gone by the end of the night.
The Change Maryland party even had a live band, called the Great Escape Band. I noted on Facebook that may be something subliminal if Larry doesn't win.
Aside from one song they sort of butchered up in my line of thinking, the band was really pretty good. They also reinforced my belief that there's not a band which doesn't know 'Mustang Sally.' Although he actually didn't write the song Wilson Pickett must be proud, wherever he is.
But when they took their break, the real rock star came into the room.
What I have found interesting in looking back and listening again to what Larry said is that my interpretation is much different than what Larry presented to other outlets.
This, which I transcribed from the remarks he presented, is part of what Larry Hogan said last night:
Now everyone who knows me knows that I love this state, I hate to let people down, and that I've never walked away from a tough fight.
I'm not a professional politician – I'm just a businessman – but I don't think that you need to be campaigning all throughout 2013 for an election that takes place at the end of 2014. But, you know, we are getting pretty close to the end of the year.
I promised my wife and family that I would spend a little quality time with them over the holidays, and I'm looking forward to that.
And as you may know I founded and run a group of companies that has brought hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs to Maryland, and I promised the employees and my colleagues that I would stay at the helm and continue to work hard with them to try to have a strong finish to the calendar year.
So there won't be a formal announcement or an official launch until January, but tonight – tonight I wanted to be very clear about our intentions.
I happen to believe very strongly that the people of Maryland simply cannot afford another four years of O'Malley/Brown/Gansler tax and spend policies.
Hogan went on to say, "This isn't a fight between right and left, it's a fight between right and wrong.
I honestly believe people went in there expecting Larry to make the formal announcement last night, so once he made his remarks a good percentage of the people left his party.
Of course, Hogan's wasn't the only party. Before I stopped by the Change Maryland event, I dropped in to Ron George's suite which featured this.
I had one other photo which, alas, didn't come out. Ron actually had a pretty lively thing going early on.
Just downstairs from Ron was David Craig's suite. The candidate wasn't there because he was at the RGA meeting in Arizona, but David had a lovely second-in-command to take his place.
LG hopeful Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio held down the fort. It's worth noting they had pretty good traffic.
They also have a slew of printed material. I suppose you can cut out the Craig part if you really share the sentiment.
Instead of a suite, fellow candidate Charles Lollar (who was also in Arizona at the RGA) had a lobby table.
On the table, among the other handouts, was a letter explaining his absence, which read in part:
Unfortunately, this means I will miss the opportunity on Friday evening to meet with you, answer your questions, and tour the hospitality suites, but I look forward to joining everyone on Saturday to share my plans for returning prosperity to Maryland.
One place Charles may have found himself welcome was the Maryland Liberty PAC suite, which was all by itself on the other end of the building. Despite that, they had a lively group.
Alas, I think I missed this presentation.
The other suites were county suites from Montgomery and Anne Arundel counties. This photo was of the Anne Arundel suite, which by the way had the best food.
But it seemed like a lot of the air was sucked out of the celebrations early, with most of the parties finished before the clock struck 12. That's when I took to Facebook and wrote:
So my thoughts on day 1 as I head to bed:
I'm sure I'm not the only one scratching my head over Larry Hogan and his decision to wait to announce his intentions until January. The chatter around the convention seemed, well, less than positive. He had 1,000 supporters in a festive mood and plenty of press only to cite family and business as reason to wait.
There were a number of good parties about, though, and I renewed acquaintances with a number of friends and fans. But pardon me if tomorrow seems a little less exciting.
I think I'll have some more thoughts on all this tomorrow, but allow me to move on. They probably won't be in line with the thoughts of these gentlemen: from left to right, Jeff Quinton of The Quinton Report and Greg Kline, Mark Newgent, and Andrew Langer of the Red Maryland Network.
And no, I was not on their show last night. Wasn't sought out and didn't seek them out – gave some others a chance.
This is what I saw looking out the window this morning.
So when I woke up, I was at least expecting to deal with this lengthy issue regarding open primaries – finally, a chance to decide. Wrong!
I suppose I should back up and point out that I did not cover the Friday evening Executive Committee meeting as I usually do. There were a couple reasons for this, but the primary one is that I was the escort for a good friend of mine who was the lucky recipient of my second Change Maryland ticket. But had I done so I may have found out that open primaries wouldn't be discussed. Nor did I do breakfast this time, because the speaker didn't appeal to me.
So the first (and only) Saturday event I attended was our combination lunch and session.
Let me say that I thought having the lunch and session as we did was a splendid idea, with the key reasons being we didn't have to get settled in after lunch in a different venue and the fact we could sit at tables – no more balancing my note pad on my lap.
First we heard welcoming remarks by Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman.
Yes, the photo is dark. But Laura had an intriguing story of being an MBA without being a high school graduate. Her remarks reflected a philosophy which said "over and over, if I worked hard, opportunity would be available to me."
"My story could only happen in this country," she added. "That's why I'm a Republican." She expressed the belief that hard work should equal opportunity.
Our luncheon speakers both came from the RNC.
Kristal Quarker-Hartsfield is the director of African-American Initiatives whose family "has been Republican since Reconstruction." Her task was to spread the Republican message to areas not typically reached by the party, including black churches, historically black colleges and universities, and so forth. She added that Reince Priebus was "serious about going into these communities and doing things the right way."
Meanwhile, Stephen Fong noted there's "a good mix of people" here, and talked about the GOP's renewed emphasis on minority communities. He made the case that many blacks would "consider" voting Republican if we were "just showing up."
There was a buzz about the next speaker as well.
Described by Chair Diana Waterman as the future of the party, Annapolis Mayor-elect Mike Pantelides briefly outlined some of his secrets to success, particularly in social media. (The Twitter debate seems like a good way to promote brevity of remarks.)
With that out of the way, we rolled through some convention business so routine I snapped this on the Allegany County sign.
I guess the one interesting part was the complaint that the minutes didn't reflect a resolution which was on the spring agenda but not brought up – the Tari Moore resolution tabled a year ago. But parliamentary procedure showed it was dead once the gavel fell in April.
So we moved on to State Senator David Brinkley's report on the Senate, where we have a "tremendous field of candidates." He made sure to mention that if Anthony Brown thought he'd have a coronation, he should have a cup of coffee with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
Brinkley bemoaned the economic state of the state, making the case that job creators are "voting with their feet" and "anyplace south of the Potomac is friendlier (to business) than Maryland." If we want more manufacturing jobs, Brinkley added, "right-to-work has to be one of the conversations."
Overall, David believed that "even the Democrats are disgusted with the games and gamesmanship." All we need are candidates who are conversant with the issues.
On the House side, Delegate Kathy Szeliga was kind enough to pass out her report, which highlighted many of the measures to be considered in next year's session. It's a list which includes tax cuts, a repeal of the "rain tax" and Common Core, protecting charter schools and creating a voucher system, and modifications to the gun bill.
Moving into the Chair's Report, Diana Waterman exhorted us to "take advantage of all the opportunities our liberal Democrats gave us." She also pushed an initiative called the Old Line Club, which was a monthly fundraising of $8 or more a month, automatically deducted.
But I found the Executive Director's Report from Joe Cluster made me sit up and take notice: county-by-county goals. Even the Republican strongholds of Carroll and Garrett counties had marching orders: hold what you have and help other counties out.
Nicolee Ambrose, in her National Committeewoman's Report, touted the successes of the Super Saturday program in Annapolis and Frederick. It also served as a good test market for issue advocacy, and next year the program will be expanded and divided into pre-primary and post-primary positions.
She also related the success of 3-part fundraisers like the Allen West event in Prince George's County as a model for others to follow.
On a national scale, Nicolee spoke on IT improvements the party was undertaking as well as the winter RNC meeting in Virginia.
As is often the case, National Committeeman Louis Pope was optimistic: "We're going to have a phenomenal year in 2014," he predicted. He shared good news on the financial front and on how the party was working on regaining its technological advantage. Moreover, Obama's "Teflon-coated presidency is coming to an end," said Louis.
Pope also spoke on Maryland, calling the state one with a "very angry electorate" and "very energized (GOP) base."
Finally we made it to resolutions. Two of them made it out of committee and two didn't.
The ones which were presented to the floor came from John Fiastro, Jr. and Dave Myers.
You could call Fiastro's resolution the Don Dwyer resolution, since it seemed tailored with his situation in mind. But Delegate Michael Smigiel, who was carrying a proxy, spoke up and called it "too broad." An amendment to allow for acts of civil disobedience to address Smigiel's concerns failed on a voice vote when Smigiel noted "there's not enough lipstick to put on this pig."
Once the question was called, the Fiastro motion failed by a large margin, over 75 percent voting against.
The other resolution was one which called on the party to stop sending "mixed messages" and integrate the pro-liberty community. It lost on a voice vote, even after the "mixed message" portion was excised. But Diana Waterman promised to create an advisory committee to hear the diverse portions of the party after the first of the year. So we'll see.
Certainly the Maryland Liberty PAC and other groups will be watching.
There was an attempt to get one other resolution to the floor concerning the Frederick robocall, which had some support. But more people wanted to adjourn, which was the motion presented by Nick Panuzio of Talbot County. He's good at that. (Update: I'm told by Denise Lovelady of Talbot that it actually was Josh Horner who motioned to adjourn, but I heard the motion credited to Nick by the Chair. So let's say Talbot County is good at that.)
Upon driving home, though, the four of us who traveled together saw perhaps the prettiest sunset we'd seen in quite some time, so I'm going to take it as a divine sign we did something right even if it wasn't expected.
Cecil County wants its money back
The curious (and dismissed) case of Zeauskas v. Moore took another interesting turn last week as Cecil County filed a ten-page motion to recoup legal expenses from Delegate Michael Smigiel, who was the plaintiff's counsel in the case.
At stake is the nearly $40,000 the county spent defending a case where the defendant claimed damage due to inaction by the plaintiff, in a case Cecil County argues was filed simply "(t)o make a public political splash, and in the process, to vex, delay, and oppress the efficient operation of County government."
The motion also chides Smigiel, who has practiced law since 1989:
Legal counsel, particularly an attorney with Smigiel's credentials and experience in government litigation, either knew, or should well have known, that the pleading tiled in this case was patently groundless. In fact, Defendants' counsel, on three occasions prior to filing the Motions to Dismiss, sent correspondence to Smigiel specifically addressing the spuriousness of Plaintiffs action and requesting that the case be voluntarily dismissed.
It goes without saying that Smigiel has had a tough run of luck lately, as he lost this case shortly after losing his bid to be appointed as State Senator from District 36 to fellow Delegate Steve Hershey – a loss he didn't take all that well. Add to it Mike's valiant but fruitless effort to stop Maryland's onerous new gun laws from passing and taking effect, and one may think he can't wait for the General Assembly session to begin and allow him something new to do.
In the meantime, this could extend the Zeauskas case into our convention, and while I haven't heard anything yet about resurrecting the call for censure of Cecil County Executive Tari Moore for abandoning the GOP shortly after her election in order to better control the appointment of her successor per the county's charter, it wouldn't shock me if the measure came up once again. It was tabled last fall before a binding vote could be made. My impression is that Moore is awaiting the conclusion of the case before reverting to the GOP fold; however, I'm not privy to any official word on this. (If she reads this, feel free to enlighten us.)
As I explained back in October at the conclusion of the case, this whole episode has probably assured Tari a primary opponent once 2016 rolls around. (This is assuming, of course, she officially changes her registration back.) But with Moore's court triumph and the defeat of Smigiel in his effort to succeed political ally State Senator E.J. Pipkin after Pipkin's startling resignation, it appears the turbulence in Cecil County politics may be closer to the end than to the beginning – much to the relief of county residents.
Case dismissed
In a spectacular flameout, the allegations of wrongdoing in the controversy over Cecil County Executive Tari Moore's sudden affiliation change and subsequent appointment of a candidate not on the list submitted by the county's Republican Central Committee were dismissed in the county's Circuit Court via a seven-page decision by visiting Judge Thomas E. Marshall, a retired Harford County Circuit Court judge.
Also dismissed in the suit due to a lack of standing was a claim that the county's Tier Map was unlawfully submitted to the state.
The controversy closes another chapter in the ongoing war between supporters and opponents of former State Senator E.J. Pipkin and current Delegate Michael Smigiel. (Opponents have generally had the backing of former State Senator and now-Congressman Andy Harris, who defeated Pipkin as well as former Congressman Wayne Gilchrest in a bitter 2008 GOP Congressional primary.) Those allied with Smigiel control the county's Republican Central Committee, and it was Chair Chris Zeauskas who filed the complaint. On the other hand, Tari Moore was backed by Harris in her quest to be Cecil County's first executive.
Just before assuming office as the incoming County Executive last December, Moore suddenly changed her party affiliation from Republican to unaffiliated, making the switch because she wanted to bypass the county's GOP Central Committee in selecting her successor. By becoming unaffiliated, she retained the right to pick once County Council became deadlocked in a 2-2 tie between Smigiel supporters and Harris allies. Eventually Moore picked Joyce Bowlsbey, a Republican. (The Republicans control all five seats on Cecil County Council, so this was an intraparty fight.) Judge Marshall agreed that, despite the GOP's backing in the 2012 election, Moore's status as unaffiliated at the moment of her resignation from County Council complied with the method of selection prescribed in the county's Charter and eventually followed.
Yet there is one other piece of business on the table, notwithstanding the possibility of an appeal by Zeauskas. At last fall's state GOP convention, a motion was made to censure Tari Moore for her "corrupt and reprehensible decision"; a motion which had support from some quarters but was tabled via a fairly close vote. Because of the abrupt cutoff of our Spring Convention this year, we did not revisit the Moore controversy but it may return next month at this year's Fall Convention in Annapolis.
But now that the court case is settled, the question will be whether Moore rejoins the GOP fold. Those calling for her censure had a point in that Republicans backed her election in the primary; had she gone the independent route in 2012 she would have likely lost badly. Yet I've been assured by Moore's backers that the decision to be unaffiliated was just temporary and would be rectified once the court case was settled. Obviously it would be to her benefit in 2016 to run as a Republican, although this episode has probably assured her of a primary opponent. She would have a hard time in a three-way general election race if the county GOP stays loyal to its nominee and the Democrats run someone, too.
So the clock is ticking. If she changes back before the state convention, the question of censure may be moot in a "no harm, no foul" sense. But if not, even the assurances of Andy Harris may not spare her the state party's wrath.
Hershey appointed to District 36 Senate seat
The word came down last night from the victor himself:
I just received a call from the Governor's office appointing me as the new Senator for District 36 – I am both thrilled and humbled by all the support I received during this appointment process. I am looking forward to serving the 36th District in this new role. Thank you again to all those that offered support, prayers and well wishes this was truly a humbling experience.
Steve Hershey wasn't the longest shot, but going in he may not have been the favorite, either. Yet he secured the votes of two Central Committees in the four-county district and that was enough to forge a tie with fellow Delegate Michael Smigiel and throw the fate of the seat into the hands of Governor Martin O'Malley. Given Smigiel's forceful opposition of O'Malley's onerous gun law package this spring, you knew he would be punished by not getting the appointment he sought.
So Hershey gets the seat vacated by the resignation of former Minority Leader Senator E. J. Pipkin, who followed Rick Perry's advice before the commercials even came out and moved to Texas. Now the scene shifts to the battle over Hershey's vacated Delegate seat. As I recall, it cannot be filled by a resident of a county already represented in the district, so residents of Cecil County (Smigiel) and Kent County (Delegate Jay Jacobs, who did not seek the Senate post) would be excluded – but their Central Committees would have a vote.
Out of the original field of 14, all but three hailed from either Queen Anne's County or Caroline County, which is the lone Maryland county without a resident Delegate. Not all of the remaining ten would seek the Delegate seat, but several probably would and they may be joined by a few others – one being Caroline County commissioner Jeff Ghrist, who made a lengthy plea on Facebook which I excerpt here:
Governor O'Malley will soon be selecting our new District 36 Senator and subsequently one of two House of Delegate seats will become available. This will require someone to fill a Delegate seat. Caroline County has been without a resident of our county representing us in Annapolis for nearly two decades. While I sincerely enjoy being a Commissioner in Caroline County…I would love to take my passion and experience for limited and efficient government to Annapolis.
The first goal is to build a concensus (sic) throughout the district that I am the best appointment for Delegate. Not only do I have a strong legislative and executive track record but Caroline County deserves resident representation.
Ghrist has been seeking higher office for awhile; he briefly campaigned for Congress in 2009 before withdrawing and endorsing Andy Harris.
So we will probably have much the same circus we did for the Senate seat, with the real possibility of another split vote and Martin O'Malley breaking the tie.
Meanwhile, Hershey's tenure may be short-lived. Former Delegate Richard Sossi is actively planning a run for the seat, as is 2010 U.S. Senate nominee Eric Wargotz. The same sort of situation may occur in the District 36 Delegate race next year, with several jockeying for position to be the top vote-getter in a particular county.
Long-term, the solution to that issue may be to enact 141 separate House of Delegate districts, instead of the confusing mishmash of having some three-person districts as well as a handful which are split in a 2-1 configuration. But in the meantime, the political races on the Eastern Shore may be some of the most interesting in the state with the District 36 openings, a primary challenge to the incumbent in District 37A, the opening in District 37B thanks to the selection of Delegate Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio to the David Craig gubernatorial ticket, the forced move of Delegate Mike McDermott to a challenge for the District 38 Senate seat due to redistricting, and a brand new District 38C with no incumbent.
Bridging the gap
Sitting here and catching up from what was an extremely busy week (with next week promising more of the same) I had something of an "aha!" moment – not to be confused with the '80s pop band by the way – where two seemingly disparate pieces of information just clicked together.
Let's examine piece number one, shall we? For days (or is it months, or years? I sense a continuing theme here) Maryland Republicans have been divided into a number of camps, tribes which rarely come together except on a small handful of issues. In the last year, I think resistance to Martin O'Malley's draconian Second Amendment upheaval (legally and laughingly officially known as the Firearm Safety Act of 2013) was about the only issue drawing universal resistance from Republicans, and even then they parted on how best to fight its enactment, whether through the court system of via referendum. In the end, the court system won out but, as it stands, in a month the law will take effect.
In the meantime, we couldn't even get the GOP to vote as a group against Martin O'Malley's bloated budget – yet we call ourselves the party of fiscal responsibility? I understand our alternative budget is DOA in the General Assembly, but at least put up a united front against O'Malley's principles.
The long introduction I just completed leads me into an Examiner post by J. Doug Gill, where he takes a long look at how the party has been divided since the Ehrlich era of 2003-07. This "bare knuckle brawl for irrelevancy" makes a number of valid points, although I don't agree with its somewhat pessimistic outlook for the future. As Gill notes:
Any citizen of Maryland who has had it up to their well-spelunked pockets wants a strong, vibrant and relevant opposition party – and there are untold numbers who don't care if it's the Republican Party, the Libertarian Party, or the Tupperware Party.
The sooner some entity – any entity – sorts itself out and provides a credible opposition to the Democrats the better for all of us – including our friends on the left whose bank accounts are just as empty as ours – well, save for the union leaders and cronies and appointees, and, well, you get the picture…
But right now, and in its current incarnation, the only thing the Maryland Republican Party has learned from history is that they never learn anything from history.
Yet it's not just about credible opposition – it's also about creating a choice. This is something the majority party won't do.
There was something about this Ballotpedia report which caught my eye. See if you can spot it, too – I'll give you a moment and even put in a page break for the fun of it.
Scott drops bid for District 36 Senate seat
After coming from nowhere and arousing a great deal of controversy in a quixotic bid to replace E.J. Pipkin in the Maryland Senate, the surprise choice of Queen Anne's County's Central Committee suddenly withdrew from the race late Friday afternoon, according to a story broken by Mark Newgent at the Red Maryland blog. In a communication to the committees in question and the state party, Scott told them that:
It is my hope that my withdrawal from consideration will permit Queen Anne's County to revote for another candidate of their choosing.
Now, with both Delegate (Michael) Smigiel and Delegate (Steve) Hershey each receiving a vote from a Central Committee, putting them each in a position to be the next State Senator, I do not wish for my presence in the race to interfere with either person being selected.
Had it remained a three- or possibly even a four-way race – Caroline County apparently hasn't finalized its selection process – it would have been very likely Governor O'Malley would have selected Scott in order not to elevate a Delegate from the district. So unless Caroline stays home and picks a third name and/or Queen Anne's makes a different choice, it's likely O'Malley would be stuck with his preference of either Hershey or Smigiel. My guess would be Hershey.
Of course, there is still the possibility that no candidate could get a majority of the counties – four could win one county apiece, or Hershey and Smigiel could each take two counties. It's brought up the thought of having special elections when these situations occur, but with 188 legislative districts in the state, filling each vacancy in this fashion could be very expensive, time-consuming, and confusing. So far this year, for example, we've had one death and two resignations, including Pipkin's. It would make more sense to have such a law if the vacancy occurred in the first 18 months of the term, before the Presidential election (there would still have to be a special primary in many cases.) Having gone through an instance where our Central Committee had to select a "caretaker" delegate when Page Elmore passed away barely two months before a primary to replace him, it seems to me the system as is works sufficiently.
There's no question I disagree with Audrey Scott on a number of issues, and I'm not convinced she would have been a good State Senator anyway. But I'm curious about who the "numerous Central Committee members" are who asked her to run in the first place. If they're aware in any way how the political system works in Maryland, they would have had to know that at least one Delegate would seek the seat and would be a natural successor. So what purpose would there be in having Scott try for the position in the first place? Drumming up business for her son?
Anyway – at least until a seat for Delegate opens up – it looks like the Audrey Scott saga may end as quickly as it blew in earlier this week. All it seems to have accomplished is allowing some of us a little more fodder for the internet archives.
It also makes the Maryland Liberty PAC look a little foolish, as they got all worked up over the possibility of Scott moving up. Think they'll take credit for her withdrawal?
Update 10:45 p.m.: You betcha. This just hit my e-mail box:
I could not be more proud to be a part of the Maryland Liberty Movement tonight.
We just received word that Audrey Scott has now officially dropped out of the State Senate race in District 36.
Our objective was to get this RINO out of the race and tonight we did just that.
Multiple sources are telling us that a huge number of emails and phone calls were flowing into Central Committee members.
This ultimately gave them the support they needed to stand up to the Establishment.
The question, though, is just how much influence they had since it was Scott's decision. But regardless they got what they wanted this time.
One seat, fourteen applicants
Monday evening the list of applicants for E.J. Pipkin's District 36 Maryland Senate seat came out, and there were several surprises on the list. We knew some of the names which would be on there, but there is no lack of aspirants for the job. In alphabetical order, they are:
- Steven Arentz, a Queen Anne's County Commissioner elected in 2010
- R. Scott Bramble, of Cecil County
- Frank Frohn, a former member of the Queen Anne's County Planning Commission and unsuccessful 2010 Commission candidate
- John Graham, of Queen Anne's County
- Stephen Hershey, current District 36 Delegate from Queen Anne's County (elected in 2010)
- Andrew Langer, president of the Institute for Liberty and Red Maryland radio host
- Tim McCluskey, a town councilman from Centreville since 2009
- Audrey Scott, onetime mayor of Bowie, Secretary of Planning, and more recently Maryland GOP Chair 2009-10
- Michael Smigiel, current District 36 Delegate from Cecil County (first elected in 2002)
- Richard Sossi, former District 36 Delegate from 2002-10
- Robert Thornton, Jr., former Delegate from Caroline County (1990-94) – elected as a Democrat
- John Leo Walter, who ran for Congress in 2008, from Queen Anne's County
- John Walton, Jr., of Caroline County
- Eric Wargotz, GOP Senate nominee in 2010 and former Queen Anne's County Commissioner
So as far as I can tell, most of these officeseekers have already served in some capacity, while many others have run for office. I would imagine that most, if not all, of them would try once again if one of the two current Delegates in the mix (Hershey or Smigiel) is elevated to the Senate (and if they are eligible, based on my recollection of state law – see below.)
Personally, I think it's going to be Smigiel's seat to lose, but he probably has to get the backing of all four counties to be selected. If more than one name is sent to Governor O'Malley, it won't be Smigiel who's picked, not after his strident opposition to the cherished O'Malley gun law. If Caroline County stays home and picks Thornton as one of several names submitted he may be the choice as a former Democrat and current attorney. Martin O'Malley can also then say he addressed the unfairness of having one county not represented in Annapolis.
To me, the most intriguing names in the running are Langer, Scott, Sossi, Walter, and Wargotz.
Obviously Andrew Langer is a political activist and could be an interesting bomb thrower in the Maryland Senate as a TEA Party stalwart. I think he has a slightly better chance of being selected as a Delegate should a seat open up thanks to the elevation of Hershey – I believe if Smigiel is selected his successor would have to come from a county not already represented in the district, which would leave only Caroline and Cecil counties as possibilities because Hershey is from Queen Anne's and Delegate Jay Jacobs, who is not seeking the Senate seat, comes from Kent County.
I see Audrey Scott, meanwhile, as a possible compromise, caretaker candidate who probably wouldn't run again in 2014. It's not like she hasn't come in to finish someone else's term and opted not to run again, although she may then assume some position will be handed to her. Also worth mentioning: she's the only woman in the field.
From what I gather, Sossi is running for the poetic justice of succeeding the guy who allegedly helped orchestrate his defeat in 2010 by Hershey. I suppose he could then run in 2014 as being the tan, rested, and ready candidate.
Most may not have heard of John Leo Walter, but I remember him. Lost in the bloodbath that was the 2008 First District Congressional primary was Walter's principled, conservative campaign. Maybe this is his time, although he is probably the darkest of horses in this race.
And after passing up the 2012 Senate campaign and thoughts of climbing into the gubernatorial ring, it's worth pointing out that Eric Wargotz has trimmed his aspirations back to where some probably thought they should have been all along.
It's interesting to me that, when I did the research into one of the candidates, I came across this Free Republic thread from 2003 when Jeannie Haddaway (pre-Riccio) was selected for the then-vacant District 37B Delegate seat in a similar situation – four counties were involved there, too. At that time, both Caroline and Wicomico selected Jim Newcomb of Dorchester County but Haddaway was Bob Ehrlich's choice as her name was submitted by Talbot County, which at the time was the largest jurisdiction in the district. But there were only six shooting for the seat back then as opposed to the fourteen-person scrum we have this time.
(As an aside, there was a fascinating mention of then-officeseeker Stevie Prettyman, who remains on Wicomico County Council to this day:
Stevie Prettyman, current Wicomico County Council member, supports conservative spending and agreed with the other candidate that Maryland citizens are over-taxed. Prettyman said building bonds with Democrats would be a key strategy if selected.
"You have to cross the aisle," Prettyman said. "You have to be able to hold hands for a common goal – and that common goal is the best for the people you serve."
To some, it seems to still hold true even when there's only one Democrat on County Council because we've not managed to elect a GOP County Executive.)
I would imagine that the timetable has been set so that there's plenty of breathing room before counties are required to submit nominees. Will the four counties go with the conventional wisdom, or will they break ranks and allow Martin O'Malley to select a centrist Republican who would bend to his will as he did when former Delegate Richard Weldon resigned in 2009? At that time, Frederick and Washington counties split and Charles Jenkins was picked over Michael Hough, who then ran against Jenkins and won the seat in 2010.
No one can be certain at this time. While Smigiel has claimed he has the votes, that's not necessarily true.
Pipkin bids farewell to Maryland Senate
It wasn't how you'd expect the political career of a man who served as Minority Leader of the Maryland State Senate – and who was brash enough to seek statewide office just two scant years after upsetting a longtime incumbent to enter the Senate in the first place – to end. But no one ever said E.J. Pipkin did the expected as a politician.
In a letter written on Maryland Senate stationery but addressed as a "Letter to the Editor", I found this in my e-mailbox tonight:
Dear Sir,
First, I want to thank the citizens of the Upper Shore and the State of Maryland for giving me the honor of representing them in the Maryland Senate. My eleven years in the General Assembly has been a time of challenge as a Republican, a time of accomplishment as a State Senator and a time when I have learned much about people and what can be achieved when people are determined.
One's responsibilities to family and oneself often change the direction of life. So, it is with regret that I am resigning as Senator from District 36. My last day will be Monday, August 12, 2013. I will carry with me both the bitter and the sweet memories of the past eleven years. My family will be moving to Texas, where I will pursue studies at Southern Methodist University for a Masters of Science in Sport Management.
I chose to resign now, rather than serve out my term, which ends in January 2015, in order to give the Republican who fills the 36th District Senate seat the advantage of serving the people until he or she runs for re-election.
Again, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity and honor to serve as your representative.
E.J. Pipkin
I'd actually first heard this at our Central Committee meeting this evening. But while the multimillionaire Pipkin follows his dream of higher education, those in his district have to consider a successor and, for the rest of us, the battle to become new Minority Leader among the other eleven Republican Senators is on.
I'll look at the successor first. The obvious choice would be to elevate one of the three sitting Delegates from the district – who are all Republicans – to serve as the new Senator. In terms of seniority in the House, there is no contest because Delegate Michael Smigiel was elected in the same 2002 election which saw Pipkin win office. The other two Delegates, Steve Hershey and Jay Jacobs, were first elected in 2010. Smigiel also has the advantage of greater name recognition as he's taken a lead role in the fight to uphold our Second Amendment rights.
Moreover, elevating Smigiel could allow the Central Committees within District 36 to correct a grievous wrong which has affected Caroline County for several years – it is the only county in Maryland without a representative in Annapolis, basically owing to its small population and unfortunate geographical position of always being part of large, multi-county districts. While District 36 covers all or part of four counties, the Cecil County portion is also in two other House districts, with District 35A being exclusive to the county.
On the other hand, the race for Minority Leader boils down to just a few possibilities. Starting with the eleven remaining Senators, we can probably throw out three who are leaving the Senate next year: Nancy Jacobs is retiring, while Allan Kittleman and Barry Glassman are seeking County Executive posts in their native counties.
Senator David Brinkley, though, served as Minority Leader for two years (2007-08) and more recently was Minority Whip (2010-11). His counterpart George Edwards was the House Minority Leader from 2003 to 2007 under Governor Ehrlich, though.
The only other members with leadership experience in the General Assembly: Senator Joseph Getty was a Deputy Minority Whip in the House from 1999-2002, and he was succeeded by fellow Senators Christopher Shank from 2002-03 and J.B. Jennings from 2003-06. Shank was Assistant Minority Leader from 2003-06, though.
Since it's probably going to be more or less of a caretaker role I wouldn't be surprised if Brinkley doesn't get another turn, although the newer members may want a fresh start with a new face. With only 11 votes (or 12 if a new Senator from District 36 is selected before the leadership change) the winner only has to convince five or six others.
Such is the sad state of affairs for Maryland Republicans when a former statewide candidate decides a gig in a master's program is better than politics. I must say, though, it's a good exercise in citizen legislation since Pipkin wasn't a lifer and went on to something new after 11 years. I wish him the best of luck in Texas, and suspect he'll like it there.


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Announcing our first course at Eduquia, the platform for enterprise online training courses
This post officially announces the partnership between Nomadblue and DaDNeos, our first agreement with an smart angel investors network. Good news!
This is the second and last of a series of posts where I covered the background necessary to use PostgreSQL full-text search capabilities with Django to build a powerful advanced search without having to use other search indexes. This is specially helpful if you are running in SaaS environments such as Heroku, where add-ons are scarce and not always available to your budget.
For the first time in LatAm, we bring you a 100% online service to register your trademark in an easy, comprehensible and secure way. Specially designed and crafted for entrepreneurs, startups and innovative companies, Rnovo offers a comprehensive tool that aims to tear down the fear and lack of awareness regarding intellectual property and encourages you to protect their business or work, before it's too late.
Implementing online payments in Chile is a nightmare. Local developers freak out only to hear it. And if it wasn't enough, the only choice you have is to use Webpay Plus by Transbank, a holding of banks and big players that operates all credit and debit card transactions in the country.
Enter our latest Django open source project at Nomadblue: django-chile-payments. Read on to know the whole story!
This is the first of a series of posts where I will be covering the background necessary to use PostgreSQL full-text search capabilities with Django so we can build a powerful advanced search without having to use other search indexes. This is specially helpful if you are running in SaaS environments such as Heroku, where add-ons are scarce and not always available to your budget.
We have been busy lately working on some projects (still under development) that required a notification system for the different events triggered by the users activity. You know, the kind of notifications from your favorite social networks for things like "Congratulations ! You have unblocked a new bagde" or "User Slothie is now following you", usually received via email and also displayed on the site itself.
In the tech landscape, startups are created everyday, shaping the dreams of entrepreneurs around the world aiming to solve some particular problem, ease certain pain suffered by an industry, or bringing a product to the market that implements a new revolutionary twist.
And yet, most of them still underestimate the development of their projects and treat them as a time-fixed and budget-fixed project plan. They come to the agency or freelancer desk and ask for quotation, bringing their set of requirements and features in a nice PDF or (ugh!) Microsoft Word.
We recently run into an issue with Firefox not loading fonts through the @font-face CSS statement. Everything was looking OK on our local environments but once we deployed to a live site this browser was denying renderization of the different font types.
Creating a pluggable Django app to just embed the GA code seemed overkill to me, so I created this post as a quick reference for next Django web projects.
This is the first of a series of posts about which libraries and tools we use for our Django development. Almost every Nomadblue project will have the following packages in their requirements.txt pip file.
Hola! This is the first post after a really freaking busy past year, and what's more important, this is the first blog post of Nomadblue as a brand new development company! We expect to disrupt the way startups in Santiago de Chile and LatinAmerica are working to develop their ideas and projects.
A few weeks ago, I released a simple Django app to manage models for simple newsletters. The package itself is blatantly useless if we do not use it on a project that integrates with other parts, so I created a fully-equipped system that can create propaganda, assign it to subscribers and queue it ready to be sent whenever I need to.
Hey you, political leader, founder of a new religion or spiritual guru! With this application, your acolytes will receive the official organizational propaganda pamphlets right into their inboxes. Keep them updated with the Truth!
When doing documentation work, be it regular documentation, how-tos, or wikis, I always use reStructuredText syntax if I have the chance, so eventually if I have to provide documentation in other forms, I can convert source text into other formats like HTML or PDF seamlessly. This same rule applies to wikis, which are, after all, a collaborative way of producing documentation.
In a previous post about django translations in this blog, I shared how to achieve a quick system that allowed me to manage translations stored in models and served using a template tag. In this post I will explain how to serve images that contain translated text and, hence, a localized image exists for each language.
Lately I have added comments to my company blog. We have it localized, so things turned out to be not so straight forward as one can think.
I recently released a little application I wrote for personal use. I am very scrupulous mantaining my music collections. I fancy having them in lossless formats, specially FLAC for storage and Apple Lossless for playback in iTunes. To achieve a decent level of tidiness, I wrote some Python code so I can organize the files and associated metadata tags right from the command line.
The app can be found in its project page here.
Please comments, forks, jokes, donations or awards welcome!
My Django blogging app, django-nomadblog, is sporting a new look after I added many features I needed for some of my present and future project developments. Mainly, I wanted to turn this app into a multiple blogging system, which means I am able to create and manage multiple blogs from the same installation, via admin interface. The implementation of this followed some improvements in the code and the modularity of the app itself.
During this past week I attended DjangoCon, which took place in Berlin thanks to the German Django Association, a non-profit organization founded by german djangonauts. Interesting talks about Django, WSGI, NoSQL, testing, CouchDB, MongoDB, South or front-end design, to name a few. And in the evening or night, geeks gathered in Berlin pubs for beers and fun.
I came to a dirty but practical solution for one minor project I had to develop for a client who wanted a website with i18n capabilities and also needed to have the different translations for each candidate values each in a different field, in the same model. That is, one field for each language. Here in this post I explain how to achieve it.
Well it was time already to give some more code into the public domain and the community, so I decided to release my personal way of starting new django projects. I call it django-nbskel ("nb" for nomadblue and "skel" for skeleton).
It's been a month since the initial release of django-rbac and so far it turned out to be pretty useful for many people. I am therefore happy to have contributed another grain of sand to the open source Django community beach.
Last Monday the Spanish Government sent the parliament the latest draft for the Ley de Economia Sostenible (Sustainable Economy Act), which contained riders modifying the current laws on copyright and interactive services. These amendments give the Spanish Ministy of Culture the administrative power to take down websites (or order ISPs to block those hosted overseas), all without a court order and in the name of 'safeguarding Intellectual Property Laws against Internet Piracy'. For this reason some of us have written a manifesto that is being published today all over spanish weblogs and media.
Many applications, and specially today's web applications -- which involve concepts as collaboration or content driven by the users -- need the flexibility to support delegation of permission granting to objects by other trusted agents. A clear example is a social networking site, where the users want to allow or deny access to their profiles or pictures, open or close their different communication channels like receiving friendship requests or private messages. django-rbac tries to champion this by introducing some key features from the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) proposal. In this implementation users (subjects) are assigned different roles that, in turn, have (or not) privileges over objects. With this permission system, the owner of an object can give privileges to certain roles. For example, a user can grant access to other users trying to read some personal info only if they belong to, at least, one of the roles specified in the permission rule.
Hello! We are Nomadblue, a group of technology enthusiasts building applications and first-class web tools. Experienced in entrepreneurship and lean methodologies, we have already helped a lot of startups and companies to transform their projects into something real.

subset: commoncrawl


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Written by Bob Bendick | December 7th, 2011(1)
While the Super Committee failed to agree on a plan to reduce the nation's budget deficit, Bob Bendick found proof that government can still produce results that serve the broad interests of the American people.
Written by Bob Bendick | May 24th, 2011(4)
Bob Bendick looks at massive damage in Colombia and the U.S. and wonders why only the developing nation is using science-based risk analysis to prepare for the next flood.
Written by Bob Bendick | February 16th, 2011(3)
President Obama has put forth a call to protect America's lands and waters. And now it's up to communities across the nation to answer–here's how you can support the effort.
Written by Bob Bendick | July 27th, 2010(1)
A source of government funding for state and national parks has been short-changed for 45 years—despite a ready stream of revenue from oil and gas. Can we finally correct this mistake?
Written by Bob Bendick | March 4th, 2010(6)
40 years ago, science described the risks of toxic chemicals for human health — and people and governments acted. So why isn't the United States now applying risk analysis to climate change?
Written by Bob Bendick | January 1st, 2010(1)
A four-foot volunteer tree grows on the roof of The Nature Conservancy's headquarters — is it a metaphor for the future direction of conservation?
Written by Bob Bendick | December 4th, 2009(0)
I recently published a blog post at the National Journal's Energy and Environment Expert Blog concerning the Obama administration's recently announced targets for short-term greenhouse gas emissions targets in the run-up to the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen. Below is an excerpt from that post. You can read my entire response at the National […]
Written by Bob Bendick | October 9th, 2009(1)
I saw an old map recently that showed that parts of the National Mall here in Washington were once a tidal marsh attached to the Potomac River. I like to imagine places as they were before people plowed them up, filled them in, built cities on them. That marsh must have been beautiful, with great […]
Written by Bob Bendick | September 18th, 2009(2)
The Nature Conservancy submitted written testimony this week to a hearing before the House Committee on Natural Resources on HR 3534, The Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources Act of 2009. The hearing was held in the committee room along one of the long corridors of the Longworth House Office building. Secretary of Interior Ken […]
Written by Bob Bendick | August 28th, 2009(0)
Believe it or not, there are environmental issues other than climate change on the minds — and agendas of — of lawmakers and regulators in Washington. As a commentator for the National Journal Energy and Environment Expert Blog, I was recently asked to weigh in on some of the "back burner issues" currently working through […]


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ASU Home
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THANK YOU for your participation in the first Gold 'n Gavel Online Auction, a new addition to the event this year. The Online Auction closed on Monday, September 15th and was a great success! Be sure to look for the Online Auction before next year's event to take advantage of your chance to bid on exclusive items.
View Complete Auction Item List
Highlighted 2014 Auction Items:
Two (2) Upper Level Goal tickets to the 2015 Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona (February 1, 2015) -
Includes entry to the Club PrimeSport VIP Party, hosted by NFL legend, Emmit Smith.
Suite (includes 12 tickets) to the final Diamondbacks home game (vs. Cardinals) on Sunday, September 28th at 1:10 p.m -
Includes three parking passes (Food not included).
Suite tickets to ASU football game -
4 Suite tickets for the ASU vs. Stanford game on October 18th, 2014. Tickets include access to the College of Law football suite, food and beverages.
NFL 49ers Hall of Famer, Steve Young -
Signed No. 8 football jersey; signed football helmet; signed football (all separate auction items).
Suite tickets to ASU football game -
6 Suite tickets for the ASU vs. Notre Dame game on November 8th, 2014. Tickets include access to the College of Law football suite, food and beverages.
Hotel Del Coronado -
$800 gift card.
The Phoenician -
One-night stay in a Deluxe View Guestroom and a Foursome of Golf.
50" Sharp LED HDTV -
Sharp 50" Class Aquos 1080p 120 Hz LED Smart HDTV (LC-50LE650U).
Audubon Arizona -
Naturalist guided bird walk followed by wine and hors d'oeuvres at the Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audobon Center (up to 20 people).
16 GB iPad Air -
Includes lightning to USB cable and USB power adapter.


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Elijah E. Cummings
- Party
- Democrat
- Latest Office Held:
- US House, MD
- Latest Office Sought:
- US House, MD
Elijah Eugene Cummings (born January 18, 1951) is the U.S. Representative for Maryland's 7th congressional district, serving since 1996. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes just over half of Baltimore City, as well as most of Howard County. He previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates.
Source: Wikipedia
Campaign Finance$6,485,669 Received
Figures are based on itemized contributions reported to the Federal Election Commission and state agencies. Please note that:
- contributions under $200 are not reported, and so are not included in totals.
- only contributions from individuals and organizations to candidates are included. Various accounting measures and more exotic contribution types are excluded.
- contributions are matched based on organization and recipient name reported within each election cycle. Contributions using an incorrect or non-standard version of the name may be missed.
- corporate name changes and mergers may cause figures to differ from those of the Center for Responsive Politics.
- organization totals include known subsidiaries of the organization.
For more information, please see our campaign finance methodology page. Lobbyist bundling data is described on our lobbyist bundling methodology page.
state-level data is not available in bulk for 2014. for current state data, browse http://followthemoney.org/
Top IndustriesOpenSecrets.org and FollowTheMoney.org classify contribution data into about 100 industries.
In State vs. Out of Statecontributions from individuals, in dollars
Individuals vs. PACsin dollars
Top Contributors
- PAC Color Block
- Organizations' PAC(s)
- Employee Color Block
- Associated Individuals
Earmarks$257,653,050 Allocated
Figures are based on both committee earmark disclosures and on analysis of appropriations bill text. Table shows top 10 earmarks, ordered by dollar amount in the final version of the bill. Earmarks from the president's budget proposal are not included.
For more information, see our Earmark Methodology page.
In State vs. Out of Statein dollars
Top Earmarks


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NHL Hockey - Preview
|Montreal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators
The division rival Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators are set to renew hostilities on Wednesday when they meet at Scotiabank Place. In their last action, Montreal was a 4-3 winner at home against the Jets. Bettors on Montreal at -115 on the moneyline collected their winnings from that game, while the total score (7) sent OVER bettors home happy as well. Ottawa won its last outing, a 3-2 result against the Capitals on January 29. Bettors who backed the Senators at -135 on the moneyline won on the day, and the total score (5) sent UNDER bettors to the payout window. Ottawa:
Team record: 4-1-1 SU, ATS
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of last 7 games
When playing on Wednesday are 6-4
Team record: 4-1-0 SU, ATS
Current streak: won 4 straight games.
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of last 7 games on the road
When playing on Wednesday are 2-8
Montreal home to Buffalo, Saturday, February 2
Ottawa at Carolina, Friday, February 1


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ABU DHABI - Profile - Obaid Bin Saif Al Nasseri.
Nasseri is a technocrat from the powerful Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). He became oil minister after a federal cabinet reshuffle in late March 1997, succeeding Rakad Bin Salem Bin Rakad who had been acting oil minister since June 1995. Born in June 15, 1952 in Al Ain, Nasseri got a BSc in economics from the University of Baghdad in 1975. He joined ADIA in 1976 as a trainee officer in the Bonds and Equity Department. He became deputy head of that department in 1978. In 1980 he was promoted to deputy director of the Commodities Department. From 1994 to March 1997 he was executive director of the latter department.
Nasseri is a member of the SPC's Consultative Committee. Apart from his ministerial position, he is chairman of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, deputy chairman of the Emirates Banks Association, board member of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Hotels & Tourism Corp. Previously, he was a member of the boards of Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corp., Madrid-based Banco Atlantico, Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC), and Cairo-based Arab International Bank. He was also deputy chairman of ADIA's offshoot, Abu Dhabi Investment Co., and a member of the Abu Dhabi National Consultative Council.
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Hi All, Can i use Apache Soap in Java webserver2.0 Instead of tomcat3.1. If yes please let me know how to do it. Thanks _________________________________________________ Get Your Free Email At, http://www.rediffmail.com Partcipate in crazy Re.1 auctions at http://www.rediff.com/auctionsReceived on Friday, 18 August 2000 20:57:19 GMT
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Duluth band Low is playing a concert in front of the caretaker's cottage at the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery on June 9.
Sweet gig. We lived just a few blocks from there for years and years, but I don't think I ever ventured into the cemetery.
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About 500 people support Žáková in front of Justice Ministry
1 May 2014 Flash News
Hundreds of people of both Hungarian and Slovak ethnicity came to support Hedviga Žáková (née Malinová) in front of the Justice Ministry in April 30 late afternoon.
Žáková (who formerly went by the surname Malinová before being married) is an ethnic Hungarian who reported to have been attacked in August 2006 after two men overheard her speaking Hungarian on the phone. She was charged with perjury in early April. Following the decision to charge Žáková, the non-governmental organisation Round Table of Hungarians in Slovakia (OSMS) announced a protest gathering called "Today Hedviga, Tomorrow You – Justice for All" for April 30. The date was chosen to coincide with a gala event in the historical building of the Slovak National Theatre to mark the 10th anniversary of Slovakia's EU membership.
It started at 18:00 in the Župné Square and later it moved to the Hviezdoslavovo Square, where the gala evening was taking place in the Slovak National Theatre It was attended by about 500 people, according to the SITA newswire, and several public personalities openly expressed their support, like Zuzana Wienk of the Aliancia Fair-play watchdog, journalists Eugen Korda and Marie Vrabcová and actress Zita Furková. It ended with a short performance, symbolising the murder of Slovak justice. No violence or problems occurred.
In August 2006 Žáková, a Hungarian-speaking Slovak citizen, reported that she had been assaulted on her way to a university exam in Nitra. The police said that their investigation into the case, involving more than 250 officers and interviews with 600 people, led to their conclusion that the assault never happened. The police findings were released in September 2006 at a press conference by then-interior minister Robert Kaliňák and then-prime minister Robert Fico (both of whom currently hold the same positions), with Kaliňák stating "it is beyond doubt that the case did not happen". He presented several pieces of evidence that he said backed his claim, including DNA samples. Kaliňák later went on to denounce Žáková as a "pathological liar". Žáková was charged in May 2007 with perjury and making false claims, but only on April 2, 2014 was the case was submitted to the Nitra District Court.
Malinová has two children and has moved to Hungary, accepting a Hungarian citizenship and thus giving up her Slovak passport.
Deputy General Prosecutor Peter Šufliarsky said on a televised debate of the news-only TA3 TV channel that the inspection team of the General Prosecutor's Office found flaws in the factual evidence of the first investigation of the case. Šufliarsky also said there exists a witness who was present on the crime site of alleged attack on August 25, 2006, the TASR newswire quoted from the televised debate.
(Source: SITA, TASR)
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"Viera Tomanová was on her way to the chamber, but fell on the stairs. Juraj Blanár was three seconds late, [and] Jaroslav Baška came a bit too late." Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jana Laššáková (Smer) explaining the reasons why Smer did not pass the amendment to the Commercial Code after it was vetoed by the president.


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The Vuelta Montagna Super-Lite mountain wheels use 19mm disc specific rims with eyelets and 28 front/28 rear 2.2mm stainless aero spokes. The hubs use sealed cartridge bearings and are compatible with 6-bolt disc rotors. Shimano freehub is 8/9-speed compatible. This mountain bike wheelset is 6-bolt disc only. Wt.: 1556g/pr.
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Dir Business » Business & Economy » Uniforms and Clothing
Today is - Thursday, December 18, 2014
Links Sort by: Hits | Alphabetical
|Healthcare Linen Supply In St Louis And Columbia - http://www.crownlinen.com-
Crown Linen Service is a locally owned and operated linen rental company in St. Louis, Columbia and Belleville area. We offer elegant healthcare linen supply in St. Louis, Columbia and Belleville for rental. We have the largest selection of color & sizes.
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Australias most trusted source of Authentic Louis Vuitton Handbags.
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Idakoos offers a great selection of Personalized Hoodies, T-Shirts Printed, Custom Sweatshirts, Tote Bags, Personalized Mugs, Aprons and more.
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Corporate, Promotional T-Shirts with Logo @ 149. Get a Quote Now for minimum Quantity 100. Promotional t shirts manufacturers in Delhi, Corporate t shirt suppliers Delhi, T Shirt Printing in Delhi, DFNK T Shirts, t shirt manufacturers in Delhi, India.


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Urinary Incontinence
DescriptionAn in-depth report on the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of urinary incontinence.
Alternative NamesIncontinence
Stress Incontinence
The primary symptom is leakage from activities that apply pressure to a full bladder. High-impact exercise certainly poses the greatest risk for leaking. But stress incontinence can occur with even minor activities, such as the following:
Leakage stops when the activity stops. If the condition persists, it is more likely to be urge incontinence.
Stress incontinence occurs because the internal sphincter does not close completely. (This is the muscle that surrounds the urethra, the last part of the urinary tract.) In both men and women, the aging process causes a general weakening of the sphincter muscles and a decrease in bladder capacity. Causes of stress incontinence, however, may differ depending on gender.
Causes of Stress Incontinence in Women
In women, stress incontinence is nearly always due to one or both of the following:
Many women are prone to one or both of these problems, which can occur under the following circumstances:
Urethral Hypermobility. In urethral hypermobility the urethra does not close properly and it is too moveable (hypermobile). This condition typically occurs when the pelvic floor muscles in women become weak and the following events occur:
Stress incontinence associated with urethral hypermobility is sometimes categorized as type 1 or type 2.
Intrinsic sphincteric deficiency (ISD). Intrinsic sphincter deficiency (sometimes called type 3) is the other major cause of stress incontinence in women. It occurs when the bladder neck muscles are damaged or weakened. The result is twofold:
This is the most severe stress incontinence in women and usually occurs after previous surgeries for incontinence.
Causes of Stress Incontinence in Men
Prostate treatments can impair the sphincter muscles. Such treatments are the major causes of stress incontinence in men. They include the following:
Surgery or radiation for prostate cancer. Incontinence occurs in nearly all male patients for the first three to six months after radical prostatectomy. After a year of the procedure, most men retain continence, although leakage can occur.
Surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Stress incontinence occurs in 1% to 5% of men after transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), the standard treatment for severe benign prostatic hyperplasia.
It should be noted that incontinence after prostate procedures is often a combination of urge and stress. In fact, because studies often combine the two types of incontinence, it is not always clear which predominates.
©2014 About.com. All rights reserved.


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Capital Reef National Park, Burr Trail, Utah
My main photo tech blog - tips, tricks, etc! I'm here to write about photography.
This is from my river trip through the Grand Canyon this past summer. I worked as a swamper for Arizona River Runners. It is an experience that I will never forget. The strongest memory I have of the trip is sleeping on the boat at night, while all the guests slept on the beach… I spent long hours having philosophical and religious discussions with the two boatman that I worked for. The work is extremely difficult on the river entailing work days that last around 15 hours a day. The stars in the bottom of the canyon are deep and the river rapids are heard in dreams while you sleep. The river has a primordial spirit and the rushing current reminds me of a freedom that so many humans will never experience or witness, unfortunately.


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San Francisco experienced a bit of a heat wave on Sunday, so folks came out in droves, on bicycles and afoot in Golden Gate Park, at Ocean Beach, on the Bridge. In the late afternoon, I got on my bike to meet my date on the other side of the park, a short-ride that once again caused me to reflect on the eclectic style of cyclists in this city.
This cyclist was reminiscent of a pastoral scene.
And how about this woman's fancy red leather boots.
And finally this woman selected some psychedelic shorts with purple socks for her bicycle date.
sunday in the park
documenté par Kristin Tieche à 00:39
Labels: boots, dresses, golden gate park, psychedelic, shorts, socks, sunday
2 comments:
- Caz said...
I am loving the shorts and pulled up socks... just the right look for sunday cycling.
- March 16, 2008 at 3:14 AM
- KT said...
Totally! I was digging the leather mary janes too.
- March 16, 2008 at 5:52 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Obama meets Japan's robot elite
During President Obama's recent trip to Japan to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit he took a moment to pay respects to the real future of Japan's economy: robots.
Rounding the corner of a corridor and met with the inhuman wail of the robot baby seal Paro, Obama uttered his trademark, "Uh oh..." Then greeted by the cold utterances of the HRP-4C humanoid robot, the President quickly returned his interest to Paro, which seemed to intrigue the POTUS as he stroked its artificial fur.
Next Obama took a very short ride in the Toyota i-Real, and after some momentary concern that the contraption might not offer a smooth ride, he got up and continued to make his way to his next official meeting. Pay close attention to the video below, this may be the last time a major head of state allows a humanoid robot to get this close before the singularity arrives and the human-robot battles lines are drawn.
Via Gizmodo


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Endo, K., and Curry, G.B. (1991) Molecular and morphological taxonomy of a recent brachiopod genus terebratulina. In: MacKinnon, D.I., Lee, D. and Campbell, J.D. (eds.) Brachiopods through time; proceedings of the 2nd International Brachiopod congress, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 5-9 February 1990. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, pp. 101-108. ISBN 9789061911609
Full text not currently available from Enlighten.
|Item Type:
|Book Section
|Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:
|Curry, Dr Gordon
|Endo, K., and Curry, G.B.
|College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences > Earth Sciences
|A. A. Balkema
University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record


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6 Tips On Handling Taxes For Household Employees
By ALEX VEIGA
Taxes. They're just about the last thing parents might think about when they hire someone to watch over their child.
Yet a hefty tax bill is a possibility for anyone who pays a nanny, housekeeper, gardener or other household employee enough in annual wages to trigger a bevy of requirements under tax laws.
This year, that financial threshold is $1,800, and it makes the person who hired the household employee responsible for paying that worker's federal and state payroll taxes, just like any other business owner. They also must reflect in their own annual tax return that they had a household employee."People think if they pay this person in cash, they don't have to report it, and the recipient doesn't have to pick it up as income," says Cindy Hockenberry, manager of research for the National Association of Tax Professionals. "But there are taxes due on that, and the IRS wants their taxes." Here are six tips on how to make sure you're not running afoul of the tax man when hiring household help: 1. SORT OUT: INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR OR HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYEE Whether you're on the hook for your nanny or maid's payroll taxes begins with determining if he or she meets the IRS' definition of a household employee, rather than an independent contractor. The IRS defines a household employee as someone hired to do work in or around a home, at the direction and control of the person who lives in the home. Meaning, you tell them what to do and how to do it, and perhaps provide the supplies -- for instance, if you hire someone to mow your yard and they use your lawn equipment. In the case of a nanny: "Any parent would have an almost impossible case to make that they don't have the right to control the work that's being done in their private home with their child," says Kathleen Webb, president and co-founder of HomeWork Solutions, which provides payroll and tax services to people with household employees.
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