Posts Tagged ‘Mary Pat Clarke’

Belinda Conaway’s campaign finance report does not mention the $1000 transfer from Friends of Mary Pat Clarke

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

On Tuesday Belinda Conaway accused the city elections board of major fraud. I feel this was just her latest shameless attempt to get her name into the paper and get free publicity.

Last night I noticed that the latest Friends of Mary Pat Clarke campaign finance report lists a $1000 transfer to Belinda Conaway’s Campaign account. Nowhere in any of Belinda Conaway’s campaign finance reports is this transfer mentioned:

Candidates Account Payee Name(Address) Amount Date Received Expenditure Type
Clarke, Mary Pat Friends Of Friends of Belinda Conaway
(Baltimore, MD, 21215)		 $1,000.00 09/06/2011 Transfers Out to Other Maryland Treasurers (Includes Ticket Purchases)

Mary Pat Clarke’s (who was first elected to city council in 1975) campaign not only contributed $1000 to Belinda Conaway’s campaign, but Clarke also appeared in a Belinda Conaway mailing where Clarke’s name was spelled wrong. One would think the Conaway campaign would proudly report a $1000 donation from the campaign of a long time establishment politician. One would think the the campaign of even a semi-useful chair of the budget and appropriations committee would know how to properly account for a $1000 transfer.

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Mary Pat Clarke supported Belinda Conaway during the election

Posted by ameister on Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Click oh the photo for a larger version. There is a prominent misspelling of Clarke’s last name.

A pro-Belinda Conaway mailer was sent out to 7th district voters by Friends of Belinda K. Conaway a few days before the election. Mary Pat Clarke was featured prominently in the piece.

Why did Clarke agree to support Conaway by appearing in this promotion? Campaign finance reports still need to be updated so I do not know if Clarke gave money to the Conaway campaign, but the rumor is that Clarke’s campaign made a substantial contribution to the Conaway campaign. Clarke’s constituents need to know about this mailer and her support for the disgraced Belinda Conaway. Does Mary Pat Clarke think that City Council members should frivolously sue bloggers for millions of dollars when they post real estate documents online? Since Conaway lost does this mean that Mary Pat Clarke’s endorsement is not what it once was?

I knew something was up on Friday morning when Larry Young was  strongly praising Mary Pat Clarke and Belinda Conaway on his radio show on WOLB. I wonder what Frank Conaway will have to say on his radio show this Friday (tomorrow) at 10AM (or 11AM sometimes) ? I encourage all of you to tune in to WOLB 1010AM on Friday morning at 10AM so you can hear what this family and their supporters are all about. It is truly an enlightening and shocking experience.

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A look back on the Welch saga

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

“Pistol Pete Welch” is now following me on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/PistolPeteWelch

This has to be the funniest local political Twitter feed I have ever read. It’s nice to know that the local online political community is developing a sense of humor. Local political satire is a sign of increased political interest in Baltimore.

I would love to know who is behind this.

In the real world the City Council has made it it official and Pete Welch has filled his mother’s old seat. I hope that Robert Curran will soon feel the political ramifications of his decision to openly support and promote Pete Welch because of his loyalties to Agnes Welch. If you live in the 3rd District please make sure you vote against Curran in September. You will be reminded about this many more times in the future.

Baltimore Government Watch has an excellent article that shows how other County councils (Baltimore City Council is equivalent to a county council) fill vacancies.

I think Baltimore should fill vacant council seats with whoever came in second place in the last primary election of the party of the current seat holder. If the current seat holder dislikes their former rival then they will not retire early. If the current seat holder dies in office then the people will have a say because the person they thought was second best in the previous election will fill the seat.

Mary Pat Clarke likes this idea according to an intercepted email I received. The email was part of a mass email thread that Doc Cheatham started and Mary Pat Clarke replied to:

“Dear Doc,

I agree we need a more district-inclusive process in filling City Council vacancies.

When I first “returned” to City Council in 2004, we were the first City Council to represent single member districts which eliminate the unwritten “rule of thumb” that, if the remaining two district representatives agreed on a candidate to fill a district vacancy, the City Council accepted that recommendation, knowing that the two district representatives had to answer to the constituents for the selection.  In the second or third meeting of that 2004-07 term, I recommended a simple City Council Rules change that required a formal recommendation by a district’s community organizations to serve in lieu of and of the same weight as the former councilmanic courtesy “rule of thumb.”  But I could not get the City Council to approve.

In fairness, this proposal was an interim measure, because a new rule can be adopted and take effect immediately. It did not go to a Charter change. It did not affect City Council’s right and obligation to fill Council vacancies.

Practically speaking, my proposal would have also required that the communities of each district organize themselves in a “one man, one vote” fashion so that the consensus vote and recommendation to City Council would fairly represent a district’s population. For example, in the 14th District, Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello (CHM) and Ednor Gardens/Lakeside (EGL) are by far the largest neighborhoods, so their votes would have to be weighted accordingly in a district-wide vote of recommendation to City Council.  Which, in the 14th, we could and would figure-out and accomplish. And I believe I did draft companion legislation to create such district councils and the weighting requirements, but I may have just drafted and put on the shelf until relevant.

Clearly, one practical idea may be to have a district vote directly on a replacement — but, because of cost, only if a Citywide election is already scheduled  between the occurrence of a vacancy and the next City Council election.  For example, State elections occur one year before City elections, and a district ballot could be incorporated in a State election ballot. Such an option would require a Charter amendment and would not pertain to most vacancy occurrences, such as the 9th District’s.

Another option would be to require that the runner-up for a district’s most recent City Council election would be automatically appointed to fill-out the term   (Charter amendment) or that Council WILL appoint that runner-up (City Council Rules change). Runner-up would have to still live in the district, however, and still be eligible and still want the job. (Things do change.)

Not to discount in this discussion the pending legislation of which I am a co-sponsor. Which can serve as a focal point for reviewing options in an organized fashion and representative fashion. Count me in, please.

Thanks for your interest and concern.

Mary Pat Clarke”

It’s nice to see that Mary Pat Clarke thinks that appointing the runner-up is a feasible solution. She clearly did not think it was very feasible when she completely ignored the 1135 votes that 2007 9th District primary election runner-up Michael Johnson received and voted for Abigail Breiseth to fill the vacant 9th District seat. This is just another case of actions speaking louder than words.

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Mary Pat Clarke and the living wage issue

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Pete Welch has represented the 9th District for two days, but we can still learn a lot about Baltimore’ s inner workings by looking back and analyzing different aspects of last Tuesday’s vacant seat hearing.

Mary Pat Clarke started on City Council in 1975! She took a break in the late 1990′s after losing the race for mayor in 1995. She triumphantly returned in 2003 and played the role of the spunky constituent serving veteran that older black and white ladies passionately adored.

When I was on the campaign trail in 2007 I would meet older black women who asked me why Mary Pat Clarke was not running for mayor of Baltimore. They would have supported her over Sheila Dixon.  She has a very loyal female base that is spread all over the city and is made up of women from every demographic imaginable.  Her gimmick has served her well.

Clarke is still stuck in the distant past when it comes to economic policies. She is a tax and spend Democrat and she thinks the city can come up with money for just about any project. All of her questions to the candidates dealt with her living wage bill/obsession.

Only Welch seemed to not support a living wage bill. He did not give a clear answer (he was being a typical ambiguous politician), but he did let out one gem which showed that despite his flaws he does have a grasp of economic realities. He is a real CPA.  Welch stated that on a national level he supports a living wage, but if only Baltimore city adopted a living wage that it would cause major problems for Baltimore. He is correct about Baltimore. If Baltimore forced private businesses to pay a living wage then those private businesses would not locate in Baltimore. Private businesses would move to nearby jurisdictions with less crime, grime, and much lower costs of doing business.

Clarke did not seem pleased with Welch. I thought there was a chance that she would vote for Michael Johnson. She ended up voting for Abigail Breiseth who was the only female candidate and the only candidate who admitted she had a lack of local tax knowledge. I guess Clarke wanted to support a candidate who she thought was just like her.

Clarke is beloved in some circles because of her spunky gimmick, but when you look closely at her policies you understand why we urgently need voters to look beyond superficial gimmicks and last names and judge local politicians on the policies they bring to the table that will help Baltimore.

On Thursday I was in attendance for the end of a budget hearing where Mary Pat Clarke demonstrated that despite her decades on City Council she had close to no understanding of the current fiscal dilemma that just about every jurisdiction in the country is facing. A future post of mine will be dedicated to talking about what I witnessed at this at times disturbing City Council budget hearing.

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The city council needs to forget about its suicidal living wage idea

Posted by ameister on Friday, July 23rd, 2010

So we are in the middle of the worst of economic recession anyone can remember and our leaders want to drive away businesses from Baltimore by forcing larger retailers to pay employees a $10.59 living wage that will be passed along in the form of higher prices to the poor consumers of the city.  This is the same city council that bemoans the fact that Baltimore has so few major supermarkets.

Big companies can locate anywhere they want to. They can pay people $8 an hour or they can not relocate to your city. So here are our choices: $8 an hour jobs or NO JOBS! This city needs jobs. Beggars can’t be choosers!  Stop pandering for votes from mathematically deficient people who think that they are going to benefit from this.

Now I HATE federal government spending, but down in Howard County there are many “organizations” affiliated with our “war on terror” that are employing many intelligent well paid bureaucrats. Howard County is very much a part of the Baltimore metro area. Would you rather bring your business to an area being fueled by steroidal government growth or would you rather deal with a city like Baltimore that is already filled with many problems, taxes, and regulations? Even without this horrible living wage idea we are at a HUGE disadvantage when compared to our neighboring counties. Why further handicap ourselves? Stop trying to please your union masters and do something that is right for people who just want jobs! Do not interfere with private sector jobs and the free market.

I am not a fan of Donald Fry, but he is right about this.

If we keep on coming up with ways of driving away the tax base and increasing government programs then we are going to end up like Newark very soon:

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Bandit signs are the spam of Baltimore

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Many Sundays ago I decided to walk to the corner of Liberty Heights and Auchentoroly Terrace just south of Druid Hill Park to take a photo of a van covered in Conaway family political propaganda that I had seen on my Saturday afternoon jog. The van had been removed, but on the median at the intersection of Auchentoroly and Gwynns Falls was a “We Buy Houses Sign” planted in the ground. I removed the sign and took it back home with me. Here is a photo of the sign:

Signs like this one infest Baltimore. This is not a new story. For years citizens have been trying to ban these signs and in 2006 (after some classic Mary Pat Clarke vote craving gimmicks) an ordinance making the signs illegal was passed. It was not until 2008 that the ordinance actually had some bite and substance to it. As of 2009 the sign owners have yet to be prosecuted because the Environmental Control Board is too busy fining home owner occupants for having weeds growing in their backyards. You can read an excellent City Paper article that explains all of the background behind the “bandit sign ordinance” here.

Since these signs are illegal, but authorities would rather not bother with them I decided to do a little research. I googled the phone number listed on the sign and it took me to this page on the The Clarion Group LLC’s web site.  I looked up who owned the The Clarion Group LLC’s site and found this information. It took me a minute to find the name, email, and physical work address of the offender. This is all public information. I think if the city (or anyone) published an online bandit sign poster list that included the name and address of the offender then some of these offenders might think twice about littering our streets with these signs. These people thrive on being anonymous and once their identities are revealed on a large stage then the game changes. It would also be nice if instead of going after responsible home owner occupants for petty environmental offenses that the Environmental Control Board focused on the people who are trying to trick home owner occupants into giving up their homes.

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Dixon is Corrupt. How are O’Malley and Rawlings-Blake any different? We need a revolution

Posted by ameister on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Sheila Dixon did a bad thing and we spent a lot of money to prove she did that bad thing. She did a much worse thing during the Utech scandal. Do you think O’Malley was able to maintain his power and win elections because he was pure? Do you think Rawlings-Blake is going to be much different than Dixon? Are you naive enough to believe that Mary Pat Clarke and Rikki Spector have never been bought off by developers in the over 30 years they have served on City Council?

The entire establishment is clearly corrupt. Look out your window and take a look at this city and compare it to how it looked 45 years ago. There is lawlessness everywhere and so-called developers and useless city contract winners are getting overpaid with tax payer money. The establishment needs to be exposed and voted out. Dixon is just the tip of the iceberg. The entire system that runs Baltimore relies on the ignorance of the population and the stealing of tax payer money.  What happened today was a complete embarrassment to Baltimore. It should never have come to this. Dixon should never have been elected in the first place. Apathy, laziness, and ignorance brought this upon us.  We created Sheila Dixon. Baltimore, register to vote and take a moment to learn about for whom you are voting. By the way it is not just the poor who blindly vote for who buys them off, in Bolton Hill there were plenty of Dixon signs on very large houses during the 2007 campaign. Of course there were plenty of signs like this one also.

I actually made the following video late last night before the verdict came out. It is my artistic expression of my frustration with the system. It also shows some glimpses into the growing counterculture of younger people WHO NEED TO BECOME POLITICALLY ACTIVE ON THE LOCAL LEVEL AND DISPOSE OF THOSE WHO HAVE LEAD US TO WHERE WE ARE TODAY!

dixyoutube

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