Posts Tagged ‘Maryland’

Important Maryland legislative redistricting news for Baltimore

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

I am surprised that the following very important Maryland legislative redistricting news is not being talked about in Baltimore’s media. What is about to happen in the 44th district will drastically alter local politics for at least ten years! The local press would rather talk about nonexistent snow and how to waste all your money on “gifts” from China than real news.

Back in November I predicted that the 44th district (which covers a large part of West Baltimore) would lose a  city delegate in the House of Delegates. I was correct, but my prediction underestimated the Governor’s recommendations that you can view here.  The proposed plan has the 44th district with one delegate in the city and two in Baltimore County!  This plan is supposed to allow the current city Senator (Verna Jones) to remain in office. The city house where she supposedly lives is still in the district, but will the numerous county voters blindly vote for her? Since two thirds of the district will be populated by county residents I do not fully understand why they would want to be controlled by Baltimore City and thus elect a city based Senator.  One would think the current Senator could expect a county resident to challenge her for her seat. West Baltimore could end up represented by a State Senator who lives in the county.

Keiffer Mitchell’s house will remain in the 44th, but current 44th district house of delegates representatives Keith Haynes and Melvin Stukes will now be living in other districts. Melvin Stukes’ house will be in the 41st and he will have a very hard time running against the three incumbents in that district. Keith Haynes will be moved into the 40th district which is now represented by Frank Conaway, Jr., Barbara Robinson, and Shawn Tarrant. Haynes is a highly ranked and well supported delegate. In 2010 the three 40th district incumbents basically ran on the same ticket. I think that two of the incumbents will join up with Haynes in 2014 and leave a current incumbent out in the cold.  My prediction in that Frank Conaway, Jr. will be replaced by Keith Haynes on the 40th district incumbent ticket. Conaway Jr. (and  Robinson for that matter) has familial real estate connections that could allow him to run for office in at least one other district in Maryland. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

The 44th district and Baltimore were rightfully punished for losing population. This should be a wake up call for the city. The powers that be are NOT running things correctly. We need to gain some population back or else by the time the 2022 election takes place there will be no part of the 44th district in Baltimore.

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Last year I predicted that Maryland would end up with Las Vegas style casinos

Posted by ameister on Thursday, November 17th, 2011

You can read my prediction from last year here.

Here is a quote from Tuesday’s Baltimore Sun:

“And while Loveman said the facility would be profitable with the 3,750 slots machines approved by voters, he said ideally the group wants the General Assembly to ask voters for a state constitutional amendment to allow table games as well. If that is approved, Loveman said, Caesars would hold some of its regional World Series of Poker competitions in Baltimore. Such events can feature 1,000 poker players vying for a place at a championship held in Las Vegas.”

This scenario was easy to predict. The voters will once again be convinced that the money from a casino will help schools and our state constitution will be altered again so we can have a Las Vegas style casino near Camden Yards.

Occupy Baltimore should occupy the empty lot near Camden Yards where the future casino will be located. This project is the ultimate 1% enrichment project that the rest of us will fund.  Schools will still be in shambles and Caesars will be richer.

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The rise of the $100k a year Maryland state worker

Posted by ameister on Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

I rarely watch the local television news because most of the time it is filled with useless fluff.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover this very interesting FOX 45 piece about salaries of state workers.  Today we have at least a 9% unemployment rate and people camping out in the streets in protest of wall street excesses while the state of Maryland is playing many of its employees over $100,000 a year!  This entire situation seems very wrong.  Are the tax payers of Maryland funding the little talked about government employee segment of the 1%?

While we are on the subject of throwing money away, I was listening to the end of the Larry Young morning show on Friday morning and he had a woman call in who was recommending three and four digit numbers for “entertainment purposes” only. I think this is a semi-regular segment on the show. I am sure the Maryland state lottery enjoys this form of free advertising, but I found it to be a sad commentary on life in Baltimore.

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Idea for the House of Delegates and redistricting speculation

Posted by ameister on Sunday, November 13th, 2011

My friend Aaron Meisner (of no relation to me despite the similar last name) shared an interesting idea he had for members of the Maryland House of Delegates. Meisner thinks that members of the House of Delegates should be limited to two four-year terms. After serving two terms they can never serve in the house again, but they could run for State Senate or any other elected office or just return to private life. I like this idea a lot because we would no longer have to suffer under lifelong delegates who stay in office for decades. It would also force politicians who want to move up in the political world to challenge incumbent State Senators. Right now in many districts there is a clearly defined pecking order where delegates would never challenge their senator in a race.  These type of alliances would be eliminated under this plan. Fresh faces would also have a better chance of getting into power if veterans had to vacate seats after two terms. Since I do not believe an “experienced politician” is a good thing, I see nothing negative in this term limit idea.

The latest state level redistricting rumor I am hearing is that the 44th district will lose a city delegate, but it will be extended over the city line into an area that is now part of the 10th district. I assume the Woodlawn area (closest to the city) will become district 44B and one of the current 10th district delegates will represent it in the House of Delegates. People in 44B and the original city based 44th will vote on their Senator together and I am sure they will map things out in a way so that 44th district State Senator Verna Jones easily wins her seat again.

Here is a map of the current state districts.

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A note from a challenger

Posted by ameister on Friday, November 11th, 2011

In the past I have talked about how the mainstream media seems to write about every little press release incumbents send out and ignore everything non-machine challengers send out. I thought now would be a good time to show the non-machine challengers of the world that I am not like that. Below is something that a man named Brian Vaeth sent me. It is important to note that Mr. Vaeth used to be a firefighter and he has a MAJOR issue with the city of Baltimore that you can read about here.

“I just wanted to inform you that yesterday, I officially launched my campaign for United States Senate to represent the people from the State of Maryland. Let me tell you why I want to be Senator. Ronald Reagan often said that government is the problem, not the solution. Our politicians are arrogant and blatantly break the law without so much as trying to cover it up anymore.
We are heading down a slippery slope to socialism and this must be stopped. Look at the events occurring nationwide. Republicans are ready to bring our party back to life and the time is now. We can no longer support politicians who vote for taxpayer bailouts and we receive nothing for it. It is time to get back to fundamentals and be totally transparent.
No more taxpayer-funded bailouts. No more government owned businesses. No more unnecessary federal entitlement programs. All that needs to go!
Thanks for your excellent work and reporting on the unethical behavior of our officials. If you ever would like to hear my side of the story, please let me know. I will be at your convenience.
Regards,
-Brian”

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More about combining city and state elections

Posted by ameister on Sunday, October 9th, 2011

There have been some great comments under my combine state and city elections post. A poster named “League of Women Voters” posted the following informative comment:

BRIEF HISTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY ELECTION LAWS

1. Baltimore municipal elections were originally in the Maryland constitution and provided that the Mayor would be elected for 4 years in October and the City Council every year.

2. The Maryland General Assembly changed this in 1898 and in 1920 the General Assembly authorized the City to establish the date for its General Election.

3. 1997—Two bills were introduced in the City Council—one would tie the date of City elections to the presidential cycle; the other to the gubernatorial cycle.

4. 1999—Baltimore voters approved a charter amendment which called for primary and general elections to be in the year of the presidential election.

5. 2000-2003—Baltimore City was advised by the State government that the City had no authority to change the primary date. This fact left a 14-month gap between the City’s primary and general elections. A flurry of legislative effort in the General Assembly to correct the situation ensued. In 2002 the House passed a bill authorizing the City to have both its primary and general election tied to the presidential election cycle. It was defeated in the Senate.

6. 2003—The League recognized that changing the primary date to tie into the presidential election year was a losing battle. Unit meetings were held and the City League position was to tie into the gubernatorial cycle.

7. 2004—Baltimore voters rescinded the 1999 charter amendment. That moved the general election back to the same year as the primary–both in odd numbered years.

8. 2006 -2007—Bills were introduced in the House of the General Assembly in 2006 and the Senate in 2007 to tie the City election to the gubernatorial cycle. The League testified in favor of both bills. Mayor Sheila Dixon testified in the Ways and Means Committee against the House bill and it died in Committee. The Senate bill died in Committee.

That’s where we stand today.

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Maryland needs a strong anti-SLAPP law

Posted by ameister on Thursday, August 4th, 2011

I love free speech!  This ordeal has given me a new appreciation of this vital aspect of American life.  In the state of Maryland the anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) law is very weak. I have heard that Maryland’s anti-SLAPP law is the weakest in the country. If Maryland does not put some punch behind its anti-SLAPP law then the Belinda Conaways of the world will continue to file frivolous lawsuits and bloggers will have to worry about the threat of silence. I hope a new anti-SLAPP law could be modeled on California’s SLAPP law which is considered the strongest in the nation. I wonder if Frank Conaway Jr. would like to be the sponsor of  a strong anti-SLAPP bill? Conaway does represent the 40th district where I live.  I may have to knock on his door and see if he is home so we can talk about this.

Since Maryland does not have a strong anti-SLAPP law I really appreciate that Kristen Rasmussen of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press took the time to write a friend-of-the-court letter brief to the judge in my case. You can read the letter here.  The Reporters Committee wrote a story about the case here.  If you want to protect the First Amendment then please donate to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

A popular Washington DC blog took note of the SLAPP situation I suffered through and compared it to a saga that is still unfolding in DC.

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A letter from Catherine Pugh and the effect of her mayoral candidacy on state redistricting

Posted by ameister on Monday, June 13th, 2011

This Gazette.net article brings up a little talked about aspect of Maryland politics that we will soon have to deal with. Baltimore lost 30,000 people between 2000 and 2010 and most likely this will cause the city to lose a state district when officials redraw legislative boundaries in 2012.

The Gazette.net article wonders if those who decide which district to eliminate will punish Catherine Pugh for wanting to run for mayor by eliminating district (the 40th) which she represents.

Last week I received a letter in the mail “FROM THE DESK OF Catherine E. Pugh”. It announced she is running for mayor and that I should come out to her announcement at 5PM in West Baltimore. At the end of the letter it asks to make contributions payable to the Committee to Elect Catherine Pugh c/o Rice Consulting. Nowhere is the letter or on the envelope is there an authority line. The Maryland board of elections gives its rules for Campaign Literature and Paraphernalia Authority Lines here.

I do not think a sitting state senator can send out an official constituent letter asking for a campaign contribution for another office so I do not think this is the answer to why there was no authority line. Even if this was possible then I would assume the authority line would have to be included.

I don’t like that Pugh is running for mayor and has nothing to lose politically, but her district should not be unfairly punished because some people do not like her personal ambitions. The 44th district has lost the most people in Baltimore and thus it should be eliminated. The people who currently represent it will have to run against incumbents in the districts they are moved into. If the 44th is eliminated then part of it will be placed in the 40th and this will affect Pugh in a similar way to eliminating her district.

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In-state reimbursements for Maryland General Assembly members and some Preakness thoughts

Posted by ameister on Monday, May 23rd, 2011

A reader sent me a link to this list of in-state reimbursements for Maryland General Assembly members.

Am I reading this wrong or do none of the members or the Maryland General Assembly cook for themselves during session? Membership definitely has its privileges.

In this article officials at the city’s emergency management command center estimated the Preakness infield crowd at 14,500.

In this article the total Preakness attendance is listed at 107,398.

This article states that in 2008 there were 40,000 infield tickets sold. Through the years the 40,000infield/60,000grandstand ratio was the standard rough attendance estimate. It is impossible to have 14,500 people in the infield and 92,898 in the grandstand. So either the infield estimate was way off or the total attendance number was inflated by the people who put on this watered down version of Preakness.  You can decide which number is close to being correct.

The post-BYOB era Preakness does not have as much infield space as the old versions of Preakness. Now they have to accommodate a volleyball area and a large concert stage/area. Not as many people can fit on the infield.

Here are some photos from the 2008 Preakness (the last BYOB Preakness). There were 112,222 people in attendance for that race day.

In the BYOB days there were no bands to pay and promote.  This new financial factor has to cut into the profit margin.

Attendance numbers through the years.

The Sun says that the Preakness is not going to leave Baltimore.  People were saying the same thing about the Colts in 1984.

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Hattie Harrison is the Agnes Welch of East Baltimore

Posted by ameister on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

83-year-old Delegate Hattie Harrison has represented the 45th legislative distict in the Maryland House of Delegates since 1973.  MarylandReporter.com posted a fluff piece about her last week. Why should this woman be celebrated? Has East Baltimore improved in any way since 1973?  Harrison is a Baltimore political institution that voters continue to ignorantly vote for while everything around them crumbles. She is the Agnes Welch of East Baltimore. We should be protesting such products of the political establishment.

Here is an interesting quote from the article. You can draw your own conclusions:

“The kids all knew me,” and she knew their parents, and she had no problems with discipline. Among her former students is current Baltimore City Council President Jack Young.”

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