What has come of my favorite weekend post? Larry is posting half of his stuff on the web during the week, leaving very little new "news" for the Saturday section. What a bummer.
One note that is not yet on the web is a piece about Jon Weinstein's fundraiser at the Hilton Garden Inn. Jon, along with Maryann Maher, is running against Warren Miller and Gail Bates in District 9A. For some reason, "40 people" tends to be the average attendance for these Dem events, and the same was true here. The following line, addressing the night's entertainment, made me wince: "Bogart sang 'Peep Hole,' telling listeners not to just peek at life through a peep-hole, but to open the door and grab the opportunities." Yuck. While Ms. Bogart apparently joked that she worked the event "for a stuffed mushroom," you can bet that the Bates/Miller folks will be keeping their eyes out for an in-kind donation entry for the next round of fundraising reports.
Doug Gansler had the "didn't-see-the-quote-going-in-that-direction" line of the night in stating that Mr. Weinstein, a former Republican, had become a "'pro business, moderate, centrist Democrat who believes gay people should be able to get married.'" Obviously the gay marriage issue will be huge this election season since it was front-and-center during last year's legislative session...what's that? Never came up? Huh.
I think Mr. Weinstein would do himself a great deal of good if he spoke up about the Direct Shipping Bills...which were actually voted on (in some manner) last session.
The other new piece is entitled "GOP hopes to harness voter anger." As a Republican, this title kind of makes you feel like one of the guys in black jumpsuits during a James Bond film. Democrats harness "Hope." Republicans harness "Anger." Is there a My Little Pony or Strawberry Shortcake character I can kill to get my GOP merit badge?
I can summarize this piece for you: GOP candidate "People are pissed,"; Dem candidate "I think people are pretty happy with the job we've done." At the County level, I don't think people are pissed, have anything to be pissed about, or really know what is going on. The GOP candidates have done a good job of trying to put general information worthy of "pissed-off-ness" into the press, but it won't stick. I imagine that the debates will bring the OPEB issue back, but I also believe at least one of these Dem candidates is going to make a GOPer look stupid as they explain what OPEB is in front of a live studio audience.
However, there are some people that have a right to be pissed (although maybe not at the Council). Those along Route 1 and Route 40 have been promised the same shiny redevelopment that Columbia is getting, but have seen very little progress. Things are in the works, but they were promised progress four years ago. As of November 2nd, those promises have been unfulfilled.
Now, the State candidates are a different story. If you aren't pissed at what the legislature is doing (or hasn't done), you aren't paying attention. There is rampant favor mongering, corruption, and can-kicking that has put our State in a rough spot. The liquor lobby has the ear of every influential representative, and defeated an overwhelmingly popular direct-shipping bill this past session. I'm pissed. The only difference is, my anger doesn't have a party affiliation.
In other HoCo news, a 22 year old Owings Mills woman has been indicted for vehicular manslaughter and DUI related to the death of Cecilia Ann Amato. The driver, Alison Leslie Walsh, drove into the back of a motorcycle that Mrs. Amato and her husband were riding. What is even more tragic is that this is not Ms. Walsh's first charge related to drinking and driving. She was charged in 2009 with "driving, attempting to drive vehicle while under the influence per se" and received Probation before Judgment and a $300 fine. I'm sure the Amato family was even more terrified to see that among the charges Ms. Walsh faced in 2009 in connection with her drunk driving charge was this one for Following a Vehicle Too Closely.
That's all for today. I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the weather.
