The election is under two weeks away, so I thought I’d put
together an “Election Edition” of the Full Monty. I’ll start with Maryland
Ballot Questions, then local Congressional races, the Senate race and then the Presidential
race.
Maryland Ballot Questions.
Questions 1 and 2 pertain to tightening the qualifications
for Orphans’ Court Judges. These are
essentially efforts to limit the number of people who would be eligible to run,
which I feel is unnecessary and robs the citizens of a wider choice.
I intend to vote against both Question 1 and 2.
Question 3 will change the point at which an elected
official charged with certain crimes is automatically suspended or removed from
office. Right now, when an official pleads guilty or is convicted is only
suspended, to be removed when the conviction is final. With the change, the
elected official would be suspended when found guilty and removed when the conviction
is final or the official pleads guilty or no contest.
I haven’t heard a good reason to vote against this one, so I
plan on voting for Question 3.
Question 4 boils down to granting undocumented immigrants
in-state tuition rates at colleges in MD. While I sympathize with children
brought to the United States by their parents, many of them too young to say
anything about it or disagree with their parents about coming, this is simply
trying to put a bandage on a severed limb. The better thing to do would be set
up an easier path to citizenship for these children. Speaking of which, since
when does “children” go up to the age of 30? Oh, and I just love what was done
with the very last part of the question: “…and extends the time in which
honorably discharged veterans may qualify for in-state tuition rates.” What a
dishonest way of getting something passed. So now, supporters can say that if
you vote against the question you are “against Veterans”. Sorry, but that’s not
the case, and putting in a little “poison pill” into your legislation doesn’t gain
you many friends.
I plan of voting against Question 4.
Question 5 is the Congressional Redistricting referendum
question. The wording on this one is intentionally misleading: “Establishes the
boundaries for the State’s eight United States Congressional Districts based on
recent census figures, as required by the United States Constitution.” Sounds
good, right? I mean, who wants to vote against doing something required by the
Constitution? Probably no one, except our current POTUS, his main challenger,
and most of Congress. The problem with this redistricting map is it’s horribly
gerrymandered, it disenfranchises minorities, puts a Western MD county in the
same district as the MD shore, splits up Frederick County and has the dubious honor
of putting two of MD’s districts in the top ten list of “Most Gerrymandered
Districts” according to a National Journal piece from March 2012.
This one is a no brainer: Vote against Question 5
Question 6 is the same-sex marriage ballot question. I see
no reason to not vote for this one. There is no rational reason to deny two
consenting adults the ability to get married and enjoy all the joy (and
sometimes pain) that comes with it. The argument usually breaks down to
religious reasons to oppose it. Sorry, but if I want to live somewhere where
the reason for a law is “because the [insert scriptural text name here] says so”, I’ll move to Iran, maybe Saudi Arabia.
I plan on voting for
Question 6
Finally Question 7, which is the expansion of gaming, to
include adding a 6th casino in Maryland (specifically PG County) and
allowing “table games” (craps, poker, blackjack) at all casinos in Maryland.
This one is a tough one for me.
On the one hand:I would love to have poker at Ocean Downs so
when I go down to the beach house and feel the itch to play, can go there instead
of up into Delaware.
On the other hand:
- the way OweMalley and the Democrats in the
legislature raped working class taxpayers in MD with their 24 (and counting)
tax and fee hikes;
- the way OweMalley and the Democrats have made Maryland
one of the “losing-est” states when it
comes to hemorrhaging jobs and income earners to other states;
- the way the whole gambling thing was done: purely partisan, they wouldn’t pass it for Ehrlich, and when OweMalley got in,
they passed it as a Constitutional change instead of just passing the law
Still, I guess it will be better to keep the jobs and the money
in MD (even though OweMalley and the Democrats will just raid the fund to pay
for their pet projects).
I will hold my nose and vote for Question 7.
There is one other question on the Frederick County, MD
ballot, and that is Question A, the question on whether or not to adopt a
charter form of government for the county , as opposed to code home rule, or
the commissioner version of county government, which is what we currently have.
All things considered, I think I am going to vote against Question
A.
Board of Education.
There are six candidates, and you can vote for up to three.
Technically there are 5 candidates as Tom Shade has dropped out of the race, I
believe due to health reasons, but it was too late to have his name removed
from the ballot. You have left the three “Union Approved” candidates: incumbents
Katie Groth and Joy Schaefer plus newbie Zakir Bengali. Then you have the two newbies
not endorsed by the teachers’ union: Tony Chmelik (shmell-lick) and Colleen
Cusimano. Right away the gut instinct is to NOT vote for the “Union Approved”
candidates, simply because of that reason. But that doesn’t mean automatically
voting for the other two. I’ve read/heard enough from Tony Chmelik to know that
I won’t be able to, in good conscience, vote for him. I think I am going to
simply vote for Cusimano.
Now the Congressional Races.
As mentioned above, there was some serious partisan
gerrymandering in the redistricting this year. I guess since the Democrats saw
the writing on the wall for a second term for Barry O., they decided to try
stacking the deck in the House.
I was gerrymandered into the new 8th district,
the one that puts a rural farming town in the same district as the MD eastern
shore, out of the 6th district, so I get to vote for “new” people.
The incumbent is Chris Van Hollen, an alleged “rising star” in the Democratic
Party. If he’s a “rising star” I’d hate to see what they consider failures. His
main challenger is Republican Ken Timmerman. There is also a Libertarian candidate and a Green
candidate on the ballot. Timmerman is a big underdog in this race, so I’m not
entirely sure a ‘protest vote’ for him is in order, plus, I typically vote on
principle, not party, so I’ll have to pull the lever for the Libertarian
candidate on this one.
Even though I am no longer (until Question 5 is defeated, of
course) in the 6th Congressional District, I’ll touch on that one
too. The two major Party candidates are 20 year veteran Roscoe Bartlett up
against John Delaney. This district was gerrymandered by the Democrats with one
purpose and one purpose only: to get rid of the Republican from Western MD. The
funny thing is, the “hand picked” Democrat that they wanted to go up against
Bartlett was smoked in the primary by Delaney. What’s even funnier is Delaney:
doesn’t even live in the district and makes Romney’s involvement with Bain
Capital look tame. I urge those still in the 6th district to vote
for Bartlett. He’s not perfect, but he’s one of the “better” Republicans out
there.
The Senate.
This year we have Ben Cardin’s seat up for grabs. Well, not
really up for grabs, it’s going to be a tough one. The Republican challenger is
Dan Bongino. There is also an “independent” named Rob Sobhani and a Libertarian
named Dean Ahmad. If there weren’t two other parties in this race, it could actually
be considered close. Cardin is a lackluster Senator who votes along party lines
most of the time. And just like our other Senator Mikulski, he shows up west of
Howard County only during election years. Dan Bongino has run a strong campaign
and looks good enough on paper to be a proper replacement for Cardin. But Sobhani has been able to dump tons of
money into his own campaign. There aren’t too many polls done in Maryland,
probably because it’s a “gimme” state for Democrats, but this race has been
polled and basically Cardin has about 50% and Sobhani and Bongino are splitting
up the rest. I’d like to see Cardin lose, but with the divide amongst the more
rational, non-Cardin voters will probably deliver the seat back to Cardin.
Still, I plan on voting for Bongino.
Now the big contest, President.
As I mentioned, Maryland statewide elections are essentially
a “gimme” for the Democrat candidate. So a vote for Romney wouldn’t change the
outcome of where Maryland’s electoral votes go. Plus Romney and Obama are
essentially the same people, Romney just has better hair. Going back to the
principle before party concept, the only thing to do in this case is vote for
Gary Johnson.
I hope this was somewhat informative for the readers. It
doesn’t matter who you decide to vote for on the 6th (for Democrats,
it’s the 7th, just teasing), just get out there and do it.