Party Politics

Annapolis just filled a vacancy on the City Council by the best means possible -- an election. City voters chose the person they wanted to fill the empty seat. They chose Louise Hammond not because of her party, but because they liked her positions.At any level of government, this ideally is the way representatives should be chosen -- by the people.That is why we cannot support an Annapolis bill that would give power to fill mayoral and aldermanic vacancies to political central committees and, ultimately, to the council itself.

Once again, the Maryland General Assembly, in concert with Gov. Martin O'Malley, demonstrates its total lack of regard and disdain in representing the citizens of Maryland. "One Maryland," as the Governor O'Malley likes to call it, appears to refer only to the views of Prince George's and Montgomery counties and Baltimore City. Notice how blocks of votes are put together in order to advance the agenda of the governor, his political "machine" or these jurisdictions, no matter how the rest of the state weighs in?

The chairman of the Columbia Council has sharply criticized the role of two prominent county Democrats in defeating a Republican council member, saying partisan politics have no place in Columbia elections.Charles Acquard of Kings Contrivance Village said the involvement of former County Executive M. Elizabeth Bobo and former County Councilman Lloyd Knowles probably dealt a fatal blow to the re-election campaign of Wilde Lake council representative Michael Deets, a Republican.Both Knowles, a Wilde Lake resident, and Bobo, a village property owner, denied that partisanship played a role, saying they helped Deets' opponent, Norma Rose, because of their longtime friendship.

A Maryland organization says it has found hundreds of dead people listed on voter registration rolls in Baltimore and Prince George's counties, as well as residents who have registered in multiple places and some who have addresses that turn out to be vacant lots. This November, the group says it plans to fan out to polls to watch for problems - but critics say the effort is a smoke screen for a political agenda. Election Integrity Maryland, which is part of a network of volunteers digging through registration lists across the country, says its mission is to ensure the accuracy of voter registration rolls and encourage citizens to participate in the process.

WASHINGTON -- Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos, a trial lawyer long active in Baltimore politics, has become one of the nation's most generous Democratic donors, having contributed at least $265,000 to party committees and candidates this election season.Angelos, 69, a former Democratic City Council member, says his generosity stems from his allegiance to the party in which he has found a lifelong home.But the longtime trial lawyer, who made a fortune from successful asbestos liability suits, acknowledges another powerful motivation: his unhappiness with congressional Republicans who are intent on limiting legal liability for damages, an issue that has sent many lawyers sprinting into Democratic arms.

In many ways, the race for Howard County school board is a lot like the race for the next president of the United States. On many issues the candidates seem to agree, although their approaches differ, keeping many voters undecided. And, for many county residents, party politics has popped up in the race a little too often. The four candidates for county Board of Education - Stephen C. Bounds, Virginia Charles, Patricia S. Gordon and Jerry D. Johnston - debated their way past 14 other candidates in the March primary to get to this point.

The hit men of the tea party can carve another notch in their collective gun belts this week with the ouster of Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar, a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Senate. Whatever mojo the conservative firebrands had in the 2010 GOP primaries, when they ousted party moderates right and left, is apparently still working for them. Longtime incumbents are not easily toppled, but Mr. Lugar's vulnerabilities were well-documented prior to Tuesday's Indiana primary: The six-term senator is 80 years old, has lived in Northern Virginia for decades (despite using a 1970s-era address for voting purposes)

Saying it's unfair to Democrats and blacks, the Annapolis DemocraticCentral Committee voted Tuesday to oppose the city's redistricting plan.Committee Chairman Michael T. Brown said the committee voted,5-0, Tuesday night against what he called a "Republican plan." Four members were absent.Brown complained that the plan, which will be presented to the City Council Dec. 16, fails to establish the three majority black districts warranted by Annapolis' 33 percent black population. Instead, hecharged, it makes safe districts for all four Republican aldermen --in particular Wayne Turner, R-Ward 6, who defeated Brown by only four votes in 1989.

Thanks to political anomalies like Sen. Bobby Zirkin who put their constituents above party politics, there is at least a glimmer of hope that Maryland citizens may not have to pay higher taxes this year to balance the state's budget ("Bobby Zirkin: secret Republican?" March 21). Senator Zirkin not only superbly represents his Baltimore County constituents in District 11, his political actions are helping all of Maryland's citizens. The question is, will enough other delegates have the stomach to challenge the tax-them-to-death policies of the governor and the state's Democratic Party?

Washington - Upstate New York, a cradle of modern party politics, is the unlikely site of a showdown between a couple of Maryland pols, Michael Steele and Chris Van Hollen. Their minidrama is playing out in the background of the first voter test of Barack Obama's presidency, a special election to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives. It opened up when then-Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, had the good fortune to get appointed to Hillary Clinton's spot in the U.S. Senate.

The hit men of the tea party can carve another notch in their collective gun belts this week with the ouster of Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar, a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Senate. Whatever mojo the conservative firebrands had in the 2010 GOP primaries, when they ousted party moderates right and left, is apparently still working for them. Longtime incumbents are not easily toppled, but Mr. Lugar's vulnerabilities were well-documented prior to Tuesday's Indiana primary: The six-term senator is 80 years old, has lived in Northern Virginia for decades (despite using a 1970s-era address for voting purposes)

Thanks to political anomalies like Sen. Bobby Zirkin who put their constituents above party politics, there is at least a glimmer of hope that Maryland citizens may not have to pay higher taxes this year to balance the state's budget ("Bobby Zirkin: secret Republican?" March 21). Senator Zirkin not only superbly represents his Baltimore County constituents in District 11, his political actions are helping all of Maryland's citizens. The question is, will enough other delegates have the stomach to challenge the tax-them-to-death policies of the governor and the state's Democratic Party?

Somebody needs to break the news to the Republican candidates looking to unseat President Barack Obama that the conservative tide that swept the nation in 2010 has receded. Denying public employees the right to bargain collectively and calling for strict limits on the reproductive rights of women won't necessarily play well in 2012. At least it didn't on Tuesday, when voters in several telltale states went to the polls for local elections. Most encouraging for Democrats was the overwhelming defeat of Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich's law limiting the collective bargaining rights of some 350,000 government workers.

A document making the rounds in Maryland political circles would appear to be a casting call for a Bob Ehrlich campaign ad. One reason there's interest in that: The spot would be shot in California, and Ehrlich has campaigned on the need to bolster Maryland's film industry. Another reason: Among the parts to be cast are Homeless Person #1 and Homeless Person #2, bringing to mind the last time Ehrlich went out of state for homeless people. In 2006, his campaign bused them in from Philly on Election Day to hand out literature that suggested — falsely — that Ehrlich was backed by several black Democratic leaders.

Fair and free elections are at the heart of any democracy. But how fair is an election when voters aren't offered a choice at the ballot box? That's the dilemma facing Maryland voters this year. After Tuesday's candidate filing deadline, 10 state senators appear destined to run unopposed in both the primary and general elections this year. Collectively, they represent more than one-fifth of the state. That's actually better than four years ago, when 15 candidates for state Senate ran unopposed.

Jeanette D. Wessel, a former Maryland Aviation Administration official who had been active for years in the state Republican Party, died April 15 of cancer at her home in Estero, Fla. The former Annapolis resident was 67. Jeanette Driver, the daughter of a livestockman and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Marriottsville. She was a graduate of Howard High School. During the late 1960s and 1970s, she worked for the Catonsville accounting firm of Davis and Davis.

Just when conservatism was supposed to be on the ascendant throughout North America, Canada's wealthiest and most populous province went socialist for the first time. Ontario voters did this last month out of sheer disgust with party politics, the constitutional paralysis, the looming recession, a regressive federal sales tax to take effect next year, the language claims of Quebec and everything concerning Conservative federal Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.The New Democratic Party is Canada's third, and left-most, political party.

Washington - Upstate New York, a cradle of modern party politics, is the unlikely site of a showdown between a couple of Maryland pols, Michael Steele and Chris Van Hollen. Their minidrama is playing out in the background of the first voter test of Barack Obama's presidency, a special election to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives. It opened up when then-Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, had the good fortune to get appointed to Hillary Clinton's spot in the U.S. Senate.

It was said of the restored Bourbon monarchs of France after the French Revolution, "They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing." The same can be said of today's Republican congressional leadership. Many Republicans hoped that after losing their majority in the 2006 debacle, the congressional leadership would put together an agenda of reform that would emphasize core conservative principles to recapture its majority. Yet those hopes have been dashed as lately it has been more of the same, and voters have continued to punish Republicans with devastating defeats.