In its brief coverage of the District 4 special election, the Washington Post made an inexplicable mistake: ignoring the campaign of former Montgomery County Civic Federation President Cary Lamari.
Lamari ran for an at-large seat on the County Council in 2006. He considered entering last year's special election, but dropped out to support Don Praisner.
We reported Lamari's candidacy six days ago after talking to him directly. We also covered his relaunched website and his announcement statement earlier this week. Given the abundant direct evidence of Lamari's candidacy from this blog, the Post has no excuse for omitting him from their election coverage.
The Post owes Cary Lamari an immediate correction and an apology.
Update: The Gazette's Janel Davis did not make the Post's mistake.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Washington Post Ignores Cary Lamari (Updated)
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6 comments:
Thanks Adam, for your continued coverage of all things Maryland.
And I agree. Lamari has posted his website and announced his candidacy, and therefore he should get a fair shake by all of the media outlets.
Additionally...on a personal note: I've known the Lamari family for a long time, and Cary in particular. As the President of the MoCo Civic Federation and a life-long civic activist, he seems like the logical choice if the people of the county want to continue the Praisner's wishes.
I mean...who else do we have? The only other options would leave District 4 in the pockets of the union or in bed with developers. And Paladino? I'll admit that I don't know much about him (and I'm sure I'm in good company...) but I think that his website says all that I need to know: almost every position he's held is as a "member" with no leadership experience, and the only "office" he's held is as President of a tiny homeowner's association (as opposed to Lamari, who was President of the largest civic federation in this county, to my knowledge). If we're giving elections to people without experience, I may as well announce MY OWN candidacy...
Lamari's paid his dues. It's time for Montgomery County to pay up.
Nothing against Mr Lamari -- I don't know him and think that generally Civic Associations and the Civic Federation are fine organizations -- but I was on the board of directors of the Aspen Hill Civic Association, Inc., for nearly five years, and I learned something about that group and several others.
To "lead" in many of these groups is mostly translation of a phrase "steering the membership into doing what the County wants done". Often the real need in the community, and the real need of the constituents, runs counter to what the County (or Party) have declared shall be. A lot of these organizations have to borrow space from the County just to have their meetings and if the County doesn't like what they're doing, the County can simply not give them a place to meet. So people learn to play ball, as it were, to not rock the boat, to accept what is given and to not beg for much more. Some of these groups mostly wind up in the position of being the folks who remind the County folks of promises that have already been made and request timely fulfillment of those obligations. That, frequently, is about the amount of power that they have.
Again, I know not at all whether or not this would apply to Mr Lamari, but seriously, implying that. because someone was the head of a pack of followers (or the head yes-man of a group of sycophants), therefor they are a leader, that's stretching definitions a tad.
I have decided that I am likely to plug Mr Paladino, mostly because if he's going to faithfully represent the interests of the disenfranchised and downtrodden in District 4, as well as representing the interests of the power-players on this side of the county and elsewhere, his being closer to the problems of the people is his best selling point.
Mr. Hardman,
I've been reading your responses on this blog's message boards, and I've come to respect your opinions (even if I don't always agree with them). That being said, I'm a bit confused...You say that you'll probably throw your support toward Mr. Paladino, even though you admit that you don't know anything about Mr. Lamari. I'd think that someone such as yourself would want to at least learn a little about all of the candidates/hear them speak before rushing to judgment, instead of basing your decision on assumptions about a "yes man culture" in Civic Organizations.
As you can probably gather from my previous post, my allegiance lies with a family that I've known for a long while...but even if that weren't the case I believe that I'd still vote for Cary. He actually cares about the welfare of Montgomery County's people, and isn't afraid to speak up.
If I'm not convincing you, try contacting him. In my experience, he's always made himself available for members of the community. Call him. E-Mail him. Go to his house and knock on his door. Ask what you want of him, and hear what he has to say. After that, if you still want to support Paladino, then fine. But at the very least, you're making an informed decision based on all of the information available, and not a perception that (in my opinion) is flawed.
Matthew, are you suggesting an alliance of convenience between the civics and the e-Minutemen, and if so, why?
I would actually urge Lamari to do the opposite. This type of posturing is exactly what fuels my suspicion about the motives of some single-issue, anti-development activists and whether they're part of the broader progressive movement or not.
I also wonder if this race and the immigration/xenophobia issues involved will trigger the beginning of a rupture between the NIMBY's and the progressives.
Foolio:
In order for there to be a "rupture" between progressives and NIMBYs, the two would have had to be together at some point in the past.
Speaking for myself, I've never been aligned with NIMBYs, whether from Chevy Chase on the Purple Line or wherever. I am against the ICC because it's absurdly expensive, environmentally disastrous, and won't alleviate traffic.
So don't lump progressives in with NIMBYism, which is usually a transient issue of convenience in any event.
I do agree with you that there is a streak of nativism in some anti-development circles, and further that there is an emerging unholy alliance between some allegedly "left-wing" anti-development groups and the lunatic fringe, foaming at the mouth anti-immigrant groups to which Ike Leggett seems to want to kowtow. It's repulsive, and the "law and order/those immigrants are criminals" crap is going to get a lot of play in the 2010 elections. We should all thank Ike for legitimizing the issue just as the campaigns begin to take shape.
Why the surprise that the Post ignores Lamari? This is the same publication that, prior to his election, refused to acknowledge that Marc Elrich exisits. While it is infuriating enough that the Post's editorial policy is blindly pro-developer, it is striking that this ideology infects their reporting on county issues and the people involved.
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