By Delegate Kathleen Dumais (D-15).
With great dismay, I watched as the campaign for the District 39 Senate seat raced into the gutter last week. Saqib Ali charged into the mud when he made an attack on Nancy King that he knew to be completely untrue. He showed no signs of relenting when this blog repudiated his claim.
It’s time for everyone to take a deep breath, remember a few facts about Nancy King’s record, and make a commitment to holding our candidates to a higher standard in the closing weeks of this election.
Nancy King stood with progressive Democrats and public health advocates in their fight to end smoking in Maryland. She co-sponsored the Clean Indoor Air Act of 2007, which banned indoor smoking in public places. She voted to double the tobacco tax, which helped fund healthcare expansion and reduced the number of cigarettes sold in Maryland. Thanks to these and other steps, Maryland has the fourth-lowest smoking rate in the nation.
Despite Nancy King’s record of standing up to the tobacco industry in Annapolis, Saqib Ali launched an unfounded attack, claiming she is in the pocket of Big Tobacco. The worst part is that the attack came after this blogger declared that Nancy has no ties to tobacco industry.
As for standing up for children, I worked with Nancy during the 2010 legislative session on a bill to create a crime of child neglect. She was the Senate sponsor of this important bill and, though it did not pass last year, we will work together on it again in 2011. She also sponsored “Angel’s Law” in 2010 to reduce the risk of strangulation on corded window blinds by requiring blinds in day care centers and foster homes to meet minimum standards. The bill was signed into law by the Governor earlier this year. Nancy supported many other important child protection initiatives while serving District 39 in Annapolis over the past 8 years.
We should not tolerate – much less encourage – such contemptible tactics in this election. At a moment when the public’s trust in government is at all-time low, we cannot accept a race to the bottom by local candidates. Accepting Saqib Ali’s inside-the-Beltway tactics will lower the bar for everyone in local politics, at a time when we should be raising the level of the debate.
I support Nancy King in her bid to keep her seat in the State Senate. Regardless of who you support, I hope you will stand with me and reject Saqib Ali’s gutter politics. I also hope you will join me and call on every candidate in Montgomery County to be honest with the voters about their own and their opponents’ records.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
It's Time to Take a Deep Breath
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11 comments:
Kathleen, Greetings.
I'll let smear-site (complete with photo-shopped images) that was launched yesterday speak for itself regarding who is playing gutter-politics.
However, reader of this blog are entitled to know certain facts which don't come through in your posting:
1) Adam Pagnucco never reported that Nancy's campaign paid for the push-poll. He did however provide strong evidence that the slate that Nancy is now part of paid for the push poll with Phillip Morris' money. On that charge he has not recanted one bit. He is correct. This is of great concern to myself and many of my constituents.
2) The fact remains that Nancy King remains a member of the big tobacco funded slate. In my opinion it would be best if she removed herself from this slate immediately.
Warmest Regards
- Saqib Ali
Gaithersburg
Kathleen,
With all due respect, if you believe that Saqib is in the gutter, then Nancy is there with him waste high. I hardly believe that launching an attack website is campaigning nicely, don't you think? As MD PTA VP Legislation during the 2010 Legislative Session, I'm well aware of some of the good things that Nancy did this past year. In fact, I wrote supporting testimony for quite a few of them. On the other hand, as Saqib's aid, I'm aware of all the good things that Saqib tried to do.
So, if you're going to suggest that they take a deep breath in the D39 senate campaign, then I suggest the following: Nancy has to acknowledge that the slate did some things for her, whether she wanted it or not. She can't have that both ways. And she has to pull that site. And she has to own her past votes to get credit for her present votes, like the one on BOAST. As a BOAST sponsor every year, in spite of all the letters you received from all your PTA constituents asking you to NOT to support that legislation (and I got copies of many of them), you have to agree with that.
Perhaps the best idea is for D15 to stay out of D39's politics for now?
Merry Eisner
Former MD PTA VP Legislation
Legislative Director for Delegate Saqib Ali
With all due respect, Delegate Dumais, Nancy King remains a member of a slate that has taken three thousand dollars from Phillip Morris. This is independently verifiable on the Maryland Board of Elections website and Adam has substantiated this fact. Any true democrat would remove himself or herself from such a slate.
Furthermore, it is convenient that you have failed to mention Nancy King's website, which is completely dedicated to personally maligning Saqib Ali. Thus far, Delegate Ali has made a point of drawing substantive contrast and not personally attacking Nancy King. The King Campaign's recent mud-slinging indicates that Nancy King is afraid to talk about the issues that most affect her constituents.
What the voters deserve to know is if Nancy King is so dedicated to the safety of young people, why was she the only member of the Montgomery Country Board of Education to vote against common sense sexual education.
There is only one candidate who is speaking substantively about the issues in this race and it is not Nancy King.
-Jacky Chu
Speaking solely as an observer of the pie fight in District 39 (I live in District 20), I have to say that while I have the highest regard for Delegate Kathleen Dumais, her post comes off as more of a defense of Senator Nancy King than a plea to adhere to standards of clean politics.
Very few would describe the actions of either candidate in District 39 as "clean politics." Both candidates have engaged in forceful, pointed criticism of each other, even in face to face encounters on cable television.
Responses to this sort of thing vary from person to person. One person's "attack ad" is another person's "comparative piece." One person's "negative politics" is another's "aggressive politics." Personally, I tend to have little problem with this sort of thing, but not everyone agrees with me.
Let's be clear -- there's nothing illegal or even unethical about these kinds of tactics by either side. What they do, however, is run at least some risk, especially when things have gone as far as they have in District 39, of alienating a substantial chunk of voters who may be disgusted enough not to vote for either candidate. Who that helps in this particular race, I have no idea, but both sides should be aware of that possibility.
And although both sides have engaged in "negative politics," both have been extraordinarily forthright about it, which is commendable. Delegate Ali says what he has to say without equivocation. Senator King put her authority line on what Adam Pagnucco called an "attack site." Good for her, and good for both of them for being candid and honest.
Not every candidate is as forthright as these two have been -- some hide behind shadow organizations or PACs, claiming that some allegedly "independent" group or person is behind an attack ad, while the candidate, too gutless to take responsibility for his or her own actions, piously claims not to know who's responsible. Only after the election is over do voters often learn that in fact the candidate was in fact ultimately responsible for the attack ad. But of course by then it's too late to actually hold the candidate accountable, either for the attack ad or the lying about it.
But despite their admirable candor, the reality is that both sides in District 39 are, as one commenter put it, "waste deep" (pun intended or typo? either way, it made me laugh) in the mud. As a result, Delegate Dumais' exhortation for "everyone to take a deep breath" and commit to a "higher standard" rings a bit hollow when she criticizes Delegate Ali for "charg[ing] into the mud" without even referencing Senator King's anti-Ali web site.
None of this should be interpreted as an endorsement of either candidate. I don't live there, I don't work for either candidate, and I make no endorsement, now or at any time. Nor is it a criticism of Delegate Dumais, who is an outstanding public servant and advocate for important causes. My comment is solely directed at the lack of balance in Delegate Dumais' presentation, which would have packed more punch and perhaps even delivered the desired result if it had been more evenhanded in its criticisms.
Jonathan Shurberg
My 2 cents as a non D-39 resident.
It is high campaign season and one can chalk off the back and forth on issues between candidates as within the “spirit” of campaigning.
But a slight or loose association with a push poll and/or “the attack” website are things that you can’t really call clean.
Del. Dumais – when I read “Regardless of who you support, I hope you will stand with me and reject Saqib Ali’s gutter politics.” I kind of chuckled.
Because if a voter supports Del Ali, then they wouldn’t characterize his campaign as “gutter politics” or reject his campaign.
Just saying....
Sorry for the numerous typos in my comment. I was typing it on my new Droid X! :)
Oh. My. God.
The level of hysteria coming out of Nancy King's campaign (and her surrogates) is rising rapidly. This can only mean that they are very, very, very concerned.
Phoo Chit
Rockville
Well, it was a nice sentiment. Back in the mud we go.
Tom Steele
Delegate Dumais,
That post was the good old boy network and revisionist history at its finest.
Senator King's campaign has been waging non stop campaign using the politics of personal destruction that would have made Newt Gingrich proud back in 1994. Who needs the truth when you can just call your opponent names, then make up stories about him.
The sad thing is that I had a lot of respect for Senator King going into this race. I've met her and spoken to her in my time with the MCCPTA (who I do not represent in this communication).
I felt that Delegate Ali's stances on issues were a bit closer to mine, but it's become worse than that...given the behavior of the individuals supporting her (the push poll that Senate President for Life Miller commissioned through the slate that she is a member of, the attack website, the personal smears that she's uttered herself), I can honestly say that I'm ashamed to be a Democrat, and am seriously considering changing my party registration after this campaign season.
At what point do you say 'enough is enough' when you see your elected officials engaging in behavior that you would punish your children for? At what point do you say enough is enough when they don't meet even the lowest standard of behavior?
I'm saying it: Enough is enough.
I want to know about issues. I want to know what each of these legislators will do to make Maryland better.
I couldn't care less about what Delegate Ali tweets.
Delegate Dumais, you've endorsed someone that's acting like a petulant child, and Senator King is certainly old enough to know better.
Frankly, I agree with Mr. Mehwa. Enough is enough. I do not live in D-39, and if I did, I would find a way to vote "none of the above" because I don't vote for candidates who go negative.
Wait 'til you see the garbage in D-19 (where I live) that sullied mailboxes on August 23. I guess that will come up soon in another post.
Rocky, you know me WAY too well.
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