The District 14 Democratic Team - Senate nominee Karen Montgomery, Delegate Anne Kaiser and Delegate nominees Eric Luedtke and Craig Zucker - is distributing this lit piece for the general election.
Showing posts with label Eric Luedtke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eric Luedtke. Show all posts
Thursday, October 28, 2010
District 14 Democratic Team Lit Piece
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Montgomery Needs O’Malley
By Eric Luedtke.
I spent my summer knocking on thousands of doors across District 14, asking for votes and listening to what voters had on their minds. Here and there, voters brought up the big issues that get media coverage: marriage equality, abortion, the economy, the schools. But the overwhelming majority of people I spoke with were concerned about things happening to much closer to home.
In Tanterra and Peachwood, I heard from residents who were tired of having grass growing out of their streets and of swerving to avoid massive potholes. In Spencerville, Olney, and Damascus, I heard from parents who were concerned about cuts at the libraries and the elimination of summer reading programs. In Burtonsville and Silver Spring, residents wanted to know how we were going to bring more bioscience jobs to the east county.
The uniting factor in all of these issues is money. A significant part of the county’s funding comes from the state of Maryland. They help us build roads and transit, fund our schools, and support entrepreneurship and small businesses. It’s certainly not as much as we need, or deserve, but without those dollars the budget crisis affecting our county services would be much, much worse.
Martin O’Malley has fought, and fought hard, to balance the state budget while preserving as much funding as possible for communities across the state. He inherited a budget in crisis, made the tough choices, and still did what was right for Montgomery County families. $2.4 billion for our public schools. Almost $50 million this year alone for Montgomery College. An enormously long list of capital project funding and grants from the Gaithersburg Library expansion to an activity center for the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes. He secured $8.5 million in local highway funds and nearly $100 million from the federal government in transportation recovery funds.
By contrast, Bob Ehrlich’s four years led a massive budget deficit and exhibited an almost complete ignorance of the issues that Montgomery County cares about. If elected again, it’s virtually guaranteed that Ehrlich would slash support for our public schools and defund the transit projects we need. Four more years of Ehrlich would be an unparalleled disaster for our county.
These are tough times, and this is going to be a tough election. Montgomery County needs to see clearly what’s at stake. In Martin O’Malley, we have a leader who stands up for our families and communities. In Bob Ehrlich, we didn’t. Montgomery needs O’Malley, and all of us who care about the quality of life here need to work hard to get him re-elected.
Eric Luedtke, Democratic Nominee for the House of Delegates, District 14
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Monday, September 06, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Primaries to Watch V, Part Two
By Marc Korman and Adam Pagnucco.
Here are races Eight and Seven!
8. District 14 Delegate Open Seat
Previous Rank: #8
Marc
Incumbent Anne Kaiser and 2002 candidate Craig Zucker are widely considered locks for two of the three Delegate seats. Zucker should probably be sweating a little just because of the uncertainty created by two open seats.
For the third seat, the crystal ball is a little cloudy. Eric Luedtke continues to chug along with door knocking and many solid endorsements. I have heard anecdotally that Jodi Finkelstein is impressing lots of people, including the Washington Post of course. Bo Newsome’s campaign had a late and real slow start, but benefits from being on the slate of incumbents plus Zucker.
It is hard to say with any certainty who breaks through here. I give the edge to Luedtke who started early when he was planning a State Senate run and is hitting so many doors, but I am probably biased.
Full disclosure, I donated to Kaiser, Luedtke, and Zucker. Neeta Datt’s son and I attended high school together. I have volunteered for Luedtke and Kaiser.
Adam
Kaiser is definitely a lock. Zucker has been a smart pick for nearly a year. Of the remaining candidates, Luedtke has the best combination of money (although not much), endorsements, door-knocking and mail. Bo Newsome may be technically on a slate with Rona Kramer, Kaiser and Zucker, but they are effectively letting him sink or swim on his own. The other candidates’ financial performances are truly woeful. One candidate whose fundraising record is unknown is Vanessa Ali, who never sent in her August 10 report and has racked up $150 in late fees.
7. District 14 State Senate Challenge
Previous Rank: #5
Marc
From where I am sitting, which is far, far away from District 14, Delegate Karen Montgomery is not picking up the momentum she needs to topple Rona Kramer despite a steady stream of door knocking. The incumbent State Senator is taking Montgomery seriously, has formed a full slate, and has the full-throated support of Ike Leggett and others as a result. To win, the challenger will need to rapidly amp up her campaign to try and demonstrate why Kramer is out of touch with primary voters.
Adam
Both candidates are working hard at crunch time. Both are mailing, both are knocking and both have allies. The unions have stepped up to help Montgomery with the first of what could be multiple independent mailers, but Kramer can always write checks to herself to counter them.
Kramer is holding an ace that has not yet been seen. It is widely known that Montgomery was in China during the critical 2007 special session and missed votes on tax hikes, slots and the budget. But it appears that she missed the 2006 special session too. She was recorded as having an “excused absence” on the only two bills to make it to the House floor during that session: a bill to crack down on sex offenders and a bill to limit increases in electricity rates. Given the recent problems with Pepco, that latter missed vote could make for a damaging mailer.
Our informants are split down the middle on this contest and many are calling it a toss-up. But when the incumbent holds the money advantage, these kinds of races usually go in their favor.
More tomorrow!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
First Independent Expenditure in District 14
The mailer below was produced by Progressive Maryland, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters and SEIU Local 500. It promotes Senate candidate Karen Montgomery, Delegate Anne Kaiser and Delegate candidates Craig Zucker and Eric Luedtke. It also goes after Rona Kramer. Interestingly, the groups refer to Kaiser and Zucker as a part of their "progressive team" despite their membership on a slate with Kramer.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Primaries to Watch IV, Part Two
By Marc Korman and Adam Pagnucco.
Here are races Eight and Seven!
8. District 14 Delegate Open Seats
Previous Rank: #8
Marc
The dust is still settling in District 14 where eight candidates are running for three seats. The safe money seems to be on two term incumbent Anne Kaiser returning to Annapolis. She even worked hard in 2006 when there was little primary suspense. Confidence is high for Craig Zucker as well, who is slating with Kaiser and State Senator Rona Kramer.
As I wrote previously, there has been a strong push for an African American candidate in District 14 (Ike Leggett’s home district). Kramer, Kaiser, and Zucker are adding 2006 County Council candidate Bo Newsome to their team. Newsome received 7.56% of the vote in District 14 when he ran for Council, a distant sixth. Though he did do better in District 14 than he did Countywide, where he registered 5.91%. However, Newsome did get the Washington Post endorsement and ran what was considered a credible campaign. Being on the slate will be a big boost for Newsome, but it does not give him a free pass by all of the other candidates in the field.
Those other candidates are led so far by Eric Luedtke. Luedtke has been running hard for months, bringing home endorsements, and most importantly knocking on lots and lots of doors. Others in the field include Jodi Finkelstein, Vanessa Ali, Neeta Datt, and Gerald Roper.
Full disclosure, I donated to Kaiser, Luedtke, and Zucker. Neeta Datt’s son and I attended high school together.
Adam
Kaiser and Zucker are going to win, so the question in this race applies to the remaining Delegate seat. I am a bit puzzled about why Kaiser and Zucker chose to align with Newsome. It makes sense for Rona Kramer, who would like to have African-American votes in her race against Karen Montgomery. It also looks like payback by Kramer against Eric Luedtke, who briefly explored a run against Kramer last fall. But Kaiser and Zucker do not need Newsome, or even a slate of any kind, to win. And since Luedtke is a favored son of many parts of the county’s progressive community, there has been pushback against what is perceived by some as an attempt to keep him out of Annapolis.
But in the end, the slate’s actions probably don’t matter all that much. Luedtke has the endorsements and is doing the work necessary to win. The other third-seat Delegate candidates have not put together solid campaigns yet and it’s getting late – maybe too late.
7. District 19 Delegate Open Seats
Previous Rank: #6
Marc
With Delegate Ben Kramer opting for reelection, District 19 had to settle for two open seats. Most of the five non-incumbents running have been hustling for months. Hustle is what they will have to do from now until September 14th. There is no favorite in this race and each candidate brings their own strengths and weaknesses.
If I had to give one candidate the edge, it would probably be Sam Arora due to his resources and door knocking thus far. I do not live in District 19, but I have not heard of any of the challengers doing as much as Arora yet. That said, Cullison and Hutchins have the Apple Ballot and Hoan Dang has been out and about for months. If you live in District 19, expect to hear your doorbell a lot.
Full disclosure, I donated to Sam Arora.
Adam
Ben Kramer will go back to the statehouse because of his name recognition from last year’s special election, his twin base in Leisure World and Kemp Mill, his famous surname and his family fortune. That leaves three competitive candidates for two seats.
Bonnie Cullison has lots of endorsements, is the only woman in the race other than late filer Vivian Scretchen and is a good speaker with a personality that should appeal to voters. She is the only candidate in the district who can claim to be a leader on the county’s number one issue – education. Her campaign took a long time to come together but we hear she is now out on the doors. Additionally, MCEA will be heavily invested in sending its former President to Annapolis. Jay Hutchins is a very likable person with a good biography and lots of endorsements, including the Apple Ballot. But some think he is not yet working hard enough to fend off Sam “Hunk of the Hill” Arora, who is coming on with a real head of steam. Arora has bundles of money, a whole bunch of campaign savvy and is out-hustling everybody. Any two of these three could win. One question still lingers: how will the intensely competitive Senate race affect the Delegate race?
More tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Jay Hutchins and Eric Luedtke on "Political Pulse" on Ch. 16 TV
Jay Hutchins, who is running for MD State Delegate in District 19, and Eric Luedtke, who is running for MD State Delegate in District 14, will be on the "Political Pulse" TV political show on:
Thurs, July 1st at 9 p.m.
Fri-Sun, July 2nd-4th at 6:00 p.m.
and Tues, July 6th at 9:30 p.m.
Political Pulse is on Montgomery Municipal Cable in Montgomery County.
Friday, June 18, 2010
It’s Time to Save Democracy in Maryland
By Eric Luedtke.
When I made the decision to run for office, I spent the first few weeks of the campaign meeting with community advocates and progressive organizations seeking their support. Almost to a person, they asked me the same question. They did not ask why I wanted to run, or what I would do once I was elected. The question they asked was, “How much of your own money are you going to put in?” This is what politics in Montgomery County has become – a money race in which the wealthiest have a distinct advantage.
The single greatest threat to our democracy is money. Any astute political observer can list dozens of issues on which the voices of regular people are shut out by large campaign contributors. Campaign contributions are why BP was allowed to cut corners in their offshore drilling operations, leading to an untold environmental calamity in the Gulf. They are why the coal industry has been able to skate by with weak enforcement of safety regulations, leading to the deaths this year of 29 miners at a Massey Energy mine in West Virginia. They gave tremendous power to the large banks and lenders who created the housing bubble that precipitated our current recession.
And this problem has now trickled down to our state and our county. In Annapolis, electric ratepayers matter less than energy companies. Family farmers and environmentalists take a back seat to big ag. Small business owners are ignored while mega-corporations get handouts.
In our elections, we are seeing candidates put $10,000, $25,000, even $100,000 of their own money into campaigns. For the first time this year, we may see candidates lend their campaigns more than they will earn during the four years of a General Assembly term. For a public school teacher like me, or a nurse, or veteran, or any of the professions where personal wealth takes a back seat to service, it means we see fewer and fewer people like ourselves in government. It means we have less of a voice.
The movement to remove the influence of money from politics transcends political boundaries. It is an issue for anyone who believes in democracy. And it is no longer a hypothetical national issue for Marylanders. It is no longer only a fight for Congress to take up. It is our issue, in our communities, in our counties. And it is incumbent on each of us, candidate and voter alike, to make it an issue in the elections this fall.
More than two centuries ago, America was founded on the premise that all men are created equal, that we should all have a say in our government. We have strayed from that goal, allowing the corrupting influence of money to infect our political process. That must end. It is time to pass a strong public campaign financing bill in Maryland. It is time to check a Supreme Court that seems intent on giving free reign to special interests. It is long past time to define money for what it is: currency, not speech.
Eric Luedtke is running for Delegate in District 14.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Eric Luedtke's First Lit Piece
District 14 Delegate candidate Eric Luedtke has released his first lit piece, which he will use in door-knocking. Note how he uses quotes from our Young Guns series in which our spies voted him one of the most influential people up through age 35 in MoCo. We just love candidates who pass out lit mentioning our blog to thousands of county residents!
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Eric Luedtke Announces District 14 Delegate Campaign, Endorsements
MCEA Board Member and former Free State Politics blogger Eric Luedtke has announced the formal start of his campaign for District 14 Delegate along with a boatload of endorsements. Following is his press release.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ERIC LUEDTKE ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR DISTRICT 14 DELEGATE SEAT
BURTONSVILLE, MD – Democrat Eric Luedtke has officially announced his candidacy for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 14. Luedtke is a middle school social studies teacher for Montgomery County Public Schools, a life-long resident of Montgomery County and currently serves as a board member of the Montgomery County Education Association and the East County Citizens Advisory Board. He is also a former board member of the District 14 Democratic Club and the Montgomery County Sierra Club. Luedtke is a resident of Burtonsville, where he lives with his wife Emily and son Colin.
When asked why he’s running, Luedtke stated “I am running for the Maryland House of Delegates because I believe we need leaders who will stand up for everyday people. Leaders who will speak out for our community, support stronger schools, bring jobs to District 14 and fight for a clean environment. We need leaders who listen. That's the kind of leader I am.”
Luedtke is proud to have received early endorsements from community leaders throughout Montgomery County, including:
Valerie Ervin, County Council (District 5)
Nancy Navarro, County Council (District 4)
Marc Elrich, County Council (At Large)
Peter Myo Khin, President, District 14 Democratic Club
Jackie Lichter, Chair, Montgomery County Commission for Women
Elbridge James, Director, Maryland Black Family Alliance and former VP, Montgomery County NAACP
Oscar Ramirez, Chair, Hispanic Democratic Club of Montgomery County
Tim Hwang, Student Member, Montgomery County Board of Education
Bonnie Cullison, Former President, Montgomery County Education Association
Anne Ambler, Former Chair, Montgomery County Sierra Club
Neal Carter, Former Chair, Young Democrats of Maryland Minority Caucus
Luedtke will officially kick off his campaign with an event at the Buffington Building in Olney on May 16th at 1pm.
###
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Primaries to Watch III, Part Two
By Marc Korman and Adam Pagnucco.
Here are races Eight and Seven!
8. District 14 Delegate Open Seats
Prior Rank: #6
Marc
The incumbents in District 14 do not lack for ambition as demonstrated by Herman Taylor’s quixotic run for Congress and Karen Montgomery’s decision to take on Rona Kramer (more on that later). Their decisions create two open seats.
Craig Zucker appears to be close to a sure thing for one of them. He has been running for eight years, has raised lots of money, and appears to have broad support. A second opening upsets his apple cart because folks who ruled out fighting him for one open seat are taking a second look.
The most public candidate thus far is teacher, occasional MPW guest blogger, and activist Eric Luedtke. We last saw Luedtke at the end of 2009 when he pulled the plug on a challenge to Kramer before it really started. What made him an attractive candidate then still holds true and he has the benefit of not challenging a self financing incumbent. Others will likely get into the race. As I have written before, the desire for a candidate that brings more diversity to District 14 is strong.
Full disclosure, I donated to Eric Luedtke.
Adam
Two open seats and two credible candidates. Yawn… I have nothing more to say about Craig “Lock” Zucker since he reported more than $50,000 in the bank before even formally starting his campaign. MCEA Board Member Luedtke will work hard and get lots of progressive backing for the other seat. Even though this district has the largest concentration of African Americans in the county along the US-29 corridor, I am hearing nothing to indicate that any candidate of color is getting in yet. Can someone wake me up if there’s another credible candidate of any kind?
The only interesting thing about this Delegate race is how it will interplay with the Senate race. I could see Zucker and Delegate Anne Kaiser supporting incumbent Rona Kramer and Luedtke supporting challenger Karen Montgomery. Or maybe not. Come on, people, give us something spicy to write about! Don’t make Saqib Ali do all the work!
7. District 16 Delegate Open Seat
Prior Rank: #8 as “Oldak vs. District 16”
Marc
Bill Bronrott’s resignation creates the fifth legislative vacancy in Montgomery County during this term. All indications are that the Central Committee will appoint a caretaker (that is certainly how my vote will be cast) and will let candidates for a four year term run without an incumbent in the fall.
It looks like two of the bigger name candidates, Reggie Oldak and Don Mooers, are taking a pass. But lots of hats are already in the ring including 2006 District 18 candidate Dan Farrington, Montgomery County Young Democrats president Scott Goldberg, Obama campaign guru Kyle Lierman, and possibly many others including Lise Van Susteren.
Another wrinkle in District 16 is that Bill Frick faces the same problem as Kirill Reznik in District 39: he will be before the voters for the first time. Frick has had strong fundraising and worked the district hard over the past three years, but he will have to work much harder than had all three incumbents run together.
Full disclosure, I am a Montgomery County Democratic Central Committeemember from District 16, cast a vote to appoint Bill Frick in 2007, and have donated to him.
Adam
Oldak’s decision not to get in deprives this contest of a top-tier challenger with a record of getting D16 votes. She received the Post endorsement last time and almost knocked off long-time incumbent Marilyn Goldwater, whose retirement created the opening for Frick. Now we have to look at everyone else.
The early favorite is Dan Farrington, who ran a great race in District 18 in 2006. Farrington received the Post and Gazette endorsements but lost narrowly to Jeff Waldstreicher, who had the Apple Ballot, for the open Delegate seat. The two were the hardest-working candidates in a good field and Farrington raised FAR more non-self-financed money than anyone else. I found Farrington to be so impressive that I sent him a $100 check immediately after seeing him at a campaign coffee that year. One problem he has is his opposition to the Purple Line’s proposed rail alignment, a position that helped him finish second in the Chevy Chase precincts but will not be so helpful in Bethesda. Still, if Farrington goes into high gear, the other candidates will have to bust their behinds to keep up.
As for the incumbents, Bill “Stud of the Statehouse” Frick will finish first and Susan Lee will finish second. Don’t prove me wrong, Bill!
We’ll have races Six and Five tomorrow.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Luedtke Updates Supporters on District 14 Delegate Run
District 14 Delegate Karen Montgomery's challenge to Rona Kramer has opened up a second Delegate seat in the district. (The first was opened when Delegate Herman Taylor decided to run for Congress against Donna Edwards.) MCEA Board Member and MPW contributor Eric Luedtke had briefly considered a run against Kramer, but is now running for Delegate. Following is a campaign update he emailed to his supporters today.
Friends,
First of all, thanks to each of you for your support and friendship. I wanted to provide a brief update about the progress of the campaign. We are still running on the assumption that there are going to be two open seats for the House of Delegates in District 14. Other names have been floating around, but so far no one has actually begun to run, so we have a significant head start. While we have only been organizing for two weeks, we have put together the beginnings of an extraordinary campaign in a short amount of time. Thanks to each of you who have played a role in that. Among our successes so far:
- Alice Wilkerson has agreed to come on as campaign manager part-time. As you may know, Alice ran Jamie Raskin's field campaign in 2006 and is both an excellent grassroots organizer and a policy expert. I'm proud that she will be coordinating the campaign.
- Our ActBlue site is now set up (http://www.actblue.com/page/ericluedtke), and contributions are rolling in - $1,000 in the three days since we starting publicizing it. We now have over $5,000 cash on hand and are approaching an additional $10,000 in pledges. Dave Karpf, a member of the national Sierra Club Board of Directors and an old friend, has agreed to do some proxy fundraising. This is a personal favor - the Sierra Club has not made endorsements in the race yet - but it is going to help in these early days.
- Although no organizations have endorsed yet, I'm continuing to sit down with people to get individual endorsements. We expect to be able to announce a number of significant endorsements, including those of three County Council members, when we set a time and date for the announcement. We're aiming to hold that around May 16th in either Burtonsville or Olney.
- Our first lit piece is designed and about to go to the printer. As soon as it's in, I'll be knocking on doors. With my being able to devote most of the summer to the campaign, I should be able to knock on every likely voter door in the district at least once.
Thanks again for all the support, and I'll try to update everyone again soon.
Eric Luedtke
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
My Response to the Washington Post
By Eric Luedtke.
Over the weekend, a couple of political acquaintances asked me why I haven’t blogged anything in response to the Post’s editorials attacking my colleagues and me. Truth is, I don’t really believe in responding to attacks like these. For the third time in as many weeks, the Post’s Lee Hockstader has used innuendo and hyperbole, schoolyard taunts and selective reporting to try to paint our involvement in elections as somehow nefarious. I could sit here and type a point-by-point response, but I doubt there’s much to gain. Hockstader will continue writing what he wants, true or not. The guy is, after all a pretty good rhetorician, managing in the same three editorials to say that our teachers should be paid well and that we make too much, to argue that public servants shouldn’t make their opinions known to the public, and a host of other logical contortions worthy of the best of classical sophists. In any case, I have better things to do than write a point by point; like digging through this bottomless pile of grading I just brought home with me. But one of Hockstader’s claims deserves a clear response: his insistence that Montgomery County’s teachers are thugs.
Here’s what we really are:
We are 12,000 people who have dedicated our professional lives to helping the children of our community achieve. We are the elementary school teachers who take your child’s hand on their first day of kindergarten, and the high school teachers who shake it as they walk across the stage at graduation. We are the special educators who meet the often profound needs of our students with disabilities, the ESOL teachers who guide children through an entirely new language, and the speech pathologists who help kids navigate one of the most important worlds they will encounter, the world of the spoken word. We are occupational and physical therapists who work with toddlers with special needs before they even reach school, so they’ll be ready to learn, and counselors who walk children through some of the most painful moments imaginable, so the vagaries of life don’t keep them from their education.
We inspire. We challenge. We lend an ear to listen, offer a helping hand, and, when necessary, give a shoulder to cry on.
Because we know that what we do is teamwork, not the work of individuals, we are strong believers in improving our profession. We’ve created a peer assistance and review program which offers support to new and under-performing teachers, a program which is now a national model. We’ve worked to embed professional development in everything we do, with staff developers at every school, because we expect ourselves to continuously improve. We’re fighting, as we speak, to develop new models of school leadership and collaborative planning that will lead to better results for our kids.
And because we know our students have wider needs, because we know our kids need more than what we can offer in our classrooms, we don’t let our work stop at the schoolhouse door. We are advocates. We fight to make sure every kid has the resources they need to learn. We work with civil rights and equity groups to fight the achievement gap, and with parents groups to ensure that families have a voice in our schools. We’ve struggled against a political culture and a mainstream media that think schools can be improved with sound bites, and offer simplistic one-word solutions like testing and vouchers and charters that don’t address the fundamental challenges of American education. And because our schools don’t exist in a vacuum, we work for better housing, health care, and nutrition programs.
But we haven’t done it alone. In this work, our 12,000 have been joined by hundreds of thousands of parents, students, and average Montgomery County residents who believe deeply in the work we do. They’ve supported us in myriad ways. Most profoundly, many have placed their trust in our ability to recommend strong pro-education candidates for office. And, because that is quite a responsibility to bear, we have created the most substantive, open, and democratic endorsement process I’ve ever heard of. Unlike, say, the Washington Post, we publicly release our endorsement criteria on our website and are posting our questionnaire as soon as it’s finalized. Our decision is made not by a small group of journalists who live outside the county and work in a downtown office, but by a democratically-elected body of hundreds of educators that meets monthly in Rockville.
Lee Hockstader seems to think that public servants don’t deserve the right and privilege of participation in a democratic society. We disagree. We will continue to speak out, continue to advocate for the children in our classrooms, for their parents, for our schools. We will continue to elect excellent leaders to public office, people for whom support for schools is a reality and not just a campaign slogan. Once elected, we will continue to hold them to account for their actions. And, when re-election time comes, we will support those who upheld their promises and unseat those who abandoned campaign pledges at the first shift in political winds.
Montgomery County’s children deserve the best, and whatever we have to do to give it to them, from the locker-lined hallways of our schools to the marble-lined hallways of Annapolis, we will do it.
Lee Hockstader can think what he wants. For my part, I count myself blessed to have as my colleagues and friends thousands of the best educators in America. And I am proud to be a member of and an activist for the Montgomery County Education Association.
Put that in an editorial, Lee.
Eric Luedtke is a social studies teacher at Loiederman Middle School, a board member of the Montgomery County Education Association, and co-chair of the MCEA Political and Legislative Services Committee.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Convention Fever
By Eric Luedtke.
The Baltimore Sun ran an article last week mentioning a little known fact: this fall, as required in our state constitution, a question will appear on the ballot asking voters if they want to hold a convention to revise said constitution. It’s really a testament to the people who wrote the current Maryland Constitution in 1867 that they would require such a thing. Even the Constitution of the United States, while it does allow for the never-used possibility of calling a constitutional convention, does not require the government to check in with voters periodically and see if they want things changed.
Predictably, some of the first people who have come out in favor of a convention are perched precariously on the right wing of state politics. One of their arguments in favor of a convention is, and I’m not kidding you here, the need to ban speed cameras. Yes, speed cameras, which somehow violate our fundamental and inalienable rights. Because American patriots fought, bled, and died on the fields of Bunker Hill and Brooklyn so that I could drive as fast as I want. Really, it’s true.
If you sense disgust in my writing, you aren’t imagining it.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, as right now in state politics the right wing is largely relegated to joke status, even by many Republicans. And I guess that to them, any opportunity for change might seem like an opportunity to gain some measure of power. But what’s sad is that if the debate about this ballot question becomes dominated by such voices, it’s possible that legitimate questions of government which should be debated won’t be. There are serious questions we should be asking ourselves about how we govern our state, real issues that might need to be addressed, and should at least be mulled over.
In the normal course of things, we sometimes gloss over these issues. Our leaders shrug their shoulders and go on with the daily tasks of governance, because things are the way they are and it’s no use wishing they were different. And the rest of us, the general citizenry, when we aren’t so disgusted by the latest scandal that we’ve tuned out politics entirely, rarely take the time to think about changing things. It’s too much work, and we have a lot of other things that take up our time.
So this ballot question provides us an opportunity to ask some fundamental questions about how we run our state. Personally, I think a convention is a good idea, and I’ll be voting for it, if only because I believe that any democracy should periodically look inward, reflect on how it runs, and make the necessary changes to run more smoothly. But whether the ballot question passes or not, I hope that it inspires a debate about some of the questions below:
1. Should we have such a powerful executive?
I’m referring here to the office of Governor, not to any current or former holder of that office. Maryland has one of the most powerful executive branches in the state. The Governor has tremendous control over the budget, which can’t be added to by the legislature. He also, as a member of the Board of Public Works, has tremendous power to cut the budget with virtually no input from elected legislators. Should one man or woman have that much power?
2. Should the legislature be more representative?
Over time, as a result of population growth, a legislature with a set number of seats will naturally see an increase in the population of each district. If we presume that an ideal democracy is one in which a legislator is able to effectively communicate with their constituents, then we really have to question whether our current legislature is able to do that. Why? In 1972, when the current number of seats in the legislature was created by constitutional amendment, there were approximately 85,000 people in each district. Today, there are approximately 120,000. That’s a lot of people for any legislator to get to know. A constitutional convention could divide each Senatorial district into three separate single-member House districts, so that each member of the House would represent about 40,000 people. Conveniently, this would also eliminate the possibility of a district’s delegation being dominated by one part of that district.
3. Should the legislature be year-round?
The vast majority of our legislators are people who are able to take a three month leave of absence from their normal jobs and still feed their families. This is not the position of the average Marylander, to say the least. I also think it does a disservice to the citizens of Maryland that the debate over so many bills ends up being rushed because of the short duration of our legislative session.
4. How should apportionment happen?
I’m a pretty partisan guy, but even more than I believe in the Democratic Party, I believe in democracy. State legislative districts should be drawn to be representative of regions, of towns, of the people therein. They should not be drawn for partisan ends, or to suit the whims of an incumbent. Now, in the case of Congressional redistricting, I would never say this, because the Republican Party in states like Texas has demonstrated time and again that they will manipulate redistricting to achieve their own partisan aims. But in the state of Maryland, where we have a single apportionment entity, I think it’s important to have a neutral process.
5. Should judicial elections of any kind exist?
Judges should not be subject to the winds and whims of politics, period. Ending any kind of judicial elections is not a perfect guarantee of this. I would argue, for example, that the recent Supreme Court campaign finance decision was a baldly partisan move, and those bunch are appointed rather than elected. But judicial elections allow the possibility of our judicial system becoming corrupted, and should be eliminated entirely.
6. Should we vote differently?
If you’ve never heard of instant runoff voting, check it out. This posting’s too long already, so try google. I’m not sold on it, but it’s an intriguing idea.
7. What really belongs in the constitution anyway?
Do we really need Article XI-D: Port Development in the City of Baltimore? Do we really need Article XIX: Video Lottery Terminals? These belong in our state code, not in the constitution. Minor issue, I know, but it doesn’t exactly make us look good when held up against, say, the first amendment.
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