Red Maryland's Mark Newgent reports that Senator Nancy King's Sleepy Saqib strategy is being used in a Republican Delegate primary on the Eastern Shore. Challenger Steve Hershey included pictures of slumbering GOP Delegate Richard Sossi (R-36) in this mailer, which Newgent originally printed.
It's just not safe to sleep in public anymore!
Showing posts with label Red Maryland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Red Maryland. Show all posts
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Sleepy Sossi
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Maryland Blogdom, January – April 2010
Here’s an overview of how Maryland blogs have done from January through April, 2010.
In the first four months of this year, the 45 Maryland state and local blogs that release their site statistics recorded a combined total of 629,307 visits. That is 27% higher than the first four months of 2009 (when they collectively totaled 495,179) and 69% higher than the first four months of 2008 (when they totaled 373,312). The last nine months have been the best period ever in the Maryland blogosphere.
Since 2009, all of the growth in the state’s blogosphere has been in liberal blogs and blogs that cover local areas. Readership in conservative blogs has fallen by 3.4% between the first four months of 2009 and the first four months in 2010.
Here are the top ten state and local political blogs in Maryland, as well as the monthly site visit trend of the top five (MPW, Red Maryland, Annapolis Capital Punishment, PG Politics and Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack) since June 2007. The counts show combined totals over the first four months, while the chart shows monthly visits.
April 2010 produced a temporary spike in MPW’s traffic due to national interest in the blogoscabbing story. Our regular traffic is now on track to be roughly twice the levels of the leading local blogs and three times the levels of the second-ranked political blog.
Here are the top ten locally-focused blogs in Maryland, as well as the monthly site visit trend of the top five (Inside Charm City, Just Up the Pike, Tales of Two Cities, Rockville Central and Rethink College Park) since June 2007.
The big story here is the end of Inside Charm City’s streak as the most-visited local blog since January 2008. Howard County’s Tales of Two Cities passed it in both March and April 2010 and Just Up the Pike passed it in March. These three are now effectively tied as the leading local blogs in the state.
No mainstream media “blogs” release independently verifiable site visit statistics. Neither do Marylandreporter.com or Center Maryland.
Friday, April 30, 2010
A Little Credit for the Blogs, Please?
On Thursday at 7:46 PM, Red Maryland broke the story that Carmen Amedori was leaving Brian Murphy's GOP gubernatorial ticket. Today at 10:42 AM, the Post reported the same thing with no credit to Red Maryland. This reminds your author of the massive Annapolis mayor race scandal first reported by blogger Paul Foer and then amplified by the mainstream media with no mention of him.
This blog and many others constantly link to and credit the MSM for their work. Some MSM sources, like NBC 4 and the Washington Business Journal, return the favor. Would it really kill the rest of them to do the same?
Friday, February 19, 2010
Heather Mizeur Thanks Red Maryland
Heather Mizeur (D-20) is one of the state's most progressive Delegates and a Democratic National Committee Member to boot. And yet, she is thanking conservative blog Red Maryland. Yes folks, you read that correctly!
Mizeur's gratitude originates with a Red Maryland post by Mark Newgent pointing out that she had an active ActBlue account that was currently available for fundraising. State legislators are prohibited by state law from raising money during the general session. Mizeur sent this comment to Red Maryland:I want to thank Mark Newgent on Red Maryland for noticing that my ActBlue page was still set up to accept contributions. Unfortunately, he made two bad assumptions – first, by assuming that I knew; and second, by assuming that I was fundraising during the legislative session.
Lord Almighty! Conservative blogger Mark Newgent has one of Montgomery County's most prominent progressives thanking him. What will the state's knuckle-dragging Neanderthals think of him now? We predict he will never live it down!
In fact, I didn’t know, and there has not been any fundraising during the session. I had ActBlue take down the page immediately, and here’s the rest of the story.
If it seems odd that mine was the only ActBlue account still active, it is. Their team habitually deactivates the accounts of elected General Assembly members while allowing non-elected candidates to keep raising. They’re not sure why mine remained active, but they took it down within minutes of realizing their mistake.
More importantly, there were no actual funds raised through ActBlue during the legislative session or – as it turns out – ever. We set up an ActBlue account in the summer of 2009, in anticipation of launching my new website. But we went back to the drawing board on the website, and we’ve never either directed anyone to our ActBlue page nor received a single contribution there. Not one.
On the other hand, about a dozen people have tried to contribute after the General Assembly session started – totaling more than $1,500 in late-arriving checks – and each donation was immediately returned.
It’s the essence of an open and transparent government: citizens point out an oversight, and it gets fixed. And then there’s accountability: the buck stops with me and I take responsibility for the oversight.
So here I am: a blue Democrat sending a thank you to Red Maryland.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Straight Down the Middle?
Recently, Red Maryland’s Mark Newgent went after the new political website Center Maryland for advertising itself as “straight down the middle” when some of its founders are former employees of Governor O’Malley. As it turns out, Newgent’s argument may have more validity than even he believed.
Here are the state and local political contributions of the site’s six founders. 
Here are the largest checks written by the founders.
Otis Rolley to Martin O’Malley, 6/20/05: $3,960
Damian O’Doherty to Martin O’Malley, 10/21/07: $3,800
Martin Knott to Jim Smith, 1/13/09: $3,000
Martin Knott to Ken Ulman, 1/9/09: $3,000
Martin Knott to Martin O’Malley, 2/12/05: $2,500
We have no problem with Democrats starting political websites. What do you think MPW is? But when Center Maryland’s founders give 92% of their political contributions to Democrats (including 39% to O’Malley), their claim that they are printing “the news you need straight down the middle” is hard to believe. And it’s not as if these are old contributions that long predated the creation of the site. The six founders have given $10,825 to Democrats and nothing to Republicans since the start of 2009. Former Baltimore Sun reporter and editor Howard Libit, one of Center Maryland’s founders, wrote a $1,000 check to Democratic Attorney General Doug Gansler on 1/11/10, the same day that the site went live.
Our message to Center Maryland is the same as it is to Marylandreporter.com: write whatever you wish, but don’t pretend to be something that you are not.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Conservative Blogger Takes on Center Maryland
Red Maryland blogger Mark Newgent has called out the new political website Center Maryland for misrepresenting its purpose and mission. Let us shock the entire state’s blogosphere with this simple statement: Newgent has a point.
Center Maryland markets itself as “a new nonprofit media outlet that highlights issues of real importance to job creation and economic growth” and says it provides, “the news you need, straight down the middle.” But Newgent notes that the site’s founders include former officials in the administrations of Baltimore Mayor and Governor Martin O’Malley, Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith and soon-to-be former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. Despite the obvious Democratic Party affiliations of the site’s backers, Center Maryland tells its readers that it is a “centrist, pro-business voice.” And yet, the website was founded in part by former employees of Governor O’Malley during the year of his re-election campaign.
Maryland Politics Watch and Red Maryland share a common virtue: everyone knows who we are and what we believe. MPW is a progressive blog. How could it be anything different when your author is a labor movement lifer and co-author Marc Korman is a member of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee? Red Maryland is a conservative blog. Its authors are enthusiastic right-wing activists. Some of them are columnists who have been published in the mainstream media while others have run for office as Republicans. No one comes to MPW to read odes to the free market, and no one goes to Red Maryland to read paeans to socialized medicine. Neither blog pretends to be something that it is not.
Newgent’s essay and our work on Marylandreporter.com point to a growing problem with new media: readers cannot be sure of the agenda being promoted by these new websites. Is it news? Is it opinion? Can it be trusted? Is there an angle to it? Where is the money coming from? How are readers supposed to trust what they are reading?
We do not have the answers any more than you do. But we thank Mark Newgent, and Red Maryland, for raising the questions.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Republicans Implode in Western Maryland
For the moment at least, Republican Central Committees in Frederick and Washington Counties have deadlocked on which nominee will replace Delegate Rick Weldon (I-3B), who is stepping down to become the City Manager in Frederick. Weldon left the GOP in 2008, but since he was elected as a Republican, the party committees have the right to replace him. Since they cannot agree on one nominee, they are sending two names to Governor O'Malley and allowing him to select Weldon's successor.
Frederick and Washington Counties are two of the few places in the state where Republicans hold a clear edge over Democrats. The prospect of a Democratic Governor deciding who will obtain a state legislative office in this area is unthinkable. Red Maryland founder Bill Streiff bitterly complained about this, saying:...The instructive point is that the Maryland GOP is essentially broken, perhaps irredeemably so. The decision to let the opposition choose your representatives is what one expects to find among subjugated peoples rather than with a major political party. If we cannot decide upon a replacement for a state delegate how can we expect to combat Governor O'Malley's destruction on the state's economy and rampant cronyism?
Streiff is absolutely correct. No Democratic Central Committee would ever have allowed former Governor Bob Ehrlich to pick a legislative replacement. Democrats all over the state are laughing just as hard - and maybe harder - than they did over the Pelura fiasco.
If the Republicans want any respect in Annapolis or from the voters, they need to close ranks, stand and fight. Otherwise, they will be steamrolled.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Winners and Losers in the Maryland Blogosphere
From our dataset on 38 statistics-releasing Maryland blogs, here are three that are on the way up as well as a category of them that is stalled.
Headed Up
Inside Charm City 
Inside Charm City is the leading news aggregator in the Baltimore area. Its traffic swings wildly with current events, getting enormous spikes from posts about Michael Phelps and Miss California, Steve McNair and local fireworks schedules. The blog has caught on as a central location for Baltimore MSM links, leading the state in visits in five of the last six months. Its great weakness is that it has virtually no original content. Still, Inside Charm City’s success demonstrates that Baltimore is hungry for blogs, and if an independent, original political blog ever set up shop there, its site traffic would explode.
Rockville Central 
Brad Rourke and Cindy Cotte Griffiths have created a true online gathering place for the City of Rockville. Their site carries a mix of news, editorials, announcements and pictures that many residents have adopted as an indispensable resource. Local politicians are particularly watchful as many have submitted guest posts and city elections are approaching. Rockville Central has been the second-most visited local blog in the state after Inside Charm City over the last two months.
Annapolis Capital Punishment
Not so long ago, Paul Foer was known as “PMF” on the liberal blog Free State Politics, where he was a frequent target of Red Maryland’s conservatives. Well, Foer is getting the last laugh. His Annapolis Capital Punishment blog, which follows Annapolis city politics in minute detail, beat the statewide Red Maryland in site visits for the first time in May. Foer’s numbers should stay strong as he has a mayor’s race to cover.
Heading Down/Stalled
Red Maryland and Conservative Blogs
Free State Politics, a multi-author liberal blog, was the leading political blog in Maryland starting around 2006. Red Maryland, a multi-author conservative blog, was founded in July 2007 and passed Free State Politics in site visits in October 2007. That started a 13-month reign atop the state’s political blogosphere that was ended by MPW in November 2008. But Red Maryland’s slide has been much longer than that. The blog peaked in January 2008 with 14,614 site visits. Its June 2009 level was 7,859 visits, or 54% of its high point.
Red Maryland’s decline is echoed by a broader stagnation of the state’s conservative blogosphere.
The 15 conservative blogs that release their site visit statistics have together combined for around 30,000-40,000 monthly visits since October 2007. Their peak month, January 2008, occurred in the immediate aftermath of the special session’s tax package. The conservatives’ stall is noteworthy considering that the state’s entire blogosphere has been growing rapidly.
The state’s right wing has been plagued by infighting between the state Republican Party Chairman and its elected officials, staff disruption at party headquarters, pointless bickering over how to deal with the anti-Obama comments from Anne Arundel County and collapsing voter registration and electoral performance. Those facts may be combining with a general lack of morale to stall conservative blogdom in Maryland.
We’ll have a closer look at MPW’s readership next week.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Death Penalty Debate Mutates
The Baltimore Sun and Maryland Moment summarize the twists and turns in today's death penalty debate. But the most interesting comments come from - surprisingly - one of the state's most liberal Senators and the state's most prominent conservative blogger.
At 2:30 PM today, Senator Rich Madaleno (D-18) sent out this mass email:Earlier today and with my support, the State Senate took the unusual step to reverse a committee's recommendation and voted to place the death penalty repeal bill before the entire Senate for debate and amendment. The vote was 25 to 22. A second procedural motion to open debate only passed 24 to 23. We are now in recess for committee hearings. The Senate will readjourn at 3:30pm today for debate on potential amendments. The session is anticipated to last late until the evening. I plan to oppose all amendments to weaken the repeal.
At 6:48 PM today, Madaleno followed with this:
As can be seen by the small margins in the two votes from this morning, the outcome of the debate is still uncertain. However, I plan to vote to pass the bill and repeal the death penalty. The new maximum penalty in state law would be life with no chance of release. I will let you know as future developments occur.
RichIt is often hard to understand how quickly a bill's fortunes can change in the course of one day. Earlier today, I wrote about the success we had in moving the death penalty repeal to the Senate floor for debate. This afternoon, we took up the measure again for possible amendments. Unfortunately, on a vote of 24 to 23, the Senate adopted an amendment offered by Sen. Jim Brochin (D-Towson) that deleted the repeal and instead only prohibited the death penalty in cases where the evidence is limited to eyewitness testimony. I voted against the amendment as it essentially gutted the bill.
But while the Sun's take emphasized the role of Baltimore County Senators in beating back death penalty repeal, Red Maryland leader Brian Griffiths blamed one Republican: Senator Andy Harris (R-7). Griffiths noted that Harris missed the vote to recommit repeal back to committee, effectively keeping it alive. He wrote:
Recognizing that we now had a greatly watered down bill, Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Bethesda), the floor leader on the bill, accepted a second amendment offered by Sen. Bobby Zirkin (D-Pikesville) to add a series of evidentiary requirements that a prosecutor must satisfy in order to seek the death penalty. It is believed that these new standards would eliminate 85% of the cases where the death penalty is currently sought. While there were many more amendments drafted and ready to be offered, the chamber decided to break for the evening so that these concepts could be drafted to the bill in its new form. We will reconvene tomorrow morning at 9am to start again.
Right now, we are working on strategies to revive the repeal, but it looks like this is what may pass the Senate at this point. However, the cause is not lost as the bill could be strengthened by the House of Delegates. I will write you tomorrow as new developments occur.
RichSo on the most important social issue facing the General Assembly, Andy Harris of all people decides to take a pass.
Griffiths, Maryland's leading conservative blogger, has taken on Harris before. This vote may be a useful tool for anyone running against Harris in a future Congress District 1 primary.
I can't wait to hear the reasoning as to why Senator Harris was not present for this important vote. Because at the moment, his failure to be where he needed to be is the difference between ensuring preservation of the death penalty as a form of punishment and its elimination.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Maryland GOP is its Own Worst Enemy
Normally, one of the few advantages to being a minority party is greater unity. Party leaders in those circumstances can sometimes put aside their differences to rally behind the common goal of seizing power. But that is far from the case with Maryland’s Republican Party.
In September, the House GOP released a fiscal plan calling for tax cuts, a spending freeze and a slots license auction that they claim would raise more money than would the slots referendum. Democrats criticized them for not being specific about their spending cuts. However, in a March 2008 budget proposal, House Republicans did offer a few specific cuts which we reproduce below:
A few notes on the acronyms. OPEB refers to “other post-employment benefits,” which are primarily comprised of health benefits for retirees. The Government Accounting Standards Board recently required state and local governments to report the value of their unfunded liabilities, prompting many governments to establish contribution schedules to minimize them. The Republican proposal would delay the state’s plan to fund its OPEB liabilities. (One wonders if that would impact the state’s credit rating.) GCEI refers to the “geographic cost of education index,” a component of the Thornton state education plan that channels money to jurisdictions with higher education costs. The primary beneficiaries of GCEI, which was partially funded for the first time by the O’Malley administration, are Baltimore City, Prince George’s County and Montgomery County. Because none of those jurisdictions are represented by Republicans, it makes a sort of self-serving sense for them to target those areas for cuts.
And so, here are some real spending cuts suggested by Republicans. The problem is that they are opposed... by other Republicans. When we pointed out in a prior post that new Senate GOP Leader Allan Kittleman denounced spending cuts proposed by the Governor, Senator Kittleman commented in part:Governor O’Malley’s proposal to now cut one-quarter billion dollars from a budget only three months old will wreak havoc to state employees and those who depend upon state services for their livelihood. We are distressed at the prospect of drastic cuts that could have been avoided if the Administration had opted for restraint in new spending over the last two years...
In addition, the silence of the Senate GOP to the House GOP’s plan is deafening.
Maryland’s employees are facing job losses or furloughs in addition to cuts to other resources that will hamper their abilities to perform their jobs. This did not have to happen if wise budget decisions had been made earlier in the formation of the budget.
State employees are dedicated, hard-working public servants who do not deserve this personal crisis in their lives due solely to misguided budget policy of the current Administration.
Maryland’s Republicans have two inter-related problems. First, their House and Senate delegations cannot work together. That is exacerbated by disagreements within each caucus. Speaker Mike Busch and Big Daddy are licking their chops over this because these coordination problems make it that much easier to roll over the GOP.
But secondly, and much more seriously, the Republican Party cannot figure out what it stands for. Is it a Democrat-lite party as represented by Senator Kittleman’s comments? Is it a conservative party in line with Senator Alex Mooney and Delegate Don Dwyer? Or is it just a rag-tag bunch of dead-enders united only by the “R” next to their names and a common resentment of Governor O’Malley? The party is avoiding these questions and is instead bogged down in tactical and personal debates, such as whether to get rid of its current state chairman, making accusations of "arrogance" against Congressional candidate Andy Harris and gleefully indulging in scratching, hissing cat fights.
My advice to the GOP is to be true to itself and follow the path of Red Maryland. In line with the state’s conservative bloggers, the party should advocate for 1. drastic spending cuts, 2. paying state workers the minimum wage, 3. privatizing transportation projects, 4. spying on groups with a “shady past,” 5. the notion that man-made global warming is “sheer utopian nonsense,” and 6. wishing for a Bradley Effect to stop Democrats. They might not get a lot of votes with these positions, but at least they’d stand for something!
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Free State Conservatives Battle it Out (Updated)
Maryland conservative bloggers are engaged in frenzied combat even as I write this. Are they battling over why the GOP lost the recent elections? No. Are they differing over how to revitalize the party? No. They are at war over whether the Anne Arundel Young Republicans should name their winter gathering a "Holiday Party" or a "Christmas Party." Check out the first shot, the return fire, the renewed assault and this incredibly petty exchange.
Yeah, I can just see Big Daddy shaking in his boots!
Update: Mike Netherland won't let this lie. I am greatly amused that he says this has "brought together" myself and Red Maryland leader Brian Griffiths. All I have to say is that when conservatives fight conservatives, liberals usually win!
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Cockroaches Pray for Bradley Effect
I've read a lot of amazing stuff on Red Maryland, but this tops it all.
Anticipating a victory by Barack Obama, conservative blogger Chester Peake said the following last night:Obama has promised change... his change is something we just cannot afford. I do not know how we will be able to legally thwart that change, but we must find ways of doing so. I hope the Bradley Effect (which is NOT racist, just a fear of being Wrongly Called a racist) and other factors serve to restore a sense of sanity to the decision tomorrow.
You know, we should probably not do those poor cockroaches an injustice by comparing them to Mr. Peake.
I Hope & Pray for a positive outcome, but if it does not happen, we must be on our guard. Some haters will stop at nothing to squash us into oblivion like bugs. We will have to be the cockroaches, that survive their worst efforts and live to bug them another day.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Conservatives Oppose Slots
In a remarkable post on Red Maryland, the state's most prominent conservative bloggers have come out against the slots referendum.
The majority of them are not inherently opposed to gambling, but say that the state's constitution is an inappropriate place to specify the location of casinos. Many of them would favor a straight-up slots bill if passed by the state legislature, a position consistent with those of former Governor Ehrlich and House Republicans. None of Red Maryland's authors argue that slots are inherently immoral, a view shared by many religious people on both sides of the aisle.
Mark Newgent deserves special credit for this bit of brutal honesty:If Democrats could vote against slots to screw Ehrlich, why can't Republicans vote against it to screw O'Malley?
For the most part, the argument of the right is essentially process-related, but many rank-and-file conservatives may prefer slots to a tax increase (assuming they see a trade-off). The right may account for a quarter or more of Maryland's electorate. If grassroots conservatives agree with the views of their leaders, the referendum could be in serious trouble.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Right Wing Distorts O’Malley’s Record on Jobs
Red Maryland blogger G.A. Harrison claimed last week that Maryland has lost over 2,500 jobs under Governor O’Malley. But that statement is a gross distortion with little basis in fact.
Harrison cites Republican consultant Ted Pibil, who estimates that 2,533 employees have been laid off since the Governor took office. But this ignores the fundamental churning in the labor market: workers are constantly laid off in good times and in bad. The key statistic is net job creation, which is the total number of new jobs minus the number of terminations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – commonly recognized as a more trustworthy source of economic data than GOP consultants – seasonally adjusted employment in Maryland has grown from 2,604,800 in January 2007 to a preliminary total of 2,637,600 in July 2008. In other words, net employment has risen by 32,800 during Governor O’Malley’s time in office.
Now we do not deny that the economy is in rough shape. Foreclosures are up, state budget deficits are stubborn and gas prices are high. Those factors could yet drive down the state's job performance. But there is a fundamental truth that all politicians admit privately and none will say publicly: politicians often get too much credit when the economy does well and too much blame when it does badly. That applies to Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Bob Ehrlich, Martin O’Malley and everyone else. The real test of a politician’s mettle is whether their policies tend to promote or discourage job creation and income growth. That is a worthy subject of debate on which people can disagree in good faith.
But first, we should argue from facts. Red Maryland leader Brian Griffiths, after debunking a number of rumor-filled blog postings, once lamented: Is fact-finding really that hard to do in the blogosphere these days? Passing on such bunk in lieu of thoughtful reporting or commentary is not constructive, and really brings the entire Maryland blogosphere down, with good blogs and bloggers getting lumped in with stuff like this. I just wish people would take more care before they post "true stories" that are easily debunked in two minutes since it hurts the credibility of the entire blogosphere...
Griffiths has a point. And Harrison can follow his recommendation by seeking statistics from bona fide statistical agencies rather than Republican consultants.
Friday, September 05, 2008
A Reply to Brian Griffiths on the State Budget
Brian Griffiths, leader of Red Maryland, believes that the tax package passed during last year’s special session is causing Maryland’s budget problems. He accuses me of covering for Governor O’Malley and the General Assembly by not blaming them for their “irresponsible tax hikes.” But Griffiths did not bother to check the economic data or my prior work before expressing his opinion. Nor does he understand the relationship between fiscal policy and economic growth.
Even casual readers of the news know that Maryland’s economy has suffered along with the rest of the nation. The causes of American economic stagnation are well known: a bursting real estate price bubble, resulting problems in financial markets and rising fuel prices exacerbated by a weak dollar. (The weak dollar is caused in part by immense federal budget deficits driven by the war in Iraq.) Those national problems affected Maryland. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Survey, job growth in Maryland slowed from 36,000 in 2005 to 28,500 in 2006 to 24,600 in 2007. That is not the fault of either Governor O’Malley or Governor Ehrlich – it is merely a reflection of national economic problems that impacted the state’s economy.
The slowing economy laid bare an underlying truth: the state had a structural deficit and was on track to spend $1.10 for every $1.00 it received in taxes. As I said nearly a year ago in a blog post ignored by Griffiths, the cause was two-fold: a 10% income tax cut in 1997 and billions of additional spending on education (commonly called the Thornton Plan) started in 2002. Both of these events occurred during the Glendening administration, but Governor Ehrlich did nothing to reverse them. It therefore fell to Governor O’Malley to devise a solution to the problem in the face of a bad economy. I was unenthusiastic about the ultimate outcome, but it was an honest attempt to right the state’s fiscal ship.
Griffiths said the following about my post yesterday on the budget: If Pagnucco was being an honest broker, he would note that the decrease in revenues is directly caused by the irresponsible tax hikes enacted by O'Malley and Annapolis Democrats last year, and that the current structural deficit has been caused by irresponsible discretionary spending increases. But, for reasons that shall remain obvious, he refuses to place any blame whatsoever on O'Malley and his band of merry tax hikers.
Griffiths’ assertion that the tax hikes caused a decrease in revenue is directly contradicted by state budget officials, as reported by the Examiner: David Roose, director of revenue estimates, said that the slowing economy had lowered receipts from the income and sales taxes. If the sales tax hadn’t risen from 5 percent to 6 percent, “receipts would have been essentially flat, the worst performance since 1991.”
There are of course limits to the usefulness of sales tax increases in a small state with lots of neighbors. The Sun’s Jay Hancock and a recent Post article speculate about whether cross-border shopping has cut into sales tax revenues. But Griffiths should do his homework: I criticized the special session sales tax hike from the very beginning and recommended a crackdown on tax-cheating employers instead.
Griffiths implicitly assumes that tax hikes hurt the economy while government spending cuts do not. Here he demonstrates a basic ignorance of every macroeconomics course taught to college freshmen. From the perspective of economic growth, it does not matter whether the government implements a tax hike or a spending cut as a deficit reduction measure. Both reduce aggregate demand in the economy, especially when taking into account a reverse multiplier effect. A big tax hike and a big spending cut are equally damaging to the state’s economy in the short term, but because the state cannot deficit spend (as the federal government does), policy makers must pick one, the other, or both. After next year’s round of spending cuts is added to last year's tax package, we will have both.
The best thing the state government could do to revitalize Maryland’s economy is to increase its investment in infrastructure, even if it means taking in additional revenues. The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce recommended raising $600 million for the Transportation Trust Fund this year, a step that was unfortunately not taken by the General Assembly. The business community and building trades unions believe that infrastructure construction creates jobs, long-lasting physical assets and abundant opportunities for private sector growth. Those things in turn will stabilize the budget over the long term. If only conservatives like Brian Griffiths could agree.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Maryland Right-Wing Hypocrisy Never Ends
It was bad enough that Maryland conservatives reacted with rank hypocrisy to the recent state police spying scandal. But they have topped that performance with their praise of Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
The chief line of attack by national Republicans against Senator Obama is that he is inexperienced and not ready to be President. Maryland Republican Party Chairman Jim Pelura adopted this argument in a press release during the Democratic convention. Pelura commented, “...The Democrats’ cure for what they say ails our country is to elect a man that has served less than one term in the U.S. Senate…” and followed with, “Throughout this campaign, Barack Obama has shown the kind of weak judgment Americans cannot afford in our next commander-in-chief.” But in assessing Sarah Palin, Pelura gushes, “As the head of Alaska 's National Guard and as the mother of a soldier herself, Governor Palin understands what it takes to lead our nation and she understands the sacrifice of our troops and their families.” So according to Maryland Republicans, Senator Obama, with nearly four years experience on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is not ready for the White House. But Governor Palin, with two years experience supervising Alaska’s National Guard, is ready. Such are the arguments we would expect from paid political hacks.
And so I turned to the Free State’s conservative blogosphere and its leader, Brian Griffiths. Agree with him or not, Griffiths has a history of going after fellow Republicans, whether skewering Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold or hounding former Maryland GOP Executive Director John Flynn out of his job. But even Griffiths fails the consistency test when it comes to Governor Palin.
After Senator Obama picked Senator Joe Biden as his running mate, Griffiths wrote: Obama selected Biden from a position of weakness, not a position of strength. Biden was picked to overcome Obama's noticeable shortcomings in experience and knowledge. And Biden was selected in an effort to stop the bleeding. Somebody in Obama's campaign thinks that the selection of Biden is going to shore up concerns with Obama's inexperience, and that the selection is going to reinforce the ticket's foreign policy credentials. Problem is, the selection only accentuates the weaknesses the American people already knows Barack Obama has.
And after Senator McCain picked Governor Palin as his running mate, Griffiths wrote:
Sarah Palin has more experience in government than Barack Obama does. She has no less foreign policy experience than he does. And, unlike Obama, she is the # 2 on the ticket. Obama's glaring lack of experience to be President still shines through. Friends, this is what we have been waiting for. This is what we have wanted to see all along.
The contention that Senator Obama and Governor Palin have similar levels of foreign policy experience is factually wrong. Senator Obama has worked with respected Republican Senator Dick Lugar to reduce conventional weapons stockpiles, sponsored a measure to encourage public pension funds to divest from companies connected to Iran and co-sponsored the 2006 Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act along with Senator McCain. This does not match Senator Biden’s record, but it is hardly equivalent to the “experience” of Governor Palin.
The point of this post is not to criticize the selection of Governor Palin as a Vice-Presidential nominee. Jackie Lichter handled that very well. Rather, the Orwellian reasoning of Maryland conservatives is the real issue here. According to them, Senator McCain is superior to Senator Obama because of his vast experience. But that is suddenly irrelevant in evaluating Senator McCain’s choice for Vice-President, a novice whose primary role in public service has been as mayor of a town less than half the size of Takoma Park. I am always amazed by people who believe totally opposite things at the same time with equal fervor. Such is now the case for many Maryland conservatives.
Barry Rascovar has an excellent piece in the Gazette detailing the irrelevance of the Maryland Republican Party. If Free State conservatives would like to turn around their misfortune, here’s a bit of advice: stop the hypocrisy. Maybe then your opinions will be respected by the independents and moderate Democrats you need to win elections.
Update: Brian Griffiths responds here. Among other things, he says:The argument that Obama is more prepared than Governor Palin to be President is absurd. And the idea that the right, particularly me, is being hypocritical on the Biden/Palin issue is equally absurd. Senator McCain, in selecting Governor Palin, selected somebody who will be a partner in change and in reform. Somebody who can lead on day one, without the training wheels.
Alaska state legislator Mike Doogan, who has had much more contact with Governor Palin than has Brian Griffiths, begs to differ with that last statement.
Professor Richard Vatz of Towson University stands out as the only honest conservative on Red Maryland, deploring inexperience on both sides. Whether you agree with Professor Vatz or not, he is at least consistent.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Conservatives Circle Wagons, Abandon Principles on Spygate
Spygate is the ultimate example of big, arrogant government seeking power over law-abiding citizens. So we would expect the Free State’s conservatives to condemn it, right? Wrong.
In his column last week, the Gazette’s Blair Lee begins by saying, “...Last week’s revelations of Maryland State Police surveillance and infiltration of peace groups and anti-death penalty organizations should alarm every Marylander. A basic American freedom is our right to assemble and protest without becoming targets of police investigation — no ifs, ands or buts. End of discussion.” Fair enough. But he pivots rapidly to the real villain of Spygate – Martin O’Malley. That’s right, according to Lee, the current Governor is the bad guy because he is telling “the big lie” – namely, that Spygate occurred during the Ehrlich administration. I hope Mr. Lee will write a future column elaborating on how a chronological fact can be considered a “big lie.” (Mr. Lee is up a second time commenting on this blog, claiming, “Ehrlich’s position on Spygate differs little from the O’Malley administration’s.” I beg to differ.)
On Red Maryland, Mark Newgent justifies the spying because the anti-death penalty protestors may have included members of the American Friends Service Committee, a left-wing Quaker-affiliated group. Yes, whenever pacifist Quakers get together with people who think the death penalty and the Iraq War are wrong, there is bound to be violence. And in the middle of the scandal, Red Maryland blogger Last Reporter showcased the “Bring Back Ehrlich” bumper sticker below and promoted it again while cheering on Governor Ehrlich’s self-exonerating radio interview last weekend. Mysteriously, conservative blogger Brian Griffiths has not posted on the issue.
The response from the left has been more complicated. While conservatives have unquestioningly backed a former Republican Governor, liberals have stood up to the Democratic incumbent even though the spying did not happen on his watch. For example, while I have gone after Governor Ehrlich, I have also said about then-Mayor O’Malley, “If the city police used information passed on by the state police to launch their own investigation, then former Mayor O’Malley bears as much responsibility for them as former Governor Ehrlich has for the state police.” Paul Gordon has said that the current Governor “fails civics 101” for not supporting any legislation to prevent another Spygate. Eric Luedtke disagreed with the Governor’s position against legislation, saying “This situation has proven that the current system is vulnerable to abuse. It isn't enough to say sorry, blame it on the last guy, and promise it will never happen again. There needs to be a law, period.” ACLU lawyer David Rocah has also stated a preference for legislation over reliance on promises from the current Governor to prevent future spying.
Spygate is not merely a concern of liberals. In fact, at least three important principles of conservatism have been broken during the scandal:
1. Personal responsibility
Governor Ehrlich has spread the blame to former Attorney General Joe Curran and even former Baltimore Mayor O’Malley for Spygate. He could have said, “Even though I did not know about the investigation, I accept responsibility for all acts committed under my administration and I am as eager to get to the bottom of it as anyone else.” But so far he has not.
2. Government accountability
Governor Ehrlich has also said that the Governor should not monitor the state police and neither should the legislature. This would create an unaccountable state police force – something that would have repulsed our founding fathers.
3. Individual freedom from government control
When asked repeatedly by conservative WBAL talk show host Bruce Elliott whether there was anything wrong with the spying, Governor Ehrlich ducked the issue. Most real conservatives presume that individual freedoms should trump government power except in the most dire of circumstances. Non-violent protestors do not qualify.
So why are these conservatives refusing to stand up for conservative principles? The obvious reason is to protect Governor Ehrlich, whom some on Red Maryland are encouraging to run again. With Governor O’Malley’s poll numbers in the 30s, the economy in difficulty and the General Assembly’s billion-dollar tax hikes now taking effect, Governor Ehrlich is an attractive candidate for the right. Now it appears that he is more attractive than the very principles of conservatism itself.
Red Maryland blogger Brian Griffiths recently said, “...The problem with Republican politics in the 21st century is not the ideology of conservatism, but leadership that itself is not conservative. Once we figure out how to fix that, Republicans will reassume the mantle of ascendancy that we lost when Congressional leadership went native a few years back.” Whether you agree with Griffiths or not, he has a point: politics without principles is an empty pursuit of raw power for its own sake. Conservatives who blindly follow Governor Ehrlich will lose what they believe in.
So what should genuine conservatives do? Perhaps they should start paying their dues to the one organization that stands up for their constitutional rights – the ACLU!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Target: Eric Luedtke
Last month, I called for the revival of the state’s liberal blogosphere. That call has been answered! And the saviors of the online left are... the online right.
As I ended my series on the state of Maryland blogdom, Isaac Smith and Eric Luedtke resumed regular posting on Free State Politics. That has attracted significant attention from Red Maryland, the nexus of the state’s conservative blogosphere. Over a nine-day period from 7/17/08 through 7/25/08, conservative bloggers criticized Luedtke by name in nine posts on five different days. Luedtke’s views on transit, education and the environment made them howl like coyotes in the hills!
These Red Maryland bloggers have probably never met Eric Luedtke. Slightly-built, Luedtke has the appearance of a first-week college freshman searching for his backpack to avoid being late for class. A soft-spoken teacher from Burtonsville, he is no proponent of the two-by-four liberalism practiced by some on this blog. The laptop-toting, coffee-sipping Luedtke is about as threatening as dew on the grass.
But Luedtke is really driving the conservatives nuts as some of their criticism is strikingly personal. In one post, Brian Griffiths accuses Luedtke of promoting “racial nonsense” and says the following on accountability in education: Luedtke, as we mentioned, is a teacher. He is a member of the teachers union. Once he reaches tenure, he is virtually unable to be fired. How's that for accountability?
This follows Griffith’s labeling of Free State Politics bloggers as “privileged Caucasians.”
All of this attention from conservatives is having an unintended consequence: they are helping to revive Free State Politics. Every time they link to one of Luedtke’s posts, they encourage their readers to visit them and pass them on. In the three weeks prior to 7/17/08, Free State Politics averaged 181 visits per day. But over the nine-day anti-Luedtke jihad, Free State averaged 268 visits per day – an increase of 48%.
On behalf of the Maryland left, I extend my sincere gratitude to Red Maryland for coming to the aid of Free State Politics. I only have one question for them: where’s the love for me?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The State of Maryland Blogdom, Part Three
With only two of eight Congressmen, 14 of 47 state senators, 37 of 141 state delegates and no statewide officeholders, Maryland’s Republican Party is in bad shape. That cannot be said of the state’s conservative blogosphere. Right-wing blogs have established a loud, robust, and active online conservative community that eclipses the state’s Republican establishment.
Of the 25 state blogs for which we have collected statistics, twelve are conservative political blogs. Prior to the fall of 2007, these twelve blogs saw a combined 16,000-22,000 visits per month. But the special session and the 2008 general session caused readership to explode to a peak of 39,917 visits in February. Since then, visits have dropped to 30,411 in May – down 24% from the peak, but still much higher than a year ago.
Red Maryland is the most widely-read blog among all those for which we have data. The site had a peak level of 14,614 visits in January before falling to 9,839 visits last month. Red Maryland is a common site shared by 20 conservative bloggers, many of whom cross-post from their own individual blogs. With so many contributors, the site offers multiple posts on many days and acts as a one-stop shopping center for Maryland conservatives. Whether free-state right-wingers want quick-and-dirty Democrat bashing or more detailed critiques of liberal policies, they will find it on Red Maryland.
Other leading conservative blogs include the Baltimore Reporter (4,000-5,000 monthly visits), the often-national issue Pillage Idiot (3,000-5,000 monthly visits) and Howard County (also 3,000-5,000 monthly visits, but declining). No other right-wing blog for which we have data reliably cracks 2,000 visits per month but that is deceiving. Many of these blogs cross-post to Red Maryland and so many readers no doubt receive their content there rather than click on multiple sites.
One important blog for which we do not have data is the infamous O’Malley Watch. There is no policy debate or prescription here: it is pure and endless bashing of the Governor, thrown out as blood-dripping red meat to his legions of enemies. While calling for transparency and open government from O’Malley, the blog’s author hides behind anonymity and does not release visit data. But since the blog’s posts often receive over 100 comments each, mostly from anonymous readers, its visit count must be high. In fact, the venomous O’Malley Watch may be the most-read blog in the state, a sad comment on the politics of the free state’s blogosphere.
In Part Four, we will look at Maryland’s left-wing blogs.
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