Montgomery County State's Attorney Robert Dean, appointed in 1996 to replace Andrew Sonner, had two problems in his election campaign. First, he was embroiled in an embarrassing sex scandal with a subordinate complete with love poems. Second, he was opposed by one of the most aggressive politicians in MoCo's history: federal prosecutor Doug Gansler. Gansler let the press handle the sex scandal, but he took on Dean's prosecutorial decisions and his alleged tendency to campaign with tax dollars directly. We reprint those lit pieces below. Gansler won in the primary by twelve points.
There's a lesson here for anyone thinking of running for Governor in four years. If you are in a campaign against Doug Gansler and you make a mistake, YOU LOSE.
"Mistakes Can be Deadly"
"Chicago"
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Gansler Guns for Dean, 1998
Neal Potter for County Council, 1978 and 1994
No one has won more countywide elections in MoCo than Neal Potter. The humble, squeaky-clean Chevy Chase resident won a County Council seat in 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986 and 1994, and served one term as County Executive starting in 1990. Here are two of his lit pieces: one from his third campaign in 1978 and one from his last.
Potter for Council, 1978
Potter for Council, 1994
Best of the Bad Boy
House Majority Leader Kumar "Bad Boy" Barve was first elected in 1990 and has been wisecracking his way through Annapolis ever since. Here are three lit pieces from early in his career.
1990: "Hey Kids!!" That's right - only Kumar would recruit volunteers by openly calling them "kids."
1990: "Who Cares?" This is an unusual slogan for someone trying to earn votes for office, but this is the offbeat Kumar we know and love.
1994: "Draft Notice." We predict the Bad Boy will not be sending out any more of these!
Doug Duncan for County Executive, 1994
No other Montgomery County Executive has surpassed Doug Duncan's twelve years in the position. This is a mailer from his first campaign for the office, a win in 1994.
Goldie Hawn for Peter Franchot, 1986
In 1986, Peter Franchot launched his first run for District 20 Delegate. There were two opens seats as Delegates Ida Ruben and Diane Kirchenbauer were duking it out for Stewart Bainum's vacated Senate seat. The Delegate field was jammed with eleven candidates. So Franchot brought out the most prized endorsement of all to help him win: former Takoma Park resident and Hollywood superstar Goldie Hawn. Franchot finished first. This is the mailer that helped put him over the top.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Elrich Blasts Berlage, 1998
Council Member Marc Elrich finished first in this year's at-large primary, but he had to travel a long, hard road to get there. Elrich ran for the District 5 council seat in 1990 and 1998 and at-large in 1994 and 2002 before finally winning in 2006. Perhaps his toughest race was in 1998 against District 5 incumbent Derick Berlage, whom Elrich labeled a "total hypocrite" for changing his position to accept developer contributions. Here's a mailer Elrich sent out criticizing Berlage's attendance record and his operating a law practice on the side. Berlage won the primary by a 7,954 to 6,422 vote.
Gus Bauman for County Executive, 1994
Gus Bauman was a staffer and legal counsel for the Planning Board before becoming its Chairman in 1989. Four years later, he left the board to run for County Executive and finished behind Rockville Mayor Doug Duncan and County Council Member Bruce Adams. Gus is now one of the county's beloved wise men, serving as Nancy Floreen's campaign Chairman and as Chairman of the state's new commission on transportation funding. This is his first mailer from his 1994 campaign for Executive.
Ike Leggett for County Council, 1986
This is a mailer from Ike Leggett's first campaign for an at-large County Council seat in 1986. Leggett finished second that year and finished first in his next three races. Leggett's record of winning six county-wide elections has been surpassed only by Neal Potter, who served six terms on the council and one as County Executive.
Maryland Blogdom, January – October 2010
Here’s an overview of how Maryland blogs have done from January through October, 2010.
In the first ten months of this year, the 46 Maryland state and local blogs that release their site statistics recorded a combined total of 1,770,058 visits. That is 32% higher than the first ten months of 2009 (when they collectively totaled 1,341,387) and 95% higher than the first ten months of 2008 (when they totaled 906,864). The last four months have been the best period ever in the Maryland blogosphere.
Since 2009, most of the growth in the state’s blogosphere has been in liberal blogs and blogs that cover local areas. Readership in conservative blogs has grown by 11% between the first ten months of 2009 and the first ten months in 2010. Over that same period, local blog readership grew by 22% and liberal blog readership grew by 78%.
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 ten months, while the chart shows monthly visits.
MPW has been the most-visited political blog in the state since December 2008 and has been number one overall since December 2009. We saw a spike in traffic during the primaries, recording 81,393 visits in September – the biggest month for any blog in the state in our records. In October, our traffic dropped back down to the levels of the spring. Lots of political blogs did well during election season. PG Politics and Monoblogue set internal traffic records during September, and Red Maryland had its second-biggest month then as well.
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.
Inside Charm City was once the biggest local blog in the state, but those days appear to be over. Tales of Two Cities (in Howard County) is now number one with Rockville Central a very close number two.
No mainstream media “blogs” release independently verifiable site visit statistics. Neither do Marylandreporter.com, Center Maryland or Patch.com. We took our best shot at measuring their traffic a couple days ago. Based on the data we assembled from Compete.com, it appears that none of the latter three sources come close to the readership of the state’s largest independent blogs.
Here’s one more measure comparing MSM sites and blogs: Google Reader subscriber counts. Following are the number of Google subscribers for a number of Maryland political blogs and news sites.
MPW: 437
Washington Post (all Maryland news): 354
Maryland Politics Blog (Sun): 282
Washington Post Editorial Pages (international, national and local): 211
Red Maryland: 189
B’More Green (Sun): 113
Maryland Politics Blog (Post): 101
Howard County: 86
Annapolis Capital Punishment: 84
Free State Politics: 80
Jay Hancock (Sun): 77
Getting There (Sun): 72
Legum’s New Line: 59
Baltimore Sun (all local politics stories): 57
PG Politics: 46
Monoblogue: 37
Darkness Rising: 36
Granola Park: 35
Baltimore Reporter: 24
Second Opinion (Sun): 23
Left Hand View: 12
Robert McCartney (Post): 9
On this measure, many independent blogs are competitive with the MSM.
That’s all for now!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Rushern Baker: Leslie Johnson Should be Sworn In (Updated)
From TBD. Baker's comment on Leslie Johnson comes at 12:00 on the video.
Update: Incoming Council Member Mel Franklin is the first member of the next council to call on Johnson not to take the oath of office.
County Employee Pain Goes On
One year ago today, we wrote a post about the sudden halt in pay increases and the sudden rise of furloughs facing Maryland county employees in FY 2010. In the present fiscal year, those circumstances are arguably worse.
According to this month’s state Spending Affordability Briefing and our research from last year, the number of counties granting cost of living adjustments (COLAs) to non-school employees was 20 in FY 2009, 5 in FY 2010 and 1 this year, with another county decision still pending. The only COLA currently being granted is by Calvert County, which is offering a 0.5% raise. Non-school employees received step increases from 20 counties in FY 2009, 8 counties in FY 2010 and 4 counties in FY 2011.
The number of counties granting COLAs to school employees was 22 in FY 2009, 10 in FY 2010 and 3 this year, with two more county decisions pending. The three counties granting school employees COLAs are Cecil (1.8%), Allegany (1.0%) and Calvert (0.5%). School employees received step increases from 21 counties in FY 2009, 14 counties in FY 2010 and 9 counties in FY 2011.
State employees are getting no COLAs and their furloughs effectively cut their pay by 1.2-3.8%.
Wage increases are out and furloughs are in. In FY 2009, we know of just one county that furloughed its employees: Prince George’s. In FY 2010, 10 counties had furloughs and 12 had layoffs. In FY 2011, 9 counties had furloughs and 6 had layoffs, with another county considering layoffs. Anne Arundel leads the state in maximum furlough days (12) while Prince George’s leads in layoffs (183 workers in the school system with more to come in the rest of the government).
How will FY 2012 look? Consider the fact that the Governor, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House have said they will close the state’s $1.6 billion general fund deficit without tax increases. Next, consider that federal stimulus money is running out and that aid to local governments constitutes over 40% of state general fund spending. State aid accounts for over a quarter of the counties’ revenues. Five counties (Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Talbot, and Wicomico) have limitations on their ability to raise property taxes written into their charters. And the state could send a hefty chunk of teacher pension obligations down to the counties. All of these factors hitting at the same time will force the vast majority of the counties to scrutinize their labor costs.
So it’s not over yet.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
One of the Stranger Solicitations We Have Received
We get lots of solicitations here at MPW. Some of them (like requests for guest posts) are welcome. Then there are requests like this one that we received from "Sachin."From: ashutosh@search-value.com on behalf of Sachin (sachin@webprofits.com.au)
Apparently, "Sachin" is offering a free online Equipment and Asset Finance course.
Sent: Sat 11/13/10 4:32 AM
To: acp1629@hotmail.com
We would like to write an unique article for your website
Hey there,
We have been reading the articles on your website and are very impressed with the quality of your information.
We have a team of copywriters who specialize in writing articles on various topics and would like to write an original article for you to use on your website – this article will not be used anywhere else on the Internet.
In exchange all we ask is that we can have one or two links within the body of the article back to one of our sites. You can view a sample of the quality of our articles at
http://www.intellitrain.com.au/blog/
If you are interested in having us write an article for your website please just let me know and we would be more than happy to have one written for you within two weeks.
Kind regards,
Sachin
The first person who can explain how this relates to Maryland politics gets a free lunch with Robin Ficker!
Andy Harris: Government-Run Health Care "Got Us Into Bankruptcy"
Surely, you have heard of Congressman-Elect Andy Harris’s newfound support for government-run health care – at least for himself – by now. But to appreciate the full head-spinning magnitude of his conversion to socialism, one has to observe his statements on the issue while he ran for office. This video comes from his February 2010 appearance at the Cecil County Patriots Candidate Forum.
At 1:50 of the video, Harris is asked his opinion on the federal government’s role in health care. At 3:15, Harris begins his answer by denouncing Medicare and Medicaid and predicting that more government-run health care “got us into bankruptcy and will keep us in bankruptcy.” And yet, Harris’s first action as a Congressman-Elect is to complain that he can’t get government-run health care for himself fast enough.
Rarely has the stomach-churning stench of hypocrisy wafted so heavily over Capitol Hill.
Josh Kurtz on "Political Pulse" on Ch. 16 TV
Josh Kurtz, who writes on Maryland Politics for www.centermaryland.org and is the editor of Environment and Energy Daily, will be on "Political Pulse" on:
Thurs, Nov. 18th, at 9:00 p.m.
Fri-Sun, Nov. 19th-20th, at 6:00 p.m. and
Tues, Nov. 23rd, at 9:30 p.m.
Topics that will be discussed include the federal charges against PG County Exec. Jack Johnson, Maryland politics, the Dem's loss of the U.S. House of Rep's and the tough budget times in Montgomery County.
Political Pulse is on Ch. 16 TV in Montgomery County.
How Much Web Traffic Do Maryland News Sites Get?
The Washington Post. The Baltimore Sun. NBC4. WBAL. The Gazette. These are a few of the many sources Marylanders go to for news and political coverage. But no one knows the relative readership of these sources on the Internet, which is becoming the premier platform for information delivery, because they do not report their site traffic. That ends today. Now, for the first time, we reveal all!
The best way to get web traffic data is through openly accessible measuring software like Sitemeter or Statcounter. MPW and many other blogs have one or the other and make them available for public inspection. (Just click on the Sitemeter icon in our right margin to see MPW’s traffic.) We have periodically reported on visit trends for Maryland blogs that use such open reporting systems.
But almost no one in the mainstream media (MSM) regularly reports their site stats. Luckily, we have found a way to get around that problem: Compete.com, a company that measures traffic and drums up business by helping site owners boost it. Compete relies on a panel of two million online users who are diversified by geography, demographics, browsers and more and allow the firm to collect their web browsing data. Then, “Compete’s experts in the fields of mathematics, statistics and the data sciences have developed a proprietary methodology to aggregate, normalize and project the data to estimate US Internet activity. Based on the daily web usage of more than 2,000,000 members in the Compete community, Compete estimates total traffic, rank and other statistics for the top 1,000,000 sites on the web for use by consumers.”
We don’t believe Compete’s methodology is perfect. Specifically, a panel of two million users won’t estimate the traffic of very small sites that well. And let’s be honest: these data are estimates, whereas Sitemeter and Statcounter generate real-time counts. Still, we believe that ballpark estimates contain some value. A site that is estimated to have two million visits per month probably has more users than one that has 100,000 visits. That level of information is better than what we have now for the MSM, which is… basically zero. Furthermore, since Compete measures all sites using the same methodology, its stats should offer apple-to-apple comparisons.
We used Compete’s database to obtain a three-month average (August-October) of site visits for over forty online news sources in Maryland. Compete defines visits this way:Visits are initiated when a user enters a site during an internet session. As the user interacts with the site the visit is live. Visits are considered live until the user’s interaction within the entire internet session has ceased for a 30-minute period. Visits are unique to a session.
This is a fairly standard definition of site visits that is also used by Sitemeter and Statcounter.
For instance, User A enters Yahoo at 9:00. User A checks their email and reviews the week's weather forecast. User A then goes to a meeting at 9:30. She returns at 10:30 and checks her Yahoo email again. Since 30 minutes lapsed between her two interactions User A is considered “one person” that made “two visits.”
Here are Compete.com’s site visit estimates for selected Maryland news sites.
A few notes:
1. We are not surprised that the four largest newspapers have the four most-visited websites. But it’s impossible to tell how much of their traffic is directed to Maryland-oriented content. The Post attracts worldwide traffic for its national and international news. The Times and the Examiner are go-to sites for national conservative commentary. All have readers in the District and Virginia. Despite all this, we won’t dispute their raw size. And isn’t it interesting that the Sun, the Times and the Examiner are all basically tied in traffic?
2. Nine of the next fourteen sites are TV stations, including two based outside the Washington and Baltimore metro areas. Television stations have an inherent potential synergy with the web through their ready access to video, but for the most part, they have not built user-friendly video archives. Wouldn’t it be nice to go to a TV site and quickly assemble a series of clips into one video of the latest stories on your topic of choice? The first TV site that figures out how to let its users customize its content access easily and quickly is going to take off.
3. Online-only news sites get some insider buzz but they have few if any readers. It’s hard to make a case that any are economically viable. According to Sitemeter, MPW averaged 57,867 site visits per month in the August-October period, far more than any of the Maryland online politics sites covered by Compete. But even if MPW maxed out on ads, we would not generate anywhere near enough money to support a full-time author. That calls into question the prospects of any of the online-only news sites with a fraction of our traffic that are expected to someday be self-supporting.
