For almost four years I had my own slightly successful blog: O’MalleyWatch.com. The purpose of that blog was to point out the failures of Governor Martin O’Malley, to follow through on his campaign promises during his first term in office, and to expose controversies within his Administration.
The blog made its biggest headlines because of purchases of land by the Board of Public Works (led by Governor Martin O’Malley) for more money than they were worth, and then the prompt firing of the Department of General Services person who pointed out the State was paying too much for the land. Of course, it was revealed that the land owner and lobbyist were donors to the O’Malley campaign. In another story, we exposed that a Maryland State Police Commander was re-assigned after he told a newspaper that a State Senator was pressuring the agency to stop enforcing laws against of a friend’s towing business. Perhaps the best story, though, was how we revealed some of the negotiations during the initial special session that included a gas tax increase, which sparked the public outrage and got the gas tax pulled initially.
But the site also served to remind Governor O’Malley of his own promises during a campaign, that he promptly broke. Most of those revolved around his failure to institute a professional Public Service Commission to properly regulate the energy industry and stop the rate hikes he had campaigned so hard against. He had promised an opt-in provision for loans on the rate hike deferment, and many other things that sounded good for campaign commercials, but when he actually went to enforce it, it wasn’t as easy.
That gets down to the root cause of my interest in government and politics and why I blogged. Our system of government, a representative republic, is based on the accountability of an elected official for their actions and the follow through on their promises. When a politician speaks, we can choose to listen, but when an elected official acts, it is our duty to remember.
I stopped the O’Malley Watch blog because the election season was beginning; the job of keeping track of those promises being broken belonged to the professionals. I was just a blogger who ordered green flowers for the Governor on his birthday, or exposed his personal e-mail address so that the voters of Maryland could let him know they didn’t like his tax increases. But despite not following through on a majority of his campaign promises for his first term, the voters of Maryland re-elected him overwhelmingly. Now he is about to enter the twilight of his political career, either as a footnote of an also-ran for President, or as a U.S. Senator for the rest of his life.
The wonderful people of The Dagger are giving me this opportunity to talk about the future of Maryland Politics and what is going to effect all of us as we enter the next phase. This is the best forum for that because there is an actual dialogue that occurs here, a back and forth on the ideals being expressed. I don’t want to write to an audience that is going to agree with me 100 oercent, I want to write for The Dagger because this is an audience that is opinionated and critical, and willing to state its point of view. I can only hope to spur half the discussion that a Sheriff’s race in Harford County does on here.
– Martin Watcher
Larry Hogan’s Missed Opportunity to Change Maryland
I’m not making many friends these days. Larry Hogan is making a lot of them with his campaign to Change Maryland. He took the show on the road recently to the taxpayer-funded vacation for County elected officials known as the Maryland Association of Counties Summer Conference. For those who remember my past work as an advocate for good government, MACo and their Summer Conference has always drawn my ire as the biggest waste of taxpayer money.
The way it works is that every summer, during the height of vacation season when hotel rates are astronomical in Ocean City, elected officials from county governments across the state (and state elected officials including Delegates and Senators) use your tax dollars to travel to the beach resort town to party attend workshops. Attendance isn’t taken at the workshops, and if you go onto the convention floor, elected officials are treated with tons of give-aways from developers, government agencies both county and state, Comcast/Verizon, and anybody else with an interest before the various County Councils and Commissions. The Conference caps off with a huge all-you-can-eat Crab Feast. Did I mention enough times that the whole thing is pretty much funded by your tax dollars? Bel Air, Aberdeen and Havre de Grace taxpayers get hit twice as their local governments also attend the Maryland Municipal League Summer Conference, also in Ocean City.
Two of the major contenders in the Republican primary for Governor, Harford County Executive David Craig and Frederick County Commission President Blaine Young attended; in fact Young used the taxpayer funded trip to host two fundraisers while he was out there. It is disappointing that Craig and Young would so freely waste your tax dollars by being a part of this organization and attending the junket. More disappointing though was Larry Hogan’s presence at the event. Instead of taking a stand against the boondoggle that is MACo, Hogan attended. Instead of trying to “Change Maryland”, Hogan went along with the rest of the State and schmoozed it up. He even bragged about on his Facebook page that instead of “Changing Maryland” elected officials from around the State were coming up to his table at the Crab Feast and “paying their respects” (maybe everyone else saw this as the funeral for his attempts to Change Maryland as well).
If Larry Hogan is serious about changing Maryland he needs to stop going along with the type of tax payer funded junkets people are tired of and take a stand from the political establishment of the State.
The part in this about Commissioner Blaine Young is false. Although it is standard for counties to pay for this, our local leaders for the most part believe this is their expense and not the taxpayers. Commissioner President Young, as well as Commissioner Shreve and Delauter paid for their own trip, with their own funds. The amount that the taxpayers spent was for Commissioner Smith and County Manager Dunn, who submitted reciepts in the amount of a little over $2,000. While I appreciate your eagerness to uncover the facts on candidates, please fact check ones you are unsure of.
Commissioner Young is in a position to get Frederick County to stop supporting the boondoggle of MACo not only with his own funds but Frederick County which probably hosted a booth. I honestly don’t know because after my first trip to MACo I stopped attending after realizing it was just a vacation disguised as a work trip.
Did Commissioner Young pay his own way during his first term? You know the one before the prostitution scandal made him sit out for an election?
The point of this piece though is that Larry Hogan is the outsider candidate and instead of taking that mantle he is playing insider games at one of the biggest wastes of taxpayer money. This is a group that is in the guise of training legislators when it’s entire existence is based on taking money from people’s pockets. What do you think it is training them to do?
If the point is Larry Hogan, then why are you including falsehoods about others? Yes, Harford County spent $20,000 of the taxpayers funds. As for the manner in which you attempt to persuade others, it is difficult to believe any of the so-called “facts” here.
Ahh, so it is ok to hit Larry Hogan on this, who has no access to taxpayer money, but not ok to point out that Blaine Young used this trip to raise money for his campaign?
Let’s take a look at the statement you have a problem with.
“(Prostitute hiring County Commissioner Blaine) Young used the taxpayer funded trip to host two fundraisers while he was out there.”
1. County Commissioner Blaine Young admitted to hiring a prostitute although he said it was only so she would dance.
2. Your link showed that taxpayer funds were used for the trip, although he paid his own way, Frederick County which he is the Commission President of spent their money on other costs associated with this trip, including annual dues for the County which your link ignores. Real strong leadership on Young’s part to allow this waste to continue as long as he could close his eyes to it.
3. You don’t deny he hosted two very poorly attended events while out there.
There are no wrong facts here, you just choose to view them differently than I do.
It is good to see that you changed the story to reflect more truth. Remember, I did see the original and have a copy. You purposely misled the audience, until nailed to the wall.
That was full of purpose and an attempt to provide credibility. Once again, you attack Young without ALL of the facts. Telling half truths is the same as lying, creating the same ideal as those you write against.
Hopefully, you will attend the functions or seek factual arguments, in the future. Heresay is only admissable, when facts aren’t available.
Keep trying Retrain, I don’t have the ability to edit posts. I submit the article to my editor and that is it. If I was wrong then I would admit it and ask him to correct the record, but that did not occur in this case.
But I understand, you really like your guy despite his seedy past of getting caught hiring a prostitute and that is good. I don’t have a dog in this Republican Primary for Governor. In a few months when Blaine Young drops out because he wasn’t able to raise the money, or when he reassesses the number he needed to raise, we can focus more on Blaine and his short comings. I’m not sure if the self professed “youngest good old boy” from Frederick has what the Republican Party is looking for. But you do, and you can continue to defend him, that is great.
There were many democrats at MACO having fundraisers. Why did you not expose any of them? I am not saying it is ok to hit Hogan. The Crab Feed and MACO somehow got muddied here. Maybe it is a clarity issue. Frederick County has turned around and decreased the size of government. Once Alderman, now County Commissioner President Blaine Young has been a leading force in accomplishing this. Word on the street is that Craig is the one having difficulty raising funds and anyone that believes in small government would be willing to overlook a poor youthful judgement. You use this like it is new news. He has admitted fault (not in the manner you present it) and moved on. Frederick County has, since it is old news. Why can’t you?
“I don’t want to write to an audience that is going to agree with me 100 percent….” They will agree with you 99%.
Well then at least I will be with you 1% of the time, and I know how much liberals love the 1%.
I see you do not have an axe to grind with any particular bias… and here I was thinking you were just interested in reporting waste, fraud and abuse for all.
Martin Watcher, meet David A Porter. He never saw a letter, comment, thread or story he didn’t know something about. All hail David A Porter.
David,
Everybody has a bias and everybody let’s that bias reflect their views. Take a look at the ACLU, a powerful organization with such an important mission: Defending the Bill of Rights (their website states they are “our nation’s guardian of liberty”). They will stand up for your speech and privacy and religious rights and due process almost anywhere and no matter who you are. Of course, they happen to ignore the 2nd amendment, and the 10th amendment. Hmmm, who slipped those into the Constitution.
Bias exists, there is no way around it. I would hope you would realize even from my name “Martin Watcher” or my old website “O’Malley Watch” that I am obviously coming at this with an anti-Martin O’Malley and all he stands for position. I’m not trying to hide that. So let’s have some fun and a real conversation about it and maybe you’ll prove me wrong about something. I’ve become a lot less stubborn over the years.
There is a difference in reporting commentary and posing opinions as facts. There is nothing to agree on if it is not true. It then becomes a barrier to your work and aids in credibility loss. I am not disagreeing with your opinion, I am attempting to help you, in your mission.
This is the local spending by the Frederick County delegation and Blaine Young. http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_columnist.htm?StoryID=139508
Why not write about the HARFORD COUNTY COUNCIL wasting tax payer money
Ithink you Should check there bugget dig in to what they are spend on there employees there buget was not brough up at the bugget hearing why not how much money are they spend an why hide there bugget from tax payers
There are plenty of people from Harford County that can write about what goes on inside the county. This collaboration between the Dagger and myself is to focus on the State of Maryland. I will try to keep it in the view of how it will affect Harford County directly, but almost anything that occurs on the State level will affect Harford County as well.
Now this article was interesting, as were the responses. Does anyone believe it’s possible to be successful in politics, as in acheiving elected office, without being a cog in a party machine? I’m completely serious. I too have been following Change Maryland and was interested in Larry Hogan’s words/actions. What I REALLY dig are folks who pay close attention to those who seek elected office and/or hold current positions and are looking to move up the political ladder. Those of us that have great concern for our counties, states, and nation and the men and women who tells us how much they want to serve the public, then turn around and show up at every party they can possibly find, leave me with a deep sadness and skepticism. Thanks Martin Watcher…..whoever you are!
This is a well written response. I too debate the virtues of MACo; what a junket for these guys at our expense. But, there also needs to be an interaction between officials, especially from rural counties across Maryland to join hands and figt some of the region spitballs that have befallen us from Annapolis, such as the new sewage legislation that hits rural counties like Harford and Cecil so hard. There also has to be a give and take between the parties, those who agree and disagree. As conservatives we can not continue to say nope, no way and put our heads in the sand. You have to find compromise and make incremental changes. You go to the crab feast and shake hands with the other side and find some agreement between who wants your crab legs and who likes the mustard…
However, the meeting does not need to be done in a resort area at peak season. Why not OC in the off-season?
Or a location more central to the whole State. Like suburban Baltimore, or maybe Anne Arundel County. Why can’t they meet at a Holiday Inn somewhere and save a whole bunch of cash?
Off-season OC is really cheap though (Jan/Feb). Not much to do either except work (HAHA). Cheaper than Baltimore, DC or close by any time of year.
I’m sure attendance would be quite low if it was held someone other than OC in the middle of summer. The only ones who would show up would be the ones who really care about their constituents and not about getting a free vacation. That’s exactly why it should be rotated around the state yearly.
You mean to say that the only people there would be those that actually thought it was worthwhile to their job function and not just a taxpayer funded vacation? Wow! What a novel idea! Hagerstown in June. Glen Burnie in August. Cumberland in March. Then we would see who takes their job seriously.
MACo is a huge waste of money. I’m hard-pressed to think of any taxpayer-funded junket that isn’t a waste of money. So, I will come right out and say it, I prefer this junket to the one you reported several years ago with one State Agency holed up in a resort. The reason being that I find [more] transparent junkets to be the lesser of two evils to those GSA fun-fueled adventures that you only hear about once in a blue moon since they’re hidden from the public eye. (If they insist on keeping it, the poster with the suggestion of holding it in the off-season winter months is on the money for advice).
I don’t fault aspiring gubernatorial candidates from hob-knobbing it at MACo anymore than I fault Martin O’Malley for getting drunk at a Republcian Convention. It may not be pretty. It may not be fun for them. But it meets expectations. And with politicians these days, meeting expectations is almost akin to the US winning gold in soccer. I do fault them for using taxpayer funds to subsidize the junkets. I’m sure O’Malley is ringing up a nice bill for the Maryland taxpayers. Not sure on Craig. Hogan’s got his own money.
Since we have OMW back, two questions:
Realistic prospects of Republican winning statewide in Maryland [ever again]?
Does casino gambling pass?
Casino gambling just passes as a result of a huge spend of advertising money in the month just before the election and a mandatory turn out of every union worker in the state to vote for it. I hope I am wrong but you asked for a prediction.
Same sex marriage is a toss up.
The tuition deal for undocumented residents gets voted down.
Chumbucket,
I probably diverge from a lot of my Republican friends on this next election when it comes to statewide referendums. I publicly stated my support over on Red Maryland (an excellent conservative blog http://redmaryland.blogspot.com) for Governor O’Malley’s gambling bill. I feel it makes sense to open another Casino at National Harbor since it is Maryland’s only border to another state that doesn’t already have slots or table games. In addition, I don’t see any reason why government should make you have to fly out to Las Vegas or Atlantic City (or Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Delaware) to gamble if you want to. I opposed the joke that was calling a special session because of the legislature’s inability to do their job in the first 90 days, or the next special session, but that issue is different then what was actually on the floor. And the bill was no where near perfect, but it provided new freedom, and gave Maryland a way to actually take money from Virginia and Washington D.C. taxpayers (a first under this Governor).
I want to save the rest of the answers on referendums and for Maryland’s next Governor’s race for future blog posts, but those are some great topics so if you have any others please send them my way at omalleywatch@gmail.com and we can allow a full discussion on each one. I only touch on the gambling one since I already made my position http://redmaryland.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-view-from-back-of-room.html.
“…elected officials from county governments across the state (and state elected officials including Delegates and Senators) use your tax dollars to travel to the beach resort town to party attend workshop…” I don’t know about local officials but I don’t believe there were any State Delegates or Senators who were at MACO on anyone’s expense other than their own. I challenge the writer to prove me wrong. As to the “tons of giveaways” it sounds like everyone drove off in a new car or got a free boat. I understand the vendors were handing out standard convention fare such as pencils, note pads, erasers, snack bag clips, etc. I don’t think they handed out anything that would actually get someone excited, but maybe I’m wrong.
Man, I’m jealous… I could’ve used a new snack clip.
Delegate,
I suggest you ask questions to who paid the way for Delegates Rudy Cane, Addie Eckardt, Adrienne Jones, Norm Conway, Dana Stein, Jon “is that a Police Helicopter in my pants?” Cardin, Marvin Holmes, Charles Barkley, Jeffrey Waldstreicher, Senators Jim Rosapepe, E.J. Pipkin, Verna Jones, Kathy Klausmeier and J.B. Jennings.
In addition to the chotchkys provided, which you might not like my interpretation but if you’ve been to MACo you would see how the elected officials flock to each booth to get the pathetic giveaways like it was Halloween, you may also witness the developer sponsored busses that drive the elected officials from bar to bar late at night.
Continue to defend MACo in any terms you wish, but I think it is only hurting your own reputation in doing so.
I see the lack of research and more reaching is posing a problem to credibility here. Thanks for straightening out some of the misled “facts” presented.
Touche’
Another needed counter.
MACO’s been around for over thirty years Martin, and guys like you think it’s a good story every year. Do some real reporting instead of just taking easy cheap shots. They will participate next yaer in MACO like they should….by the way State officials are not reimbursed for this event. They pay their own way…do just alittle fact checking next year…
you are anonymous, no one cares
So much for changing Maryland…….same ole chit !!!!
Given what sounds like enthusiastic advocacy for transparency and brisk leadership in the face of status quo politics on both sides of the aisle, including criticizing CE Craig, I think I can safely welcome you to the Liberty movement, Martin Watcher. Please visit some C4L meetings. I promise that, contrary to what much of the establishment believes, we are normal folks who apply critical thinking and don’t bite or wear tinfoil hats.