Annapolis Capital Punishment

Josh Cohen has recently made a lot of news about the endorsement he received from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). I have some issues with the whole notion of unions making endorsements, especially when it is for candidates who may one day be negotiating contracts with them, which would certainly be the case with AFSCME Council 67--NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT THE CANDIDATE HAS NOT EVEN FILED--WHICH AGAIN, WE MUST ASK WHY NOT? However it is of little surprise that the union representing government employees would back Cohen, he A PERPETUAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE and he of the Moyer/Finlayson/Hoyle/Garraway pedagoguery and their union and labor and Democratic Party connections. Yet once again I must ask, are all these endorsements meaningful--and are they good things? In my mind they merely cement the fact that Cohen is part of a machine, an establishment, a network of powers-that-be that will conduct business as usual.
One can only wonder about what kind of discussions went on behind the scenes to engineer this endorsement so early in the campaign. I polled all the other candidates to see if AFSCME had interviewed them or asked them to complete a survey or provide information. From what I have beena ble to ascertain, none of them were contacted. It seems that AFSCME council leadership somehow just chose Cohen. But the even bigger question is what do its members think? Did anyone ask them? They are the ones who pay the dues to pay the salaries of those that supposedly speak for them. I had some experience with this same sort of situation when I ran for alderman and our police officer's union, United Food and Commericial Workers 400 made endorsements and bought huge ads supporting other candidates--among them Sheila Finlayson--who has a union background. I asked every police officer I knew if they knew anything of the endorsement and the answer was a flat "no." It gets worse, but that's another story I have covered befoer.
So what do these endorsements mean and how do they come about? But there is even a bigger question. What role did Anne Arundel Democratic Central Committee Chairman Kory Blake have? Blake, for those of you that do not know, is a staff repersentative for Maryland Public Employees Council 67, AFSCME , AFL-CIO. Blake=Democratic leader=union staffer=endorsement for Cohen=??? favors for the city employees Cohen will oversee as mayor? Another reason why Cohen is opposing the city manager proposal. Democrat machine. Democrat leadership. Union machine. Union leadership. Who wins? Who loses?

Here is the worst thing-Cohen is not coming out telling we the people not to sign the petition to take the proposal to referendum. He is just telling us that he thinks having a city manager/council government is a bad thing. But he never says do not sign the petition to take it to a vote, but that is his implication, is it not?

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