(The following is a guest editorial by Trudy McFall, former Democratic Candidate for Mayor. This post was not solicited by me.I knew nothing about it until it was presented to me for publication and I have provided it here in its complete form without any editing. The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of Ms. McFall and I make no claim as to the veracity of any of her comments. Reader's comments are welcome as long as the author is positively identified in the letter.):
I was interested to read Greg Stiverson’s recent account of his experience with Chuck Weikel, an elected member of the Annapolis Democratic Central Committee and up to a few days ago, an elected member of the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee. In my own campaign for Mayor, Chuck Weikel played a significant role as Annapolis’ own dirty trickster. I have made notes and kept records about the negative doings of Democratic Party officials, such as Chuck, as I ran for Mayor in the Democratic primary.During my campaign I chose not to go into these things because I wanted my campaign to embody the professional, policy-based approaches I was advocating for the City.However, inspired by Greg’s experience, I am now ready to detail below the negative and untruthful treatment, which I know first hand, that I received from fellow Democrats.
I think this information will give voters a good idea of what the entrenched Democratic establishment will do to win elections for their favored candidates and detail the kind of things that folks like Chuck Weikel do to help them. Perhaps if we keep exposing this type of behavior it can come to end. I hope voters on November 3rd would really think about if this is how they want their City to continue to be run. I continue to hope for real reform.
The following events are listed in roughly chronological order and took place approximately over the last 18 month period that I was running for Mayor:
2. In September 2008, Mayor Moyer and Steve Carr, her paid consultant and long time Party operative, each wrote letters to the editor of the Capital attacking me with an assortment of false claims, primarily related to my volunteer activities regarding public housing and crime. Two other letters to the editor at the same time, from people I never heard of, also seemed to be part on an orchestrated negative letter writing campaign.
4. In July 2009, Mr. Weikel sent out an email blast, including to a Baltimore Sun reporter, implying (wrongfully) that I, as well as two incumbent aldermen, were “gay,” wondering what else we are “hiding,” and questioning if we were opening ourselves up to “Sam stuff.”
10. Hate literature about me from an anonymous organization called “Saving Annapolis Public Housing” was distributed to guests arriving at a reception I hosted at the Peerless Rens Club. The claims in the flyer where similar to the many other previous attacks made by the Mayor and Mr.Weikel. The fellows handing out the literature said they were being paid to distribute it. The fact that such anonymous information was being used in apparent violation of City Code was brought to the attention of the Board of Supervisors of Elections. However, on advice from the City Attorney, who agreed that this was a violation of the City Code, no action was taken.
One of the key players in the above events is obviously Mr. Weikel, who is a well known Democratic Party elected official and operative with long standing ties to Mayor Moyer and Josh Cohen. As noted, he serves and has served on the City and County Democratic Central Committees and, as such, is suppose to have the mission of recruiting and promoting potential Democratic candidates. In addition, quite remarkably, Mr. Weikel is one of the six people on the Central Committee who selected Josh Cohen for Mayor.
We complained numerous times about Mr. Weikel’s unethical behavior to Josh Cohen, Mike Busch and other Democratic officials. Formal complaints were made twice in July and October, 2008 to Kory Blake, Chairman of the County Central Committee (and listed on voting records at one time as Chuck Weikel’s housemates), and nothing was done. In July, 2009 we complained to the Annapolis Central Committee about another incident, and nothing was done. In August, 2009 at a Democratic unity meeting called by Mike Busch and Senator John Astle I complained strongly about Mr. Weikel’s behavior, and nothing was done. Josh Cohen has always taken the position that Mr. Weikel is not part of his campaign and he has no control over him, and nothing was done by him either. In fact, Josh Cohen told me when I complained the last time that “it is just politics.” Based on this pattern of inaction, it is not unreasonable to assume that the activities of Mr. Weikel were consistent with the wishes of the leaders of the local Democratic Party and the favored candidate Josh Cohen, since they never made any moves to try to stop, reprimand or remove him. I believe that this inaction only emboldened Mr. Weikel.
I hope the telling of my experience will help citizens of Annapolis better understand in some small way how our local Democratic Party operates and help to illustrate why I so desperately feel we need to make a change and to have real reform in the upcoming election. We need to retire the Democratic Party’s control of the Mayor’s office until the Party can get its house in order and once again be a Democratic Party of which we can be proud.
TRUDY McFALL
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7 Comments:
AMEN!! I'm so glad that Trudy McFall has spoken out about this corrupt group of people that are politically-molesting the Democratic Party.
I supported Trudy McFall throughout her campaign. I know a lot of people in my circle of friends who supported her but, being registered Independents, could not vote in the primary.
The work Trudy has been involved with on Clay St is outstanding. I believed in her mission of genuine gov't reform. For me, the most refreshing thing about a candidate like Trudy McFall is that she was always honest, even when she knew an answer to one of my questions was likely something I didn't want to hear. She never hesitated giving bad news.
The City needs a mayor like Trudy McFall. I was holding out hope for days after the primary that she would run Independent.
I was excited at the idea of having a mayor with a similar vision of ABC.
As for Josh Cohen's comment about "this is just politics as usual"... that is absolutely deplorable and PATHETIC that he would turn a blind eye to such disgusting behavior. Character assassination is not acceptable "politics as usual", Mr Cohen.
I still don't know who I am going to support in the upcoming election. I spoke with some friends about it last night actually. Apparently Josh Cohen has now been dubbed Josh Clonen. We're gonna have more of the same corrupt politics as usual and nothing significant will get done in the city.
Enough is enough, Annapolis. Get these croonies OUT of here. We deserve better. YOUR VOTE decides our future.
A lot of words to imply that everyone is out to get her. Yet, she ran a very good campaign -- well organized and staffed. Her main problem, I thought, was her reliance on primarily women-only volunteers, many from out of the city.
So, why the sour grapes? It is easy to blame most on Weikel, since this Blog enjoys anything that is anti-Weikel. But, again, why support Cordle? And, why cut every bridge that she has? It is unlikely that anyone, including Cordle, would trust her, ever again. So, why?
To those dissatisfied with the cronyism in the Democratic Party:
1) Register and vote Green;
2) Demand an end to partisan elections at the city level.
Well that's odd considering you have signs in your yard supporting Cohen and Kirby. I could go on about that, but....I don't think it would be worth effort in this case.
Thank you Paul and thank Trudy McFall for these comments being on your blog. It is a great good service to our community.
The good people of Annapolis, and it is the great majority, must rise up and vote against these power perserving politicians. They have done much damage to a kind and considerate community, appealing to its good will while running the city as their personal plantation.
Thank you...any endorsements???
Voting Green, or not voting at all, is NOT the answer.
Sometimes I vote for a candidate; sometimes I vote against a candidate. But I want my vote to count.
No Vote = No Complaining.
Paul
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