The following letter is from Trudy McFall who had been in the running for Josh Cohen's soon to be vacant seat on Anne Arundel County Council:
As far as I can tell, that leaves former Alderwoman Cynthia Carter and businessman Chuck Ferrar. Mike Miller is a Democratic and former Obama campaign activist. Lisa Hillman is the senior vice president & chief development officer of Anne Arundel Health System. She is also the wife of former mayor Dick Hillman. According to previously published statements by Council Chair Vitale, a decision is not likely to be made until mid or late December.
I have decided not to pursue the District 6 County Council seat appointment. I was only exploring it as the 10 month appointment, never to run for election to the seat. I believe with Mike Miller and Lisa Hillman interested in the seat we have two excellent candidates who probably have a long term interest in serving on the Council. My passion is the City and I would rather use my energies here as I see issues that engage me. I understand that Lisa Hillman and Billy Moulden have already filed and Mike Miller certainly intends to do so as two campaign letters are out to potential supporters.
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1 Comment:
As a Republican I spent 8 weeks in Pennsylvania during the primaries. I suppose there was partisanship up there, but because of my particular involvement didn't really notice.
I did try to get involved locally after the primaries, but got turned off by the local partisanship. I ended up doing a lot of work in Baltimore and Southern Maryland where like minded Democrats, Republicans, and Independents felt the same way, and went out of their way to disassociate themselves from the local Democratic Party machines.
When Cynthia Carter opened the Annapolis Obama office on West Street I didn't get the impression it was a Democratic Party front. I wasn't involved in the office since I was the Volunteer Veterans Coordinator in Fredericksburg, VA during the general election. However, I stopped by often to check on a homeless Marine from the 1st Golf War who Cynthia was helping out.
I spoke with Cynthia several times a week, and she was very supportive in getting Veterans and volunteers down to Spotsylvania County where volunteers were making a difference in the election results. I didn't know Cynthia from Adam even though she did mention she had won an election as a write in candidate. I didn't think much about it until it was brought up at one of your Sip 'n Blogs.
I've met Mike Miller and his wife several times. Nice people, but my impression was party politics take precedence over what is the right thing to do. I didn't get that impression from Cynthia. However, that's not to say she is inequitably above it.
I'm bringing this up because of Trudy McFalls withdrawal letter. In it she promotes two candidates. I don't know the basis of those endorsements, but it smells like politics as usual.
Barack Obama won the election in spite of Democratic Party Politics. I was involved in a number of situations where the Democratic Party was undermining him. Every swing state maintained separate offices that reported to the Obama campaign for this reason. I personally believe he would not have won the election if he had let the Democratic Party control the election.
There are a lot of people who claim they supported Obama, but I never met them outside of the local political environment. The Severna Park office was pushing local Democratic politicians. I didn't see that in the Annapolis office.
I hope this all makes sense in some crazy way. The bottom line is I believe Cynthia Carter is a much better candidate. If for no other reason than she seems much more opens to ideas outside of the Democratic Party.
That however is based upon my limited association with the political process, or to put it another way, from someone on the outside looking in.
Arnold Gasper
Harwood
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