Annapolis Capital Punishment

I always feel uncomfortable in the polling booth when voting for judges and I have written about this. Why I feel this way is really best left for a six-pack conversation, but is it any surprise that when it comes to donating to campaigns to elect judges that lawyers are among the biggest contributors?  Just go the campaign databases for Maryland and see for yourself. Nor is it any surprise that signs for judges are sprouting up at law firms all over the county. But the half-page advertisement that appeared in The Capital on October 27 on behalf of sitting Judges Kiessling and Jarashow interested me.

Well, actually it was not exactly on behalf of the sitting judges as much as it was negative about Alison Asti, the Republican (although only recently) lawyer who is vying to become a judge by questioning her qualifications saying "she has never, not ever presented a case in court". From what I gather, this is accurate and it is material, but right now I am interested in who sponsored the ad, a group calling itself  Citizens for the Election of Qualified Judges (CEQJ).

According to state records, CEQJ was created on October 21 and lists a Leonard Moodispaw and a Thomas Joseph Touhey as chairman and treasurer respectively.  Moodispaw, a lawyer and former CEO of Essex Corporation, a cyber security and defense contractor, has donated many tens of thousands of dollars to candidates, and from what I have found online, they are exclusively Democrats.

Essex was sold to Northrop Grumman for a reported $580 million.

Moodispaw is now CEO and a major owner of the KEYW Corporation, a cyber security firm based in Hanover. It also owns some subsidiary corporations in Annapolis Junction.  It is clear that this major donor to Democrats is taking a serious interest in seeing that Alison Asti does not get elected--which means that Jarashow and Kiessling will remain as judges.

We must assume that he is doing this simply because he really, deeply believes that Asti is not as qualified as are the sitting judges.

Oops, I had better be careful.  Moodispaw must know a lot about cyber-security....%!%@^!^^!  ya ya oo wwwooooo zzzzyxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...poof!

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