Annapolis Capital Punishment

ACP has written to and FINALLY heard back from the organizers of Saturday's candidate's forum in Cape St. Claire which has been discussed here on this blog. Apparently the organizers have excluded their own neighbor, Independent Jack Wilson who is running for the First District Congressional seat. In my longstanding belief that all candidates deserve a right to be heard and taken seriously, I have protested. I finally heard back:
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Mr. Foer:

I have spoken with the representatives of the the sponsoring organizations and have been authorized to provide you the following information. After discussion and deliberation, representatives decided to ask only candidates from the Republican and Democratic Parties to participate in the Candidates Forum on October 2, 2010. It was further decided that only candidates for the positions listed in the previous communications I have sent to you would be invited. A major concern of the sponsoring organizations was to keep the forum to about three hours.


Louis Biondi
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Right. Jack Wilson is spending his own retirement money and time to run for office and his own neighbors say they don't have time for him in a three hour forum!

To which I replied:

Dear Louis

What a sanctimonious slap in the face to a longtime Arnold resident--and what a disservice to your communities and the democratic political process. Ultimately, what you have done is made a callous political decision-and to say it is based on time is ridiculous. Considering the fact that Anne Arundel County is a tiny portion of that District, and there is a candidate from that area, one would think your groups would have made a different decision on that basis alone. Do you have no regard for what your own neighbor is sacrificing and committing to as he makes a run for office?

You also left out the Libertarian candidate.

While I find Wilson's political philosophy differs from my own and I don't believe he is running a strong campaign, he is still entitled to equal consideration because he is a candidate. Who does your group think they are to decide that only members of the major parties should be allowed? Have you all completely misread the mood of the voters this election?

Sincerely

Paul M Foer



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