Brentrance and Blue Monday

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Inauguration of Dunces, the case has never been stronger for retrocession. I am not talking about the actual retrocession in 1846 involving the return of the land to the Commonwealth of Virginia that was part of the original District of Columbia; nor the proposed retrocession of D.C. (as it exists now) to Maryland.  I mean approaching Her Majesty the Queen, acknowledging that our attempt at self-governance has taken a horrid turn, and re-joining the United Kingdom. 

Granted, we would have to deal with Theresa May for at least a while…but she (unlike the current American Chief Executive) can pass the oddly formidable sanity challenge.  Better yet, with Labour gaining electoral strength, the odds are better than 50/50 that we will have Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn as our Head of Government soon enough.  Frankly, this is a good deal at thrice the price…which I suppose would be in pounds sterling.

In other news, we are approaching “Blue Monday” which some claim to be the most depressing day of the year.  There is a simple yet scientifically unsound mathematical formula that allegedly “validates” this hypothesis; it involves (among other variables) the weather, debt levels, and the end of the Holiday season.  Let’s be reductive, yet no less accurate, and just call it the third Monday in January.

While the present author appreciates the whimsy inherent in attempting to identify and quantify the nadir of our national mood, as someone who has written about mental health, I would like to remind you, dear reader, that this can be a tough time of year for those who contend with issues such as depression.  So, be kind. And if you are personally dealing with such matters, please reach out to someone – a friend, a family member, a loved one, a medical professional, a crisis hotline, anyone…in this era, there is someone out there who is accessible to you and who will listen.        

In solidarity.

Withdrawn

The title seems fitting, in light of the number of individuals who filed to run for public office in Howard County in the 2018 election cycle but, for one reason or another, withdrew.  Reviewing the candidate lists, the differences between HoCo and MoCo again leap to the fore.

Barring significant shakeups and with a handful of notable exceptions, most of the action will occur in the General Election with the County Executive and First County Council District races head-lining the local contests.  As of this writing, the only question in the Democratic CE primary is: can Harry Dunbar top his 21.5% showing from 2006 when he ran against Ken Ulman for the D Nomination? On paper and in the present environment, someone running on an anti-incumbent, “slow growth” platform could pull 30% - 35% of the vote in the Democratic primary but the current author does not believe Dunbar is the ideal vehicle for anti-development sentiments.  In a head-to-head, it is challenging to envision Dr. Ball securing less than 75% against Dunbar.

The Third County Council District is interesting as four top-flight Democratic candidates are in the field.  One made an unfortunate college choice, and another still reads more Annapolis than anything else, but I am nit-picking. This will be the local race to watch on Primary Election Night, with a winner likely to emerge with around 35% of the vote, none of the four should finish with under 15%.

My home County Council district, the Fourth, is again the scene of a contested primary.  Alphabetically, the legitimate Democratic candidates are Cynthia Fikes and Deb Jung.  There is someone named Ian Bradley Moller-Knudsen who filed but this person may not exist in any recognizable dimension.  I will, most likely, write about my choice on or around March 1.  It is imperative for these candidates to focus on salient issues:  most notably Education and Quality of Life (insofar as the two are distinct).  Yes, the former is a given and the latter encompasses many facets (infrastructure, environment, jobs, safety, social justice, etc…).  The candidate who wins will have a narrative that best reflects and addresses these concerns and will offer up reflective, practical, progressive, and accessible solutions.

Turning to the state legislative campaigns:

I will write about District 9 later.   In the meantime, there is no Primary action in D12 (somewhat disappointingly) and while there is much that could be said about D13, the only item of immediate interest is the emergence of someone who reads like a perennial candidate.   

So there is the wisdom – conventional or otherwise – as I see it.  I will close the blog for 2017 with some words from Robert Burns:

“Then let us pray that come it may,

(As come it will for a' that,)

That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,

Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that,

It's coming yet for a' that,

That Man to Man, the world o'er,

Shall brothers be for a' that.” 

In solidarity.

Gov Talk

The present author has been making an effort to re-engage with some political folks recently.  I honestly don’t know if this site will feature the wall-to-ceiling-to-cold attic coverage that was the case with Campaign ’14: The Search for Spock. That said, I figure my readership would like some trenchant insights on such matters, so here goes:

I spoke with Krish Vignarajah for about 10 minutes a few days back.  I found her to be smart, engaging, and not put off by my idiosyncratic candor.  I let her know that I listened to her appearance on Howard County’s finest café-based podcast, Elevate Maryland, and I had some questions regarding one attribute of her campaign’s positioning (consensus-oriented).  Her rationale was thoughtful and (wearing my former operative flat cap) I can’t deny the strategic soundness of it.  That said, for my tastes, I prefer a bit of a harder progressive/populist edge in terms of rhetoric and platform elements.

Of course, the candidate whose positioning is most likely closest to my own, Ben Jealous, has not yet won me over.  I have to say that his MD-Care plan is an excellent proposal; one that would bring universal care to the residents of the Old Line State. I’m just not sold on the Jealous/Turnbull ticket which, considering the ideological and organizational overlap (Sanders supporter, member of Our Revolution, lifetime member NAACP, etc…) seems odd.  Is it him? Me?  Both? Neither?

I tend to favor Electeds, which amounts to a lack of a checkmark for both of the aforementioned candidates for Governor, as well as some others. 

That said, as of his writing, it is unlikely that I would vote for the two County Executives currently in the race.  I don’t know if Kevin Kamenetz offers the best contrast against Governor Hogan.   Rushern Baker has a fine record of accomplishment but, like warm oatmeal, his campaign lacks a certain excitement.  I suppose demonstrated managerial competence alone is worth something, but it didn’t work for Dukakis in ’88.  But Baker is not alone there, as Ms. Vignarajah has also had management responsibilities for billion-dollar budgets.

So, as I told Krish (ok, that is striking my ear is too familiar…Ms. Vignarajah it is), she is in my top tier for consideration: a club consisting of herself, Senator Rich Madaleno (progressive, a policy wonk, an Elected, and I used to live in his district), Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings (good credentials), and Mr. Jealous.

In any event, I can’t see myself backing anyone until after the February 27 filing deadline.  But who knows?  Perhaps I will make up my mind over the Holidays, when I have more time to reflect on life beyond work and my classes.

For those with time, this video of Ms. Vignarajah delivering a commencement speech is worth checking out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dy2Yecd0PM

In solidarity.

A House on Gault Drive

If I may beg your indulgence, I would like to spend a few moments on a personal matter.

My Grandparent’s brick ranch house was where I whiled away many a pleasant hour in the ‘70s and early ‘80s.  It was a home full of warmth and poodles (the latter to be replaced in later years by many, many birds…not notably cockatiels I recall).  When I was quite young, in second or third grade, I would call Grandma and we would create stories…a radio show conducted via telephone.  Not remembering the details of the plots, I can’t imagine it was high art, but she was patient with me and quite a character actor.

Before our family moved in the summer of ’82, before I began the 6^th grade, I was only a 15-minute walk (or 12-minute Big Wheel ride) away from her house.  During the summer, I visited a couple of times each week.  She would be grooming dogs, which was her gig, in the other half of the finished basement while I would peruse the World Book Encyclopedias and Year Books in the adjacent room.  It was in the latter space where our family would gather for the Holidays. While the ceiling was perilously low for the tallest among us, with one particularly height-gifted uncle having to angle his head sharply so as not to bump his cranium against the stucco paneling, I nonetheless remember the room as spacious.  Lions football on the TV each Thanksgiving Day and an ornately festooned tree each Christmas. No matter what else was going on in life, these were reliable and eagerly awaited delights.

She would often prepare lunches and we would sit and listen to the radio.  One local station would ask trivia questions and the first caller with the correct answer would win a small prize.  One day, they posed the predictable question involving Grover Cleveland.  I told her I knew it, and she allowed me to use the phone to call in to the station.  I recall being annoyed at the DJ’s question if someone told me the answer, I believe my response was a curt and mildly haughty “No” but the haze of time blurs such moments.  The important point is that she encouraged my love of reading. I am very grateful to her for that.

We moved away, and then I went off to college, and then moved out of state to strike my fortune in Washington DC.  I’ve seen her only a handful of times since 1989, and most of our correspondence was limited to Holiday cards and short notes. 

I will always remember her with her wry smile, that more-often-than-not would turn into a full, wide, and infectious grin. She adored her animals, her garden (which was impressive), and above all, her family.  Grandma Wallace, you will be missed.  Requiescat in pace.   

Ball In

Yesterday was a rather challenging day for reasons which I will not disclose here (not wanting to bore you, dear reader, with my trials and tribulations). 

Before I delve into Dr. Calvin Ball’s double-plus-un-shocking announcement, allow me a moment to talk about Lisa Kim’s cheap and snide comments about “the character of the community” as posted in a Howard County Facebook group.  Personally, I found her Trump-esque jeremiad against rental properties to be off-putting.  I am not precisely certain why she chose to inveigh against those who aren’t seeking to purchase homes, which include many young adults as well as working class families, but the underlying tone is ugly. I hardly believe that rhetoric calling for the functional equivalent of a wall around Columbia is representative of Howard County values.  She, in her capacity as a candidate for County Council, needs to explain her stance and, in probability, apologize.  We in the Fightin’ Fourth deserve better.

Turning now to Dr. Ball’s launch of his campaign for County Executive, it was a rather subdued event.  With hundreds of friends, family members, colleagues, acquaintances, hangers-on, politicos, neighbors, and others gathered in the grand room at Kahler Hall, I expected the energy level to be more pronounced.  For those anticipating red meat, it was mostly pescatarian fare. 

There were some individually solid lines and turns-of-phrases in his speech, including his thoughts on Howard County as a “beacon of love” and this being a “people’s campaign.”  His reminder that we must think about, and advocate for, those among us who are struggling, those who have not yet secured their “slice of utopia” (to borrow a phrase he employed last night) was precisely what this lefty wanted to hear, and rightfully so. 

Dr. Ball’s speaking style is mellow/cerebral.  I wasn’t expecting a fist-pounding, rafter-shaking oration.  That said, as someone who constantly scanned the room, I could not help but feel as though the assembled wanted to be stirred, charged, “fired up and ready to go,” if I must use that phrase, more than they were.  I didn’t get a sense that people were ready to charge through a brick wall following his summation.  Optimistic? Sure.  Intellectually inspired? More likely than not. Emotionally energized?  Time will tell.   

One of the major applause lines centered on running a positive campaign.  Consistent with the candidate, I can visualize a Ball-for-County Executive campaign adhering to the “Choose Civility” precept.  That said, when the crunch time comes and Team Kittleman and their allies decide to start throwing elbows (and some already have), I hope that Team Ball’s orientation towards “the nice” won’t impede their ability to embrace “the tough.”  In the fight for progressive values, sometimes it takes more than hugging it out.

In solidarity.

Psychic Recompense

November 8, 2017 – Merry Electoral Boxing Day.

It is challenging to not succumb to the baser instincts and gloat in the face of the formerly hubris-filled yet now cowed Trumpists.  Of course, that would itself be a manifestation of hubris.  Not today irony, not today.

I will readily admit, earlier yesterday afternoon, I was wagering that Gillespie would somehow pull it off – by hook or (more likely) by crook – by half a percentage point.  Upon arriving back in my Wilde Lake Election 2017 HQ a few short hours later, the networks had already called it for Northam.  The 8.6% margin for the eventual winner was clearly above the prevailing polling trend line (sorry, Brothers and Sisters) which was showing something closer to a three-point spread.  Note: credit where credit is earned: Quinnipiac nailed it with their final pre-election poll, released on the 6^th, showing Northam +9.

May the name “Harris Wofford” be echoed across the land (see: 1991 U.S. Senate special election, see also: harbinger).

The (at minimum) 14 seat pick-up for the Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates is yet another (and probably far more ominous) sign for any Republican in a Congressional, state legislative, or other electoral district that is anything less than a safe GOP seat.    

Of course, hard work and a massive popular rejection of Trump Republicanism helped carry the day.  But looking to 2018, it will take more than that.  A Democratic Party that can produce, adhere to, and articulate a coherent and compelling set of principles will be essential if we wish to build upon yesterday’s victories.  This involves getting entirely past the 2016 battles and deciding the party of the people needs to focus more on engaging with…you guessed it…the people, and stopping with the internecine foolishness.  

In solidarity.