Are Democrats Spinning News About the Maryland Economy?

from The Baltimore Sun

Gov. Martin O'Malley defended his labor department Tuesday morning after a lengthy stop at a Baltimore charter school. The agency is under fire for removing from their website a July jobs report that included a downbeat analysis of the state's recovery and replacing it with a sunnier talking points.

The governor said that a single month's worth of data was shaky ground to draw grim conclusions about the state's economy. "One month does not a trend make," O'Malley said.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, a Republican, held a news conference Monday to blast O'Malley for politicizing the agency and Audrey Scott, the chairwoman of the state's GOP, today called on the agency's secretary to resign. The GOP released a stack of emails showing communications staffers scrambling to deal with the "fiasco."

Sanchez has said that the first version of the report, titled "Maryland's Market Stalls During July" was a draft and should have never been posted. It was taken down and replaced with one that contained more positive "approved messaging." The jobs numbers, put out in August, showed that the employers created 1,600 jobs that month, the slowest growth since the Maryland employers started adding jobs in April.

State economists wrote in their original analysis that they were worried about "declining consumer confidence and spending" and "lackluster hiring at the national level." Those factors them to believe that "Maryland's economic recovery faltered" in July. The second version of the report did not include the gloomy analysis.

O'Malley said he was unaware of the flap at the time, but said he agreed in principal with the later version. "What we shouldn’t do is put opinions randomly," he said. "The numbers are what they are and economists will differ on that. Whether those economists are people inside our staff or people in academia or other places."

But, the Department of Labor this month put out new data suggesting the state anaylists' first instincts were correct. The feds revised Maryland's July numbers to show that the state actually lost 1,000 jobs that month. The situation worsened in August, when employers cut 5,700 jobs.

Why Do Maryland's Servicemen Have to Sue for Fair Representation?

from The Baltimore Sun

A member of the Maryland National Guard has filed a federal lawsuit against the State Board of Elections, claiming military personnel and other overseas Marylanders could be denied the opportunity to vote for state offices in the general election unless the court intervenes.

In the lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, the anonymous guardsman identified as Officer John Doe says the state did not give overseas voters enough time to obtain and return ballots for statewide offices in the November elections, which include the contest for governor.

Joining as co-plaintiff is the Military Voter Protection Project. Eric Eversole, the Navy judge advocate general who heads the Washington-based organization, says the ballots for federal offices that the Maryland board sent a few days after this month’s primary elections were not valid.

Results of the Sept. 14 primary have not yet been certified; for the seat now held by Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ballots includes provisions to mark either of two Republican challengers who are locked in a tight primary contest.

Eversole worked in the voting section of the civil rights division of the Justice Department during the Bush administration, and advised the McCain-Palin campaign on military voting matters. He said the lawsuit was not motivated by partisanship.

Ross Goldstein, deputy director of the elections board, declined to comment directly on the lawsuit. But he said the Justice Department and military authorities signed off on the office’s plan to send out ballots for congressional offices quickly after the primaries.

A 2009 federal law requires that ballots for federal races be available to military and overseas voters at least 45 days before an election.

The Military Voter Protection Project is asking a federal judge to order that ballots be sent by Oct. 8 and to extend the deadline for counting them to Nov. 22.

Elections officials plan to send full absentee ballots to the affected voters by mid-October. The ballots must be returned to the state board by Nov. 12. Primary results are to be certified Monday; challenges are possible.

Maryland holds primary elections only seven weeks before the general election, the briefest interim in the nation. Elections officials had sought a waiver from the federal Military and Overseas Empowerment Act requirement before withdrawing the request.
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TWO Republican Candidates? Two, splitting the Republican vote? The People's Republic of Maryland continues to live up to its' Democratic-biased reputation.

Democrats Relying Upon Barbara Mikulski's Coattails

from The Baltimore Sun

Vice President Joe Biden's press office released the following report this morning. Under VP office rules, one reporter is allowed to attend his fundraising events and write up a report that other members of the White House press corps are free to use.

Here is the lowdown:

Vice President Joe Biden spoke at a fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) Thursday morning at the home of Stewart W. Bainum Jr. and Sandra Bainum in Chevy Chase, Md.

Stewart Bainum is the chairman of the board of Choice Hotels International, based in Silver Spring, and the former head of Manor Care, Inc. He is also a former member of the Maryland state House and state Senate. The Bainums are longtime donors to Democratic candidates, committees and causes.

The event was held in the Bainums’ backyard. Roughly 40 people were in attendance, including Mikulski’s fellow Maryland senator, Benjamin Cardin (D). The breakfast buffet menu included eggs, yogurt, fruit, muffins and bagels.

Mikulski is running for her fifth term, considered the favorite in her race against Queen Anne’s County Commissioner Eric Wargotz (R). Biden and Mikulski served together in the Senate for more than two decades.

Biden began his remarks by saying he had done events for a lot of Democrats, and “[t]here’s not a single one I’m more proud to be associated with” than Mikulski.

“If this were like Fantasy Football” for Democrats, Biden asked, “who would be among the first two or three people you would pick?”

Mikulski would be among the first selected in his draft, Biden confirmed, because “I love her gumption. I love her passion.”

“Name me someone you think would be more tenacious and more effective” in Congress, Biden said.

Biden added that Mikulski is known for her “power” and longtime Senate service, but “the thing that everybody underestimates … is how damn smart she is.”

“Barbara’s the only person who ever calls me ‘Biden,’” he said, drawing laughter. “’Biden, come here.’ So much for this malarkey about [how] I lead her around. No one, I won’t let anyone but my sister call me ‘Biden.’”

Biden then turned to politics and Mikulski’s reelection race.

“There’s an awful lot of talk this year about the demise of the Democratic party. Now I know no one is talking about the demise of Barbara,” Biden said, but added that Republicans are “trying to keep Barbara on defense when she should be on offense.”

Biden said, as he has before, that he was bullish about Democrats’ chances of retaining power.

“I guarantee you we’re going to have a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate. I absolutely believe that,” he said.

Biden said Democrats “have a heck of a record, a heck of a positive record to run on,” but he understood that the economy was still a source of anxiety for voters.

“They’re angry, and they’re angry against whoever is in power …” Biden said. “Maybe the best thing to happen to us lately is the tea party wins. Maybe it’ll shake some of our constituency out of their lethargy.”

Biden referenced an oft-cited quote by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) on “Meet the Press” to make the point that if Republicans win, “They’ll reinstate the exact same agenda.” He also mentioned the House GOP’s unveiling of its legislative agenda Thursday, and said Democrats need to paint “a stark contrast. Ladies and gentlemen, they don’t want to do anything different from what they did before.”

Biden mentioned a recent Gallup poll of the generic ballot that showed Democrats roughly tied with Republicans as evidence that voters were starting to pay attention to the issues and the two parties’ messages.

Turning back to Mikulski, Biden reiterated that attendees should help her win by a wide margin: “We not only need her to win this race, we need her to win more races in this state. … It will matter to the rest of the ticket. … Elect her, reelect her, but don’t do it on the margins -- do it big enough that her coattails are going to have some real impact.”

Biden spoke for just under 21 minutes, and then the pool was escorted out of the backyard.

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Ben Pershing
Washington Post