From the Harford County Democratic Central Committee:
The Harford County Democratic Central Committee objects to premature endorsement of a candidate before the deadline for filing candidacy.
The Harford County Education Association and Maryland Classified Employees Association #610 issued an early endorsement for a candidate for county council president well before all other candidates have filed for this office. Such a premature move undercuts the electoral process.
Both groups promote their choice without mentioning what is so commendable about the candidate’s track record, character or public positions that warrants short-circuiting the deliberative process. What were the negative considerations that they overlooked? What may have been promised by the candidate or the county executive to secure the endorsements in an effort to shut out competition?
We urge prudence in the electorate. Employee groups may want to substitute elections for labor negotiations. But the voters have a wider view.
We urge special interest groups to respect the electoral process. Hold off on endorsements until all of the candidates have filed for the office to determine what each of the candidates has to offer.
The best advice is to make a sound choice in the first place rather than to correct a poor choice later.
THE HARFORD COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Cordell Hunter, Chair
Barbara O. Kreamer, Vice Chair
Christopher Boardman, Secretary
Waqi Alam, Treasurer
Jean Salvatore
Donna Kahoe
Andre Johnson
Michael Bracknell
Cindy Skilton
Denise Perry
I hope Jerry Scarborough is not running for dog catcher…
Strange as it might seem, the original dog catchers were “dog hunters” . They got 40 cents per dog. But I think even they frowned on anti-freeze meat balls. They had scruples ,
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02429888
Your dispersions are offensive and sophomoric. Any serious candidate would have already filed. Perhaps the Democratic Central Committee should focus on fielding candidates for office rather than making trite statements about our pubic employee unions and trying to pigeon hole us as special interests. Maybe you have not noticed HCEA fighting for our kids, our teachers and schools. Come out of your partisan bubble. There is no quid pro quo with endorsements. We endorse people because we believe they will do a good job and we are confident in their support for public education.
As a lifelong Democrat I am embarrassed by your poor judgement and lack of organization. I have only ever voted for two Republicans in my life. One of them is Pat Vincenti. Why? I voted for him because he is an honest, good man who believes in public education and supports our teachers. I will vote for him again in November, as should every voter in Harford County. HCEA endorses candidates solely on their support for public education, students and teachers. We are a non-partisan organization. Your attempts to vilify our endorsement process are repugnant.
Ryan why not share your disgusting post about KARMA and the train crash? Happy someone was killed? But your sorry? Typical Democrat who likes to dish dirt but they hide when its time to face the music with a poor attempt at an apology?
The post was insensitive. I did not know or see that anyone had been hurt at the time. I would never poke fun at someone dying or being harmed. I took it down when it was brought to my attention that someone was harmed. The post was about the irony of a train full of politicians who voted against train safety measures crashing into a dump truck full of trash. I am sorry if any one was offended. It was in poor taste. It was not meant to offend anyone or make light of someone being harmed. I don’t want anyone to ever be hurt or killed. Those who know me know this. I took the photo down. I am sorry if you were offended. It was not a partisan smear. I found the incident ironic given that Congress has failed to fund Amtrak safety measures. I hope folks can forgive a moment of insensitivity.
Ryan, your irony is justified. I was not offended. Maybe the accident wouldn’t have happened if they had voted for proper safety regulations.
They did not vote against installing he safety devices, they voted against paying for it. Why should the american taxpayer foot the bill for train safety devices, shouldn’t the company operating the train pay for that? Also it was the Obama era FCC that did not grant the requested broadband spectrum that the railroad was requesting, even though some believe that was just an excuse to ignore the mandate that they install the safety equipment. In 2008 the senate voted 74 to 24 to require the safety technology.
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/train-safety-technology-speed-control-117973
Again the question should americasn who don’t use the train system subsidize it?
Sure thing.
Because ConRail is a government owned corporation that CTX is part of. I believe CTX even owns the majority of ConRail’s stock. Amtrak is the only national passenger train company left and that means a lot of commuters and citizens use Amtrak, especially in the North East. It’s part of our nation’s infrastructure and as Trump says we need to work on our infrastructure to make it SAFER. If our government can throw away millions of dollars saving the Auto, Insurance and Banking industries, it can help pay for safety devices in trains that WE THE PEOPLE use to traverse this country. If our government can throw away billions of dollars bribing foreign nations to agree with our schemes and interests, yet they still vote against us in the UN, it can help pay for safety devices in trains that WE THE PEOPLE use to traverse this country. Don’t think that trains are useless. Trains still are a very large provider of freight services in this country and perishable goods are shipped by train all over our country. Amtrak doesn’t provide freight services, but they still use the same tracks as ConRail owns them and crashes and delays on those tracks effect our economy on a national basis. Next time you wake up in the morning and drink that glass of OJ for breakfast, you should thank god that those trains were running to provide you with that fresh squeezed pulp water, because without those trains you would be drinking something else…..
Yea yea yea sure your sorry. Your sorry your getting backlash from it
Two county unions are gaming the democratic system to magnify their influence on budgets ,pay raises and assorted political favor.. To hell with proper analysis and skeptical judgement. The earlier bird gets the worm. Democracy gets maggot riddled government. Premature endorsements are as fair and logical as premature burial.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/trump-cruz-kasich-endorsement/475230/
Without elaborating, I second what Mr. Burbey stated regarding our organizations early endorsements.
“Your dispersions are offensive and sophomoric…”
Mr. Burbey, you have deeply offended second-year students with this statement. I await your apology and swift resignation from HCEA.
Dats funny Joe Logic!
I too was surprised at this early endorsement. Endorsing him as the Republican nominee would have been appropriate, but not for the office as a whole. Many Board of Education candidates and County Council candidates had not filed at the time of this endorsement though I realize that is a separate issue. However, will none of these candidates be considered by the HCEA or Mr. Burbey as serious candidates?
I think running for office is a very personal and difficult decision. The time and money spent by candidates greatly affects their family and work life as well as general health. Being picked apart by trolls on sites like this also must take its toll.
I am a lifelong Democrat as well, but my husband and I have split our registrations so we can decide as a family who the best candidate is for each office. In HarCo the election is often decided in the Republican primary and for MD the state and congressional offices are often decided in the Democratic one. I have no beef with HCEA endorsing a Republican candidate, but I agree that the timing was inappropriate. That being said, I do feel that the Harford County Democratic party is an organizational disaster and should have already had a candidate out there.
Hopefully as the election season continues, both parties’ candidates and Mr. Burbey will put education as a top priority ad well set good examples of civility for the community who they seek to represent.
Please forgive any typos from my mobile device.
Democrats care more about rights of illegal aliens than american citizens. Higer taxes, more promised freebies they cant pay for and cries of racism are all the democrats are good for. Your party sucks and people have finally witnessed how much the democrats are out of touch with the majority of Americans. Democrats dont care about americans right to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness, they will import their own voters and stick them on the public dole, the call them new americans and dreamers.
“Smales”, you really should learn the “English” language (more specifically, when to use capitals and proper punctuation) before you throw your idiotic statements out there for the educated public to read.
WELCOME TO THE INTERNET daggerpress user: “REALLY?”
How many people fucking care about proper grammar on an local news website’s “comment section?” Oh right, you do. LOL
Are we showing our ignorance there Mr. Your Daddy?
Oh yes we are!
Really? you really are a douchebag…
Oh yeah, I’m definitely showing my ignorance.
The question is what are you going to do about it? I know, nothing again. LOL
You’re so much better than me, though. You’re way up there and I’m way down there.
You win the internet, show all your pals so they can equally know how great at grammar you are on at some random assed website.
Comments about spelling and grammar on comment sections are a sign of OCD. Oh, and a desire to, though inability to respond to the actually comment they have disdain for.
I can only assume that Mr. Burbey’s resignation is forthcoming. His tweet at the misfortune of others was telling on so many levels. The fact that he lacks the most basic of civility should be proof enough that he has no business representing those who teach our children. To think his views are representative of theirs is truly troubling. Good bye, sir.
It is not true that only serious candidates have filed by now. There are many serious candidates that have not filed. For example, I checked the state board of elections website and saw that Ben Cardin has not filed yet for Senate. Larry Hogan has not filed yet for Governor. They are all serious candidates.
There are also candidates that file early who know they have no reasonable chance of winning. When one files has nothing to do with whether one can win.
No one has filed yet for Board of Education in District C. I am sure someone serious will file there and in other races, and they should not be dismissed in a cavalier way because they filed close to the deadline.
As stated above by Active Mom, it takes a lot to run for office, and there is the constant criticism and personal attacks. There is also the never ending fundraising. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to do all that it takes to run for office. It is elitist to say that all serious candidates have filed already. There is also no “right” way to vote.