Thank you!

Thank you for helping me come in first in the Democratic Primary! As always, I am humbled and honored to have been chosen as the standard-bearer for the Democratic party in the Fighting 31st.

Republican voters, I'm confused. I appreciate that you sent Mr. Dwyer packing. That nightmare is ending. But of all the qualified and capable candidates who were seeking to replace him, why did you pick Ms. Simonaire? She seems nice enough but, as far as I know, she's never held a job, her life experiences are minimal and her "fresh" "new" ideas seem to be the same old stuff. What's the plan here?

I've heard that she's a hard-worker and that she was out campaigning for the previous two years. And that's great, because she's not working, she has the time to put into a campaign. If that was all there was to it, Craig Reynolds would be the top vote-getter every year. He knocked on every door in the district three times. I'm still in awe of how hard that guy worked. Kurtz and Chisholm both worked hard but they also had to work their day-jobs.

I recognize that my district is very conservative and that there seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to vote for the Republican. But I hope that the voters of all parties will at least hear me out and decide based on the merits of the candidates.

Thank you again for picking me in the primary and look for me to knock on your door between now and November.

Candidates Health Insurance

I had the opportunity to attend a candidate forum on Monday, May 12th. It ended up primarily being a chance for the candidates to speak to each other. One of the questions asked really opened my eyes and I wanted to share with everyone.

The question was in two parts: What is your day job and how do you have health insurance?

As it turns out, the majority of the candidates either already worked for the state or were retired. That explains how they have the time to campaign.

Interestingly enough, the vast majority of the candidates have their health insurance through the government. A lot were retired military with Tricare, another bunch had benefits from the state government and there were a smattering of Medicaid and state benefits through their spouses.

Four of us ran small businesses and had to pay health insurance. Although, to be fair, I switched to be covered by my wife's health insurance plan in January.

By my calculations then, the four of us who pay for our own health insurance and pay taxes are in essence paying for the health insurance for everyone in the room. You're welcome.

Look for the Helpers

I was looking over some of my old posts and I noticed that one of my posts in 2012 was called "Everything is Awesome". Yeah, I was saying that before it was cool.

Last week there was a lot of unawesome stuff happening in Pasadena. Four fatalities in a 24 hour period from a series of car accidents, fallings and shootings. From overheard conversations and on Facebook I heard several people say that things were getting bad around here and that they were going to move.

Seriously people? We remember the tragedies because they are so awful and because they are the headlines that we see in the papers and on television. The real story is that these tragedies are not common. Our society is moving in a positive direction where fatalities from car accidents are declining. Industrial accidents are declining. Murder-suicides are declining.

By focusing on the tragedies, we miss the bigger picture. In all cases, police and emergency personnel were on top of the situation. The neighborhood with the shooter was locked down and nobody else was hurt. Traffic...well, traffic was a mess but the police were there to manage the situation.

As the great man Mr. Rogers said, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers--so many caring people in this world."

I'm Back!

The last couple years have been very busy for me. My son, Zander, is two and a half. His two older sisters are both in school. My law firm requires a lot of attention. My wife finished nursing school and has just started work as a labor and delivery nurse in Baltimore. All that did not leave a lot of time for campaigning.

I had pretty much resigned myself to not running this election cycle when I noticed something. There were approximately 8 people running on the Republican side and only one person running on the Democrat side. That left an opening that Don Dwyer could use to get re-elected. That is unacceptable.

If it is in my power (actually it's in the hands of the voters but you know what I mean) to stop Dwyer from being re-elected, then by gosh it is my responsibility to run.

If you are just tuning in, I campaigned against Dwyer last time on account of his terrible record and inability to get anything done in Annapolis. He has had a very busy four years since the last election with two criminal convictions. Once for drunk-driving a boat over some children and the second for plain old drunk-driving. I understand that he has some personal issues in his life as well that may have caused him to drink.

Let's stay positive: Dwyer needs a break. Let's send him home so he can take the time he needs to fix whatever he has going on in his life.