Frank Klein

`We endorse Gregg Bernstein for State’s Attorney

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Let’s not waste time. In a cash-strapped city with ongoing endemic problems, there isn’t any to spare. The state primary on Tuesday, Sept. 14, will go a long way toward determining the content and character of some of our state’s highest elected positions, the city’s legislative delegation to Annapolis, and city offices from the obscure (judge of the Orphans’ Court) to the critical (state’s attorney). When you go into your local polling station and push the buttons for the candidates on your ballot, you are setting the course for our state and city for the next four years. And the question, which is well worth asking, right down to the level of the individual candidate in each and every slate, is, More of the same, or something new?

We here at City Paper can’t presume to answer that question for you, but here’s what we think.

To be sure we’re clear: We offer no endorsement in races where an incumbent is unopposed in the primary; if no Republican is mentioned in an endorsement, it means there isn’t one running; and delegate endorsements are presented in alphabetical order. Any third-party candidates (Greens, Libertarians, etc.) do not face competitive primaries, and therefore will not be part of our endorsement process until it’s time to make picks for the Nov. 2 general election. Remember, if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain.

Governor/Lieutenant Governor

Democrats: Incumbent Gov. Martin O’Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown face two challengers: high-school poli-sci teacher Ralph Jaffe and running mate/wife Freda Jaffe, and the team of retired civil servant J.P. Cusick and Michael W. Lang Jr. Neither offers the experience or broad platform to merit serious consideration.

Endorsement: O’Malley/Brown

Republicans: Former governor Robert Ehrlich and running mate Mary Kane face a primary challenge in Brian Murphy and running mate Mike Ryman. The previously obscure, right-leaning Murphy received a gigantic profile boost when former Alaska governor/vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed him against the more moderate Ehrlich. But Maryland’s balance of urban liberals and exurban conservatives is likely best governed by a moderate, and Ehrlich didn’t burn the place down when he ran it for four years.

Endorsement: Ehrlich/Kane

Comptroller

Democrat: Incumbent Peter Franchot is unopposed.

Republicans: William H. Campbell’s experience as the chief financial officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Amtrak, among other large, unwieldy organizations, makes him eminently more qualified than perennial candidate Armand Girard or youthful upstart Brendan Madigan.

Endorsement: Campbell

Attorney General

Democratic incumbent Doug Gansler is unopposed.

U.S. Senator

Democrats: Senior Sen. Barbara Mikulski has occupied her seat since 1987, and currently chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Retiring and Aging and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science. Over her four terms she boasts a laudable progressive voting record on national issues, but has also supported legislation specific to Maryland, such as a measure to continue funding an act supporting the creation of parks, historic sites, and trails throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and, more recently, securing $1.1 million in federal funds to support the Baltimore Police Department’s effort to curb community violence through the Gun and Gang Violence Impact program. Her votes in favor of the FISA Amendment Act, reauthorizing the Patriot Act, and 2003’s $86 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, however, remain extremely questionable.

Mikulski’s challengers just don’t pack the same sort of documented muscle. Anne Arundel County engineer Christopher J. Garner is running on a platform of Maryland reindustrialization, health care cost optimization, and ending illegal immigration, which he argues is the cause for the country’s economic woes. Kensington scrap-metal worker A. Billy Bob Jaworski ran for U.S. Senate in 2006 as “Anthony Jaworski.” According to projectvotesmart.org and the Carroll County Times, Avondale’s Theresa C. Scaldaferri has yet to respond to any questionnaire information to determine where she stands on any issues. Towson’s Blaine Taylor, a former City Paper contributor and a published military historian, is running on an anti-war platform, specifically confronting Mikulski’s Senate votes in favor of the current military activities in the Middle East. Owings Mills criminal intelligence analyst Sanquetta Taylor campaigns on what she calls quality of life issues (public safety, health care, education). And Rockville economist Lih Young has unsuccessfully run for various public offices since 1994.

Endorsement: Mikulski

Republicans: Eleven Republicans are making a run for Maryland’s open senate chair, which hasn’t had a Republican sit in it since Charles “Mac” Mathias left in 1987. Of that crowded field, only Harford County native and lawyer Jim Rutledge III and Queen Anne’s County Commissioner Eric Wargotz, a physician-businessman, appear to have any legs. They agree on big-picture GOP concerns—that job creation and economy stabilization comes from lowering taxes and cutting government spending—and both target Mikulski as a career politician who has lost touch with her constituents. Wargotz, perhaps because of his medical background, has stronger opinions about health care, advocating for the repeal of Obama’s package and promoting insurance provider competition as a way to bring costs down, while Rutledge views the current political climate as a threat to individual liberties and what made America great in the first place.