In the national election, the Democratic party and the establishment, through scheduling of debates, dubious very early endorsements (AFT, anyone?) and the questionable awarding of super delegates, the establishment has paved the way easily for Hillary Clinton to win the primary. Meanwhile, in the election for Senate, Maryland has a chance to elect the first Black woman in nearly 20 years to the U.S. Senate, but the party's establishment is doing its best to persuade the will of the people not to elect Donna Edwards, with op-eds, structural money, and endorsements. In Baltimore City, most of the establishment wants me to vote for Catherine Pugh, who has been undistinguished and at the forefront of Baltimore City politics for twenty years.
I'll not be swayed by the powers-that-be in any of these elections; I'll still be voting for Sanders (not a big fan of either, but I like the conversation Sanders is leading), Edwards (I want a liberal lioness in the Senate advocating for liberal causes, our own Elizabeth Warren, and, yes, having a qualified black woman in the U.S. Senate seems like it should be a priority for everyone who values diversity), and Embry (see my endorsement of Elizabeth Embry here) but nowhere is the power of the "establishment" more powerful than in my 3rd District of Baltimore City, where there seems to be a very close race for City Council to replace retiring councilman Bobby Curran.
First of all, a full disclosure: I'm voting for Ryan Dorsey. I've met Dorsey twice -- once, when he was knocking on doors, and, another time, when he asked some Baltimore City teachers to get together with him to discuss our issues and concerns about education in Baltimore. I liked the way he talked about transportation deficits, about institutional racism, about education, about the arts. I liked that he called in a group of teachers as a focus group. And, importantly, I liked that his long campaign (I heard about him long before I met him) seemed to be very much a grassroots community movement that slowly built into a coalition centered around the needs of the 3rd district (including a couple that he's been very vocal about, the need to renovate the Harford Street bridge, with a bike lane, and the need to block Royal Farms from opening up a superstore on Harford Rd., a road that county commuters already treat as a superhighway). So, after researching the other candidates, around this time, I endorsed Ryan Dorsey on my blog based on a feeling that he will be a tenacious advocate of the concerns of the 3rd district as well as a fighter of the structural and institutional politics (wasteful, racist, sneaky) of Baltimore City. I'm so tired of Baltimore politics, and Dorsey represents a change. He ended up being the first candidate since President Obama in 2008 that I've donated to. I think it's important that I put that all out there.
And I'd be fine just supporting Dorsey's candidacy. But the 3rd District race is a good example of the worst of Baltimore politics: full of insiderism and lacking transparency, with the institutions already in power attempting to place a candidate into the job of 3rd councilperson. They are doing the best they can to get me and my neighbors to vote for Jermaine Jones. His candidacy is funded almost entirely by outside-the-district interests, with very little from inside the district.
And there is nothing wrong, ethically, with being funded outside of a district. But it does matter to me, even if it's not a dealbreaker. I want a local candidate who understands our local issues. Jermaine Jones has run in two other elections; he lost the 12th District race in 2011 and the Democratic Central Committee race in 2014. He moved to the 3rd District, a district with a vulnerable incumbent, just before the filing deadline. He has family in the area, but that's not enough for me.
To each his or her own, though. However, I'm disappointed with the campaign itself, and perhaps his followers. It started with the fake Facebook profiles I wrote about in December. These fake Facebook profiles often supported Jermaine Jones; I was targeted by one of the fake profiles that befriended me and invited me to a door knocking event for Jones. When I later discovered that the profile was a bot, I got the willies.
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| This screen shot shows only the fake profiles attending a door knocking event; the other one shows only Jones' profile along with the fake profiles "liking" a Trade Unionist page. |
I don't know if Jones knew about the fake profiles before they started helping his campaign, but he definitely knows about them now, and I find his silence to be deafening. I haven't heard him address it at all. This is not how you bring a community together.
His mailers also have been fishy. For example, below is a photo of Roop Vijayan, President of the Glenham-Belhar Community Association, on Jones' campaign literature. Mr. Vijayan was included on two different mailers. It's happened throughout the campaign -- photographs of people on mailers that make it seem like they are endorsing Jones, but actually are not, or photographs of people on mailers that make it seem like they are District 3 voters, when actually they are posed workers who work in different districts.
Par for the course? Maybe, but I hope not.
Because I'm sick of it. I'm sick of Baltimore politics being about who scratches others' backs the most, about who the establishment wants in power. I'm disappointed with the endorsements of some politicians I liked who live in different districts. They really want Jones to be in office, as they are all part of the Democratic Best Club. But Dorsey has been endorsed by the people of the district, as well as The Sun. I hope that carries through on Election Day.
I'm pretty sure that Jones is a nice guy. But he's allowed his campaign to really come off as really dishonest. If I weren't voting for Dorsey, Jones would be my 4th favorite candidates (I actually really like Marques Dent, who has done good work in the district, and also know George Van Hook has done good work.) That's how important issues of integrity are to me. Even though I live in a city where Sheila Dixon has a legitimate chance to be re-elected despite the lack of integrity of her mayorship, it still remains one of my top issues. I want someone I can trust, who doesn't let others do dirty for him.
Election Day couldn't come soon enough. Ready for this long and ugly campaign to be over!
from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/1NGwZ2S Why I'm Upset with the Establishment Democratic Party at Pretty Much Every Level, Including in My District 3 Baltimore City Race - Entrepreneur Generations
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