Legum’s New Line

Check out my opening statement at the October 2 candidate forum in Cape St. Claire:

Comments Off

Today, our campaign received the endorsement of The Capital. Here’s what the paper had to say:

Among the four Democrats, we support the two incumbents – House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Del. Virginia Clagett – and political newcomer Judd Legum… Legum, an attorney, is committed to restoring the environment and serves on the Severn River Commission.

You can read more about my views on the environment here.

If you’d like to get involved in the campaign email volunteer@juddlegum.com.

Comments Off

Here’s a release just out from the campaign about our latest fundraising totals.

Legum For Delegate Raises $0 From State Lobbyists and PACs
Campaign has collected over $107,000 in total contributions this cycle

Judd Legum, candidate for State Delegate in Maryland’s District 30, reported raising $0 from state lobbyists and PACs for the period ending August 10. “Government should work for the people they represent, not for the special interests who line their pockets,” Legum said, “I have never taken money from state lobbyists or PACs, and I never will.”

Legum is the only candidate running in District 30 who has pledged to refuse contributions from state lobbyists and PACs.

Overall, Legum has raised $107,579.82 in total contributions including $98,927.26 in monetary contributions and $8,652.56 in in-kind contributions. As of the August 10 reporting date, the campaign maintained over $81,000 cash on hand.

The totals include robust and enthusiastic support in Maryland. The campaign has received 453 contributions from 314 individual Marylanders. About two-thirds of the contributions from Maryland came from within the boundaries of District 30.

This campaign is powered by individuals. If you want to get involved, sign up to volunteer here.

Comments Off

On Sunday, the campaign celebrated the 4th of July by marching in parades in Shady Side, Galesville and Annapolis.

Here are a couple of shots of our energetic group getting ready for the Annapolis parade:

Comments Off

Last weekend, we had a very successful kickoff for the campaign. Thanks to everyone who braved the heat, especially those who hit the streets afterward to knock doors.

If you’d like to get involved with the campaign, you can sign up to volunteer here.

Comments Off

I’ve written previously about Del. Heather Mizeur’s open government bill that, among other things, would require committee votes to be posted online, create a real time tracking system for floor votes and allow people to sign up online to testify before a committee.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a good idea. Mizeur’s bill attracted a majority of lawmakers in both chambers as co-sponsors, seemingly putting it on the fast-track for passage.

But yet, the Washington Post reported this morning that Mizeur’s bill is not expected pass this year. Why?

Some of those close to the committee say codifying anything about putting hearings online, for example, could be a bad idea because technology may change. Chairmen of some powerful committees have also told the Rules Committee they are concerned about a provision letting members of the public sign up online to testify on legislation because they fear it could lead to too many people attending hearings.

In other words, some powerful members are concerned that if we make government more transparent more people will participate. This is exactly why we need this bill. The more people who participate in government, the better government works. When fewer people participate government ends up being controlled by insiders and special interests.

Unfortunately, there are still people committed to keeping citizens on the sidelines. I’m running to help change that.

Comments Off

A few days ago, Ron George – the incumbent Republican delegate in Maryland’s District 30 – co-sponsored a resolution stating that climate change is a “conspiracy” and urging the Environmental Protection Agency to “immediately halt” all efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Besides ignoring the overwhelming consensus among the world’s climate scientists, George is advancing a position with disastrous consequences locally for the Chesapeake Bay:

– Increased carbon dioxide concentrations can increase algae blooms, which are the source of large “dead zones” in the Chesapeake Bay. [Source]

– Many of the most effective agricultural practices to sequester carbon — such as forest buffers, no-till farming and cover crops — are also essential to improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. [Source]

In a time of economic challenge, Maryland can’t afford to allow the Chesapeake Bay to continue to degrade. The Bay is Maryland’s most valuable economic resource: driving commerce, buttressing property values and attracting tourists.

But Ron George is more focused on far-right ideology than our shared goals in Maryland. We need to work together to clean our water and grow our economy. That’s why I’m running for Delegate.

Please stand up for the health of the Bay by signing this petition protesting George’s anti-environment resolution: juddlegum.com/baypetition

1 Comment »

There was a fairly major snow storm in the Annapolis area today and a high temperature of 23 degrees. It was also the start of my door-to-door campaign for state delegate.

We weren’t going to let a little bit of inclement weather get in our way. Here’s a short video we recorded just before getting started at 10:30AM:

We were able to canvass in Cape St. Claire for about 2 hours, until the snow made the side roads impassible.

As a challenger in this race, I know I need to work hard every day from now to the election. The best use of my time is talking to voters one-on-one and hearing their concerns. One great thing about knocking doors during a snow storm: plenty of people are at home.

The forecast for next weekend is sunny, with a high of 43 degrees. We’ll be back at it.

1 Comment »

The Maryland Department of Legislative Services has produced an incredibly useful (255 page) report outlining the major issues that face the Maryland General Assembly in 2010. You can check it out here.

If that’s too much heavy lifting, the Maryland Gazette boils it down to about a page.

We’ll be following the action closely here on Legum’s New Line.

Comments Off

I have been actively using a range of social media, including this blog, Twitter and Facebook, since I began my campaign. Recently, a columnist for our local paper, The Capital, interviewed me on the subject.

Naturally, we conducted the interview entirely over Twitter. Here’s an excerpt:

In that vein, I decided to conduct an interview entirely on Twitter with Legum, an Annapolis attorney who is a prolific Twitterer and blogger in addition to being a candidate. It was a challenge, given Twitter’s 140-character limit, which discourages even punctuation.

Legum, a 30-year-old Democrat, wrote: “Twitter has some advantages over other online tools like email because its transparent. I can see my neighbors q and your a.”

Indeed, the entire Twitter conversation between @ethartley and @juddlegum is in the open. So in case you really want to see the sausage made, I put the links on my blog.

We shouldn’t get carried away with the importance of any one method of communication. There’s a certain gee-whiz tone to some media coverage: “Ooh, Sarah Palin’s on Twitter!” Over time, though, that novelty will fade as it has for the Web in general.

Twitter itself or any one site isn’t that important. But the trend of openness is. In effect, much of the information held by governments has historically been closed to the public, since you had to drive to a state capital or Washington, D.C., to get it. It was legally public, but few actually saw it, leading to the term “practical obscurity.”

Now people expect everything to be online, and that’s truer the younger they are. Legum agreed this should keep politicians more honest.

“I think so + more info should be online,” he wrote. “To start, stream and archive all public committee meetings (legislative and exec.).”

Legum said he’ll continue “tweeting” if elected and will put his official schedule online so people know what he’s doing all the time.

You can read the full column here.

Comments Off