Legum’s New Line

Since February, I’ve been volunteering for Josh Cohen’s mayoral campaign. Why did I support Josh?

As the election season began, it was clear Annapolitians of all stripes were deeply upset about an embarrassing string of management blunders. But I think even more significantly, there was a sense among many people that the city government was not listening to their concerns.

Although I had met Josh as a kid growing up in Annapolis, we weren’t friends before this election began. But I had followed Josh’s career and I knew he was someone who could bring diverse groups of people together and find common ground. Beyond any single issue, I supported Josh because I believed he would provide a new style of leadership the city sorely needed.

It was a wild ride, but Josh ended up being elected mayor last Tuesday. He’s already demonstrating that he was the right choice for a city that’s endured division and partisan rancor for too long.

Today, he announced a truly remarkable transition team for his administration. His team includes:

– Dave Cordle and Chris Fox, his two opponents from last weeks’ election.

– Zina Pierre, his top opponent in Democratic primary. Zina won the primary and Josh was named as her replacement when she declined the nomination.

– Fred Paone, the remaining Republican on the city council.

– Three Republican candidates for the city council who lost.

– Doug Smith, who endorsed Cordle and spearheaded a petition drive for a council-manager form of government that Josh opposed.

– Paul Foer, a blogger and columnist for the Capital who was one of Josh’s strongest critics throughout the primary and general elections.

It’s revealing not only that Josh picked these folks, but that they all accepted.

Of course, not all members of the transition team were former opponents and critics. I’m honored that Josh named me chair of the committee focused on the Market House and City Dock. I’m joined by a diverse group of people spread over eight committees on issues of importance to the city. You can read the full list of transition team members here.

I think that Josh demonstrated today, in quite dramatic fashion, that he is not “more of the same.” I’m proud to have supported him.

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There are 12 days until the city election in Annapolis.

In today’s paper, we learned mayoral candidate and current member of the City Council Dave Cordle is introducing legislation that would cap property taxes in the city. A few days ago, Cordle introduced three other bills, including a bill to create a Council-Manger form of government, even though he was the deciding vote against virtually identical legislation earlier this year.

Cordle has been on the City Council for 8 years. He could have made these proposals at any time and did not. Why now?

Cordle may feel he needs to make up for lost time. According to the minutes on the City Council website, Cordle has missed 16 council meetings during his tenure – more than 10% of the total and more than any other member of the council during the same period of time. (Our outgoing mayor, Ellen Moyer, has the second most missed meetings with 12.)

There will be a new mayor and a new council in place the first week of December. If Dave Cordle is introducing these last-minute items to help him win an election, it’s the wrong thing to do. The City Council should be a place for serious, thoughtful and deliberate debate about the issues that face Annapolis.

Disclosure: I volunteer for Josh Cohen’s mayoral campaign.

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A somewhat surprising result from a new survey: despite the deep economic downturn, Marylanders still overwhelmingly favor public financing of campaigns. The Baltimore Sun summarizes a new survey by Gonzales research:

According to the survey of 833 registered voters, 77 percent believe that large political contributions have a corrupting influence on state lawmakers and worry that the money prevents them from from tackling issues such as rising energy costs and protecting the Chesapeake Bay.

Seventy percent of respondents favor using a limited amount of public money to pay for political campaigns. What’s more, 63 percent of the respondents say that they would like to see public campaign financing even in the face of a state budget deficit.

Public financing nearly became law last session after Senate President (and longtime public financing foe) Mike Miller signed on to support the legislation.

In the absence of public financing, I’ve pledged not to accept money from Maryland lobbyists or PACs in my campaign for delegate.

You can read the full survey here.

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There are a lot of people who dismiss political blogs as the ramblings of people with an inflated sense of self importance. Occasionally that’s true, but oftentimes blogs can play a useful role in making government work better.

Recently, Maryland Politics Watch published a post noting that many members of the Maryland Legislature received “non-revenue” E-Z Passes that allowed them to go through toll booths for free. It was an uncomfortable revelation since the Maryland Transportation Department just imposed additional monthly fees on everyone else.

A few days ago, according to a document obtained by Maryland Politics Watch, the legislature announced they were ending the free E-Z Pass program.

I think this was the right call amid a national economic downturn and a persistent state budget deficit. But it also might not have happened had the free E-Z pass program not been publicized by a blog. It’s a small but important example of how new media can make government work a bit better.

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Here’s a short clip from a campaign event last week in Annapolis with Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler. I hope it gives you a sense of the approach that I want to bring to the State House as a Delegate from District 30.

Watch it:

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Check out some photos from our fundraiser last night. It was held at Annapolis Sailing Fitness in Eastport with special guest Attorney General Doug Gansler.

Video from the event coming shortly.

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Here’s a short speech I gave to Netroots Nation, a convention of online activists, in Pittsburgh last week:

You can check out some of the other speakers that night, including President Bill Clinton, on C-Span.

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Annapolis Alderman Dave Cordle is proposing legislation banning “politics” from the city’s website, saying it should be a “handbook not a soapbox.” The Capital has the details:

Alderman David Cordle plans to introduce legislation that will banish political soapboxes from the city government’s corner of cyberspace, allowing only information that helps Annapolitans better access city services and follow official affairs.

Cordle, R-Ward 5, decided the law was necessary after a PowerPoint presentation by Alderwoman Sheila Finlayson that was critical of the city manager form of government appeared on the city’s Web site.

Cordle has identified a problem but picked the wrong solution. We shouldn’t ban the policy views of members of the city council from the website – this is useful information for all voters. Rather, we should simply make sure that official communications from the city and clearly delineated from the views of individual elected officials.

The United States Senate provides a model. If I want official information about the U.S. Senate, I go to senate.gov. If want to know the policy positions of Sen. Ben Cardin – from the Supreme Court nominee to the Chesapeake Bay, I got to cardin.senate.gov. Similarly, Alderwoman Finlayson should be able to publish her PowerPoint at finlayson.annapolis.gov.

A handbook is a static document that people put in a drawer and ignore. The city website should be a vibrant and dynamic resource for residents who care about the future of the city.

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I want to share with you a short video from a recent campaign event. I hope it gives you a better sense of who I am, why I’m running and how I intend to conduct my campaign for state delegate in District 30.

Watch it:

Now that you’ve heard a little bit from me, I’d love to hear from you. Over the next 16 months, I want to spend a lot more time listening than talking.

What do you want from your state government? What issues motivate you? What do we need to do to win this campaign?

Please contact me directly at judd@juddlegum.com or 443-510-8880.

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Scott Bowling is a candidate for city council here in Annapolis. Today, someone posing as Scott sent an email to the city clerk asking that he be removed from the ballot. Worse, the email contained derogatory, offensive and personal attacks on Scott.

Scott has responded with a press release:

Earlier today, a fictitious e-mail was sent to City Clerk, Regina Watkins-Eldridge and copied to various media outlets. I want to thank the City Clerk for contacting me immediately to confirm that this e-mail was a malicious hoax. Her prompt and professional attention has precluded the damage that this e-mail intended to create.

The e-mail was created and sent from a free e-mail server by an impostor posing as me (although spelling my name incorrectly twice.) It attempted to indicate my withdrawal from candidacy for Ward 3 Alderman. The e-mail was replete with punctuation, grammar, spelling, and factual errors. It is shameful that someone would endeavor to waste the Clerk’s time with this nonsense…

I am a Democrat and Scott is a Republican. We disagree on many issues. But we do agree that this kind of conduct has no place in city politics.

The city is facing real challenges and the 2009 municipal elections in Annapolis should be decided on who has the ideas, the experience and the vision to meet them.

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