Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label People Schaller-Tom Schaller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label People Schaller-Tom Schaller. Show all posts

Saturday, December 30, 2006

20061230 Crablaw calls to our attention a Sun article on Tom Schaller’s book

Bruce Godfrey at Crablaw calls to our attention a Baltimore Sun article on Tom Schaller’s book

December 29th, 2006

Writing for the Baltimore Sun, Andrew Green has a piece about UMBC professor Tom Schaller’s book, “Whistling Past Dixie: How the Democrats Can Win Without the South.”

A big thank you to Crablaw for calling the article to our attention.

In his post, Mr. Godfrey encourages his readers to be sure to read Mr. Green’s article.

I agree.

However, I’m encouraging “Soundtrack” readers to also
be sure to read Crablaw’s post about Dr. Schaller’s book.

For a previous post about Dr. Schaller and his book, please read: “
20061030 Appearance on the Mark Steiner Show.” And for other mentions of Dr. Schaller in “Soundtrack,” please click here.


I have come to really appreciate Dr. Schaller.
When I appeared on WYPR’s Mark Steiner show last October 30th, 2006, he was wonderful to chat with about current events, politics and the issues. To be certain, we agreed on very little, however, he was fun and engaging and kept it intellectual.

To be sure, we need more Dr. Schaller’s in the "public intellectual."
[1]

I have not read the
book; however, it is on my short list of “must” reading.

I have several colleagues who have read it and were excited about Dr. Schaller’s out of the box insights and fresh pragmatic approaches.

It is not really fair to comment on the book without reading it, nevertheless, my uninformed view is that Democrats will still have problems with some their party’s liberal positions in the Western United States. Positions on gun ownership comes to mind quickly.

Reading Mr. Green’s article reminded me of the “banter by way of song,” between Neil Young and the lead singer of “Lynyrd Skynyrd,” Ronnie Van Zant in the early 1970s.

What many in the public were not aware, is that the two talented songwriters and performers were quite good friends.

Nevertheless, on Mr. Young’s third album, one of my all time favorites, “After the Gold Rush,” released in 1970, there was a song entitled, “Southern Man.”

The lyrics
[2] to “Southern Man” were a biting critique of Mr. Young’s understandings of race relations in the south in the 1960s.

Ronnie van Zant responded with “Sweet Home Alabama,” in which he attempted to portray what was good about the south. (“Sweet Home Alabama” was written by Ed king, Ronnie van Zant and Gary Rossington.)
[3]

Mr. Green writes that “Virginia Democratic strategist and "Bubba vote" guru David W. "Mudcat" Saunders,” has taken umbrage with Dr. Schaller’s book.

Hopefully Mr. Saunders and Dr. Schaller can be great sports and get together some time and talk about the book and the future of the Democratic Party’s presence and strategy in the south.

That would be a great public forum at say, UMBC or UVa - - or somewhere. How about William and Mary in Williamsburg? Dr.
Simon Stow could be the moderator. (See “20061005 Breakfast and a class at William and Mary.”)

Read Mr. Green’s Baltimore Sun article here.

Read Bruce Godfrey’s Crablaw article here.

Buy Dr. Schaller’s book here.

Kevin

####



[1] Andrew Green wrote on December 27th, 2006 in the Baltimore Sun: “Schaller, 39, is a bespectacled, fast-talking political science professor who has been trying for the last few years to work his way into a career as a liberal talking head, or, as he calls it, "public intellectual."


[2] Lyrics to Neil Young’s 1970 "Southern Man"

Southern man; better keep your head; Don't forget; what your good book said; Southern change; gonna come at last; Now your crosses; are burning fast; Southern man.

I saw cotton; and I saw black; Tall white mansions; and little shacks. Southern man; when will you; pay them back? I heard screamin'; and bullwhips cracking; How long? How long?

Southern man; better keep your head; Don't forget; what your good book said; Southern change; gonna come at last; Now your crosses; are burning fast; Southern man.

Lily Belle, your hair is golden brown; I've seen your black man; comin' round; Swear by God; I'm gonna cut him down! I heard screamin'; and bullwhips cracking; How long? How long?


[3] Lyrics to Ed King, Ronnie van Zant and Gary Rossington’s Lynyrd Skynyrd’s early 1970’s “Sweet Home Alabama:”

Big wheels keep on turning Carry me home to see my kin Singing songs about the southland I miss Alabamy once again And I think its a sin, yes

Well I heard mister young sing about her Well, I heard ole Neil put her down Well, I hope Neil Young will remember A southern man don’t need him around anyhow

Sweet home Alabama Where the skies are so blue Sweet home Alabama Lord, Im coming home to you

In Birmingham they love the governor Now we all did what we could do Now Watergate does not bother me Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth

Sweet home Alabama Where the skies are so blue Sweet home Alabama Lord, Im coming home to you Here I come Alabama

Now muscle shoals has got the swampers And they’ve been known to pick a song or two Lord they get me off so much They pick me up when I’m feeling blue Now how about you?

Sweet home Alabama Where the skies are so blue Sweet home Alabama Lord, I’m coming home to you

Sweet home Alabama Oh sweet home baby Where the skies are so blue And the governors true Sweet home Alabama Lordy Lord, I’m coming home to you Yea, yea Montgomery’s got the answer

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

20061128 Comptroller-elect Peter Franchot’s transition team

Comptroller-elect Peter Franchot’s transition team

November 28th, 2006


Now this is a diverse, bi-partisan and

very bright transition team. In spite of my past impressions of Mr. Peter Franchot, this team impresses me.

Some of the brighter bulbs are: retiring Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan; former Gov. Harry Hughes; former GOP senator Howard Denis; and “former Baltimore County Sen. F. Vernon Boozer, once the Senate’s GOP leader, and state Sen.-elect George Edwards, current leader of the GOP in the House of Delegates.”

But perhaps one of the brightest is former Marine and Vietnam Veteran John Bambacus. Senator/Mayor Bambacus served as a Special Assistant to U.S. Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., from 1979-82 and is a former GOP Senator (District 1, Frostburg, 1983-91) and mayor of Frostburg.

Gov.-elect O’Malley would have been smart to have put some folks like Senator Bambacus, or McDaniel Professor Dr. Herb Smith or UMBC Professor Dr. Tom Schaller on his transition team.

All three are arguably some of the top political science and history minds in Maryland today. (Yes, there are others, like former Secretary of State John Willis, Harford County Executive David Craig... let’s not belabor the point…) Folks who can look at the challenges of governance with a broader view than the many special interest advocates on his team. (See my November
Tentacle column, "Now Comes The Hard Part.")

For someone who campaigned on not being beholden to special interests, Gov.-elect O’Malley’s transition team was quite a surprise for many of us. Hey, he didn’t ask me my opinion. I wish he had.

Anyway,
Len Lazarick, writing for The Examiner, wrote a piece on Comptroller-elect Franchot’s transition team on Nov 22, 2006:

BALTIMORE - Not that there’s any competition between Comptroller-elect Peter Franchot and Gov.-elect Martin O’Malley, but Franchot’s transition team is bigger than O’Malley’s, and is co-chaired by an ex-governor and the mayor’s former primary opponent.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com

Read the rest here.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

20061030 Appearance on the Mark Steiner Show

Monday, October 30th, 20006 appearance on WYPR’s the Mark Steiner Show
with UMBC Professor Tom Schaller

Finally posted Thursday, November 7th, 2006. Sometimes my life is not my own…

To listen to the audio of the October 30th, 2006 appearance, go here. (If you use Mozilla Firefox, you can bring it up in another tab and keep working with the show playing …)

Pictured above is Dr. Schaller doing a stand-up after the show, outside of the WYPR building on Charles Street.

On Monday, October 30th, 2006, I had the pleasure to appear on WYPR’s “The Mark Steiner Show” with UMBC Professor Tom Schaller for a discussion of the upcoming Maryland elections. Mr. Steiner is certainly an accomplished veteran and come to find out, so is Dr. Schaller.

Thomas F. Schaller, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

The show came on the heals of a column Dr. Schaller had just penned in The Examiner, on October 27th, 2006, “Will Ehrlich see first defeat of his political career?”

I keep running across Crablaw’s post: “Kevin Dayhoff on WYPR Marc Steiner show,” that reminds me that I haven’t posted about the show. You might say, that for several days, Crablaw has played the role of my “electronic wife.”

Crablaw, we will look forward to your analysis of the program. Hopefully you draw the same conclusion as I did, that the Schaller-Dayhoff show actually furthered intelligent conversation about the current state of pre-election politics in Maryland.

WYPR billed it on their web site as: “We're less than two weeks away from the elections which means the political ads are getting nastier and the papers are endorsing candidates. Marc and his guests UMBC Professor Tom Schaller and Political writer Kevin Dayhoff will discuss the political campaigns and strategies of candidates running for office in Maryland.”

Oh – the music was great: Music break one: "National Seven" by Wizz Jones
Music break two: "Reminiscing at the Blue Note" by Earl Hines.

Although I have done radio before; (once for a very brief appearance on WBAL after “Who is Max Cleland?and with Stu Kerr's radio talk show, "The Garden Club", on WCBM several times in 1989 and 1990 - - ages ago, in a previous life as a horticultural expert… I haven’t done it for awhile and was worried that I would be rusty. Oh yeah, I did plenty of radio and “stand-ups,” when I was mayor of Westminster

Mark Steiner and Dr. Schaller - -and the production assistant, Marcus Charleston, made it easy…

To state the obvious, radio is very different from writing columns. With columns, you can write and re-write and re-write a sentence over and over again until it is (hopefully) just right. Not so with radio. Once it comes out of your mouth, that’s it. Bam!

Oh, Dr. Schaller has a book out – you can find it here: Dr. Tom Schaller’s Book, Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South on Amazon.com.

The Denver Post did a good question and answer on October 24th, 2006 about his book, in their series - - Washington and the West . It can be found here: Q&A: Author Tom Schaller on why Democrats should forget about the South

Like I said, Mark Steiner and Dr. Tom Schaller made the show easy. And I can’t wait to do it again.

Please enjoy the show.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org www.thetentacle.com Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report www.thewestminstereagle.com www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/

Friday, November 03, 2006

20061102 Carroll County Republican Club charged with violating two state election laws




Carroll County Republican Club charged with violating two state election laws

November 2nd, 2006

All the local Carroll County newspapers have posted articles early Thursday evening, November 2nd, 2006, that report that the Maryland State Prosecutor has filed charges against the Carroll County Republican Club president Scott Hollenbeck and club secretary Suzanne Primoff for “alleging violations of two state election laws.”

The Westminster Eagle article can be found here: EAGLE ALERT: Republican club charged with election law violations.

The Eldersburg Eagle article can be found here: EAGLE ALERT: Republican club charged with election law violations.

The Baltimore Sun - Carroll Sun article by Laura McCandlish, Sun Reporter, filed at 5:45 PM EST can be found here: “Carroll Co. GOP club said to violate election laws - 2 officers charged for failing to register group as political action committee.”

And the Carroll County Times article by Justin Palk. Times Staff Writer, can be found here: “Charges filed against Republican club.” Mr. Palk’s article is short; hopefully he will write more on Friday, November 3rd, 2006. Update: To find his longer article, click here.

The Westminster Eagle article noted, The statement by the State Prosecutor’s Office notes that, ‘All of those who have been identified ... are merely charged and are presumed innocent until and unless convicted in a court.’ ”

For my previous posts about the matter of the negative campaigning in Carroll County please see:

20060925 Cartoon on Carroll County primary elections

20060908 Negative ads and fliers plague Carroll County primary election

20060907 Thoughts on the Carroll County primary election

In the September 6th, 2006 issue of the Westminster Eagle and the Eldersburg Eagle, both Editor Jim Joyner and I wrote columns addressing the negative campaigning dynamic in what many recall as one of the most unpleasant election years in 16 years.


The title of my column is: “Just so no to reality TV in Carroll County election campaigns.”

The title of Mr. Joyner’s column is: “Final daze Voters should be aware of wild political finish.”

I also have a Tentacle column addressing this issue of negative campaigning. “Why go negative?”

The best background on this story was written by Justin Palk back on September 7th and 8th, 2006. I just tried the links to the stories and the Carroll County Times does not use permalinks – and the links are dead behind a pay wall.

On September 7th, 2006, Mr. Palk wrote, “State probing election adverts” and on September 8th, 2006, he wrote, “Candidates deny contact with group.”

A portion of the story which Mr. Palk wrote on September 7th, reads:

Maryland's State Board of Elections is reviewing negative campaign ads from what appears to be a new Republican club in Carroll County for compliance with state law.

An organization calling itself the Carroll County Republican Club, which has sent out mailings to county residents, among other advertising, is not registered with the state as a political action committee, said Jared DeMarinis, director of the State Board of Elections' candidacy and campaign finance division.

DeMarinis said he could not comment further on the matter because the board is reviewing it.

In general, organizations that raise or spend money for a specific candidate in an election do have to register with the state, he said.

The ads and mailings, which list Scott Hollenbeck as the club's president, attack the sitting county commissioners and urge voters to back challengers in Tuesday's primary election.

Carroll County Commissioner Perry L. Jones Jr. rejected some of the claims made specifically about him in the ads, such as the accusations that he spends the night in Frederick County, rather than Carroll.

Other accusations are based on incomplete information, he said, such as statements criticizing him and Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge for having county cars, but fail to mention that they both pay leases for their vehicles, he said.

"In a way, it's humiliating, in a way it's hilarious," Jones said. "If we did half of what they say we did, we'd be sitting in the Carroll County lockup, I believe."

The ads contain other inaccuracies as well, including a statement that the county allows multiple housing units to be built on a single building permit, when the county requires one permit per unit, said Vivian Laxton, the county's spokeswoman.

Similarly, the county commissioners are not, as one ad states, considering any legislation that would permit them to impose a personal property tax, Laxton said.

The Carroll County Republican Club does not appear on the list of Republican clubs in Carroll on the Carroll County Republican Central Committee's Web site, and Joe Burns Jr., the committee's secretary, said he had not heard of the organization.

Hollenbeck did not return phone calls or an e-mail requesting comment for this article Wednesday.

Going negative

Negative politics work because it's always easy to find an area of disagreement to focus voters' attention on, and then attack repeatedly on that issue, Thomas Schaller, a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, wrote in an e-mail. Even if a voter agrees with a candidate on three out of every four issues, he or she can still be persuaded to dislike that candidate on the fourth issue.

People also have better memories for critical messages rather than positive ones, which makes negative politicking a powerful tool, he wrote.

In terms of outright dirty tricks, it's key for the trickster to keep his or her fingerprints off the deed, because tricks have the potential to backfire disastrously if the trickster is caught, Schaller wrote.

The Westminster Eagle article this evening reports that Ms. Primoff and Mr. Hollenbeck, “were charged in Carroll County District Court on Thursday with alleged violations of election laws, namely:

•Engaging in campaign finance activity other than through a campaign finance entity, an offense that is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $25,000; and

•Causing the publication and distribution of campaign literature without a proper authority line, an offense is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.”

Ms. McCandlish reported what many political pundits are saying, on and off the record: "People have gotten tired of all this negativity of the extremists," said Tony Roman, an adjunct political science professor at Carroll Community College. "The Democratic Party is getting a boost out of this. If Beard gets elected, it gives them sort of a basis to start from."

She added: “Both Primoff and Hollenbeck have been outspoken critics of the current board of commissioners, all GOP moderates. Ed Primoff, a club member married to Suzanne Primoff, defended the club's actions today. If the club had agreed to register as a PAC, the state prosecutor would have dropped charges last week, Ed Primoff said.

He said the club rejected that offer. "Everything we did was reviewed by competent legal counsel, and they assured us that we were in compliance with all the Maryland election laws," Primoff said. "This club is fighting corruption and fighting for ideologies that we believe in."

Indeed, The Westminster Eagle article reveals, “In ads published this week, the CCRC contended that it acted in the primary as a political “club,” and not a political action committee.”

I found the ad on page two at this address: http://carrollstandard.com/standard_12p_11-1-06.pdf

In a Baltimore Sun article on October 28, 2006 entitled, Republicans split in Carroll County - Democrat Beard gains GOP backing,” Sun writers Laura McCandlish and Mary Gail Hare wrote: “ ‘If the primary purpose is campaign finance, then clearly you have to register,’ said Mark J. Davis, the assistant attorney general for the board of elections. "But if the club only occasionally engages in campaign finance, then no registration is required. The laws on political clubs tend to be vague and should be clarified by the General Assembly, Davis added.”

However, in a broad-sweeping conversation earlier this evening with several political scientists, it was called to my attention that the state takes a dim view of folks participating in electioneering without registering and has been relatively consistent in taking the approach that whenever in doubt – register…

I was reminded of a series of instances in the 1986 campaigns in Baltimore County by our current governor, in which the question over registering political action committees was alleged and in that instance, the state pursued the matter, although, it was not clear to me as to the outcome of that example…

On September 8th, 2006, Westminster Eagle Editor penned an article which examined the claims made in the ads and a response by Carroll County government on behalf of Commissioners, Dean Minnich, Perry Jones and Julia Gouge. County government responded because the ads made claims which some would consider a cause for action on the part of county government…

The piece, “County refutes ads, mailers attacking commissioners” 09/08/06
By Jim Joyner, begins:

“Carroll County officials this week refuted several claims made in political ads this past week by a group called the Carroll County Republican Club, saying the bulk of the organization’s accusations are false or misleading.

The group has distributed mailers, placed paid advertising in county newspapers — including The Eagle — and is reportedly also operating an automated messaging campaign, phoning homes in the county.

The bulk of the campaign is aimed at unseating the incumbent Board of County Commissioners, and suggests that voters opt for challengers.

Various aspects of the ad campaign claim… […] Read the rest here.

The fallout?

In a straight-down-the-middle news article written by Kelsey Volkmann in the Baltimore Examiner on October 31st, 2006, entitled, “Zimmer, Beard face off in race for county commissioner seat,” she reported:

“For the first time in more than a decade, a Democrat has garnered support from Republicans for a Carroll County commissioners’ seat.

Dennis Beard, a Democrat with GOP support will face-off against Republican Michael Zimmer in next week’s election.”

Read the rest of the article here.


In conversation after conversation, the feedback that I continue to get from “folks in the grocery store check out line,” is enough already, we can’t wait for this election to over.

Amen.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org http://www.thetentacle.com/ Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report http://www.thewestminstereagle.com/ www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/