Friday, November 30, 2012
State attorney general gives the go ahead.
- ELECTIONS
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Friday, November 30, 2012
By DANA AMIHERE Capital News Service An opinion released Thursday by the Maryland attorney general’s office said that same-sex couples can obtain marriage licenses as soon as Gov. Martin O’Malley “formally proclaims” the results of the November election, which he is expected to do on or about Dec. 6. The law, and therefore the licenses, will not be effective until Jan. 1. Attorney General Douglas Gansler answered other questions about the implementation of Maryland's same-sex marriage law in a 19-page opinion. Gansler and Chief Counsel Adam Snyder found that postdating the licenses’ effective date doesn’t impose an unconstitutional waiting period on same-sex couples because it’s the ceremony, not the license, that validates the marriage…
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Despite pressure to reconsider, Montgomery's two-term county exec has not reversed his decision to step down in 2014.
Last year, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) went on the record saying that he would not seek a third term in office. In this fifth excerpt from a recent interview with Patch editors, Leggett acknowledges that he has been “under a lot of pressure from people asking me to reconsider," but says he hasn't wavered from on his decision not to run, "as of yet." Click here for Part 1 of the interview, in which Leggett discussed the ballot referendum on the Maryland "Dream Act," which would allow in-state tuition for certain illegal immigrants. Click here to watch Part 2, on his support for Maryland's historic same-sex marriage law. In Part 3, Leggett talks about the county's fiscal outlook. Part 4 covers Montgomery's projected …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
A wide-open field is beginning to form, including some familiar names.
In politics, the campaign season—and the speculation about the next election—never ends. It just stops for a brief intermission. We call that Election Day. With 2012 in the rear view and 2014 shaping up to be a wide-open race for Montgomery County Executive, candidates—and potential candidates—are gearing up. The early race hit a higher gear on Wednesday as Patch’s Sebastian Montes reported that Douglas M. Duncan, a Democrat, is telling supporters that he will run to reclaim the County Executive post he held from 1994 to 2006. Other familiar names could be on the primary ballot. County Councilman George L. Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park held a 50th birthday party fundraiser last week to support his run for County Executive, The …
One of Montgomery's dominant political figures set to return to the political stage after six years.
After months of strategizing, Douglas M. Duncan has told supporters he has decided to run for an unprecedented fourth term in Montgomery County's highest political office, marking his return to politics after a six year-hiatus. Duncan, 57, met privately yesterday morning with political advisers and supporters in Gaithersburg to discuss his run for county executive and weigh the results of a recent poll by Harrison Hickman, the pollster for Al Gore and John Edwards' presidential bids. At the end of the meeting, Duncan told attendees that he would be entering the 2014 race, according to an email sent yesterday afternoon to supporters. “I am not seeking to return to the County Executive office simply because it is winnable—I am returning …
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Former County Executive Doug Duncan met today with pollster and political advisers, according to CenterMaryland.org.
Will Doug Duncan—Montgomery’s longest-serving county executive—return for a run at an unprecedented fourth term? Duncan's political future came into clearer focus Tuesday after he met with advisers in Gaithersburg to mull the 2014 election, Josh Kurtz writes in CenterMaryland.org. The closed meeting hashed over the results of a new poll “that supposedly showed Duncan handily defeating every other potential Democratic candidate,” according to Kurtz. Speculation has long swirled that Duncan—who served as Montgomery’s executive from 1994 to 2006 before a gubernatorial campaign that ended with him dropping out, citing clinical depression—is primed for a return to county politics. If so, he would be joining a field that already has two …
Monday, November 26, 2012
Bartlett said gerrymandering cost him the congressional election but the numbers tell a different story.
Capital News Service Congressman-elect John Delaney won Maryland's 6th District race on Election Day with the support of heavily Democratic Montgomery County, as expected, but a surprising number of Western Maryland voters voted to oust long-time incumbent Roscoe Bartlett, an analysis of the numbers shows. Now, those voters expect Delaney to champion their causes. Delaney campaigned by saying he was determined not to "balkanize the district"—splitting it into subgroups that could be targeted with tailored messages. That strategy appears to have paid off. Though the scant polling of the matchup showed Bartlett and Delaney tied throughout the fall, Delaney's 20-point win revealed the Democrat had more bipartisan appeal than any of Bartlett's…
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Online petitions to secede surround the Free State.
An apparent wave of post-election discontent has found its way online in the form of tens of thousands of people protesting the outcome of the presidential election by stoking the specter of secession. Maryland isn't among the states represented but all four of its neighbors are. Disgruntled residents from dozens of states—from California to New Hampshire and Texas to Florida—are using the Internet to try to invoke their First Amendment right to “petition the government for redress of grievances” by asking the White House to allow their state to withdraw from the Union. The White House's “We the People” program says the administration will respond to any petition that receives 25,000 or more signatures within 30 days. Petitions that have…
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Victors attribute the wins to Democratic Party dominance, among other factors.
Capital News Service A dominant state Democratic Party, a progressive electorate, a national trend toward socially liberal policies and the need for more revenue in tough economic times converged in Maryland to bring passage of same-sex marriage, in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants, expanded gambling and a gerrymandered political map, political observers say. All of Maryland's ballot initiatives passed on election night. "(Gov. Martin) O'Malley and the Democrats have complete control," said Blair Lee, political columnist at The Gazette newspapers. "The only (political) competition and conversation was among Democrats … the Republicans are almost now gone the way of the Whig Party in terms of influence and presence." In Maryland, …
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Scenes from the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee's viewing party for Election Night 2012.
Some 150 Democratic boosters and party leaders gathered at the Hilton Hotel on Rockville Pike to watch the Election Day results, which doubled as a viewing party for results from the presidential race and for U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen’s run at the newly redrawn 8th Congressional district. When Patch arrived at around 10 p.m., Van Hollen had already steamrolled past Republican challenger Ken Timmerman for the win. So all attention keened in on the large projection screen at the front of the room toggling back and forth among the TV news networks for updates of the presidential race. Cheers went up when up as George Allen conceded his Senate race in Virginia to Democrat Tim Kaine, then again as the Democrats secured control of the Senate. …
Check out John Delaney's full speech to his new Congressional District 6 constituents on election night.
John Delaney speaks to his new Congressional District 6 constituents in announcing his win on election night, ending Rep. Roscoe Bartlett’s 10-term reign in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Stuart
1:14 am on Tuesday, December 4, 2012
As Emily Litella might say, "what's all this talk about spigots?" more ›