Thursday, April 19, 2007

The unobtrusvie tones on the news tonight...

The Flier today released its endorsements and I wasn't among the chosen five. Which, depending on who you believe, is either a good thing or a bad thing (see David Wissing's historical take here). I guess we'll find out on Saturday.

Looking on the bright side, there are several unqualified good things (for me, anyway) in today's edition. For instance, a nice letter of support from Oakland Mills village board vice-chair Karen Gray, as well as a strongly worded endorsement from The African American Coalition of Howard County (scroll down a bit) -- both of which I'm very grateful for. Also, OM village chair Bill Woodcock's support of my candidacy was newsworthy enough to merit a blurb (again, scroll down).

So, you take the good, you take the bad...(I'm sorry).

Of course, I have a few gripes about the endorsements and the process used to reach them. But I think I'll save these for later, when I have more time to write and after I've had a chance to distance myself from the campaign. So, Sunday, probably. See my comment on Wissing's post for a sneak preview.

For now, feel free to share your thoughts on the endorsements, their importance, or the Columbia elections in general. Or anything else you feel like talking about. (For instance, why is tonight's episode of The Office another repeat? Seriously. We get one new show after a month of reruns and then more reruns. It's maddening.)

5 comments:

FreeMarket said...

I totally agree with your comment on Wissing’s blog. The endorsements, particularly the one for Barbra Russell, are basically mindless rhetoric. They sound more like campaign sound bites than a genuinely persuasive endorsement. Maybe I am expecting too much from a two or three sentence blurb. The Flyer should have devoted more resources to the CA races. Looking forward to your post on the matter…

Anonymous said...

Agreed. The coverage was atrocious. The Flier's endorsement talks about Russell's "specific, detailed ideas." Has anybody seen them?

It was interesting to note that Barbara Russell's support letters all came from people outside of Oakland Mills. Guess people like her better if they don't have to deal with her.

Anonymous said...

Sure, her specific ideas were to dump all new development into the rural west and bring McMansions into OM.

Specific? Yes. Ridiculous and off topic? Yes.

Best of luck to you, Hayduke. OM and CA need a reasoned voice at the table.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the newspaper(s) could be more energetic in covering the Columbia elections, but the source of difficulty lies with your own village boards.

Information is not forthcoming for several villages, and without the ability for balanced reporting among villages, maybe Patuxent just threw in the towel.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:04: You make a reasonable point about balanced coverage. And I'll gie you that there is some variation among the villages with respect to the campaign information they make available on their websites. Click around the different village websites and you'll see that.

But part of the job of the press is to get information that the public would otherwise have difficulty finding or accessing. Why should the village boards be roadblocks? Couldn't reporters just go straight to the sources -- that is, the candidates?