Mediaboss Marketing

Garry ... cysts benign

Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

THE COLLEEN Garry Democrat political machine rolled to election victory for the 11th consecutive time Tuesday night, but some pundits wondered if the steam engine is slowing down.

Garry's shrinking vote totals tell the story, they say. Garry's rematch with Dracut Selectmen Chairwoman Cathy Richardson, a Republican, wasn't expected to be close. Garry built up a 1,088-vote plurality over Richardson in retaining the 36th Middlesex District House seat (Dracut-Tyngsboro), yet her margin declined dramatically from the 2012 race, when she defeated Richardson by 3,527 votes.

Garry won 53.7 percent of the 14,570 votes cast on Tuesday; in 2012, she racked up 70 percent of the vote total when 20,587 residents pulled ballots during a presidential election.

The 6,017 fewer voters in 2014 may have been a factor. And Garry could not campaign for much of the fall due to surgery.

Still, there's no doubt that Richardson bested her overall numbers this year by 16 percent. Her biggest gains came in Dracut. Two years ago, Richardson garnered 3,546 Dracut votes; in 2014, she received 4,661, up 31 percent.

Meanwhile, Garry's Dracut total dropped from 8,511 in 2012 to 5,553 in 2014 -- a 35 percent decline (2,958 votes). Garry's vote total in Tyngsboro suffered even a more precipitous decline, going from 6,117 votes in 2012 to 2,276 in 2014 -- a 63 percent drop.

Is Richardson closing the gap toward a third run at Garry in 2016? Some observers told The Column they hope there is no Garry-Richardson III.

Four days before the Nov. 4 election, an anonymous packet arrived in The Sun's newsroom containing court documents on Richardson's five-year-old civil legal battle with a home mortgage company. The documents were circulated among Garry supporters, two of whom went on The Dracut Connection cable TV show to display the papers, accuse Richardson of "fraud" and basically smear Richardson's fiscal fitness to go to Beacon Hill.

Read more from the original source:
Garry train rolls on for now

Mike Francesa: Hillary a lock for Democrat nomination; may run unopposed
Tankmush.

By: samspinchat

Visit link:
Mike Francesa: Hillary a lock for Democrat nomination; may run unopposed - Video

5 Things to Cheer Up The Democrat or Progressive in Your Life
Is the Democrat in your life reeling after the mid-term loss? Show them this video and cheer them up!

By: The Political Garbage Channel

Link:
5 Things to Cheer Up The Democrat or Progressive in Your Life - Video

Amid a tide of Republican victories in Maryland, Kevin Kamenetz is one of the Baltimore region's blue survivors.

The Democrat defeated little-known and poorly funded Republican challenger George Harman to win a second term as Baltimore County executive, but he will start that term with a changing landscape all around him a Republican governor, more Republican elected officials in his county and a ring of Republican-led counties around Baltimore.

The political shift spells more uncertainty for Baltimore's Red Line, a proposed mass transit route from Woodlawn in the county to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in east Baltimore City, and continued emphasis by Kamenetz on economic development. Chief on his agenda are revitalization of downtown Towson, redevelopment of the old Sparrows Point steel mill and working to keep the McCormick spice company's headquarters in the county.

Kamenetz, 56, shrugs off the 2014 trend.

"It happens. There are always cycles in politics," he said. "The pendulum always swings back."

This year, the pendulum swung hard to the political right. Harford, Howard and Anne Arundel counties all elected Republican county executives Tuesday; all five of Carroll County's county commissioners are Republican. Baltimore City remains staunchly Democratic, but its leadership was not up for election.

John Bullock, a Towson University political science professor, said Kamenetz is seen as a Democrat who governs from the center, and his focus on economic growth seems to appeal to both parties. That the GOP couldn't muster a strong challenger to face Kamenetz when they did so successfully elsewhere speaks to his stature, Bullock said.

"He's doing a decent job, doing a credible job, and I don't think anyone wanted to step out and challenge him," Bullock said.

The Republican Party didn't concentrate its efforts or dollars trying to unseat Kamenetz. Harman raised less than $16,000 through late October, while Kamenetz started the year with $1 million and had enough money to funnel to other candidates' campaigns. Kamenetz beat Harman 56 percent to 44 percent.

"The focus of the party was to regain the governor's office," said John Fiastro, departing chairman of Baltimore County's Republican Central Committee. Gov.-elect Larry Hogan earned nearly 60 percent of the vote in Baltimore County, a jurisdiction that went for Democrat Gov. Martin O'Malley in 2010.

Read more from the original source:
Democrat Kamenetz plots a course in the wake of GOP gains

Former U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, a Democrat from western Illinois who became a prominent advocate for veterans causes during 24 years in Congress, died Nov. 5 at a nursing home in East Moline, Ill. He was 63.

Michael Malmstrom, a legal guardian and former staffer, confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Mr. Evans announced in 1998 that he had Parkinsons disease and declined to seek reelection in 2006.

A Marine veteran, Mr. Evans served in Okinawa during the Vietnam War and was a legal services lawyer before running for Congress, his first elective office, in 1982. The district, which includes the Quad Cities along the Mississippi River, was long held by Republicans. Mr. Evans won the seat after the eight-term incumbent, Tom Railsback, was defeated in the GOP primary.

Mr. Evans held the seat for 12 terms despite several competitive Republican challenges an achievement that was credited in part to his reliable constituent services. He was perhaps most outspoken on veterans issues; his brother had served in Vietnam during the Southeast Asian war.

Veterans are the most neglected constituency in the country, Mr. Evans once told the Chicago Tribune. Conservatives are all for them in the armed forces, but when theyre discharged, they forget them. Liberals sometimes have a cultural problem in dealing with them. Im sorry if it disappoints my friends, but I feel a real obligation, particularly since very few others are standing up for the veterans of my country.

He helped lead the Vietnam-era veterans caucus, became ranking Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee and successfully pushed for compensation for military personnel who said they had been harmed by exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam.

After the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s, Mr. Evans pursued the investigation of the disorder known as Gulf War syndrome. He was credited with advocating for benefits for homeless veterans, research on trauma wounds, and job assistance for servicemen and women.

Following the 1992 election, he narrowly lost a challenge to G.V. Sonny Montgomery (D-Miss.) for the Veterans Affairs Committee chairmanship.

Mr. Evans also was a member of the Armed Services Committee, where he pushed for measures to end the use of land mines.

Lane Allen Evans was born in Rock Island, Ill., on Aug. 4, 1951. His mother was a nurse, and his father, he told The Washington Post, was a firefighter who never got promoted because he was a union organizer.

Read more:
Former U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, Illinois Democrat, dies at 63