Let's Make This Year an Andy Harris Free Zone

Estimated read time: 11 minutes

Who should be our representative in Congress?  It is far easier for me to answer who our representative should not be than it is to answer who our representative should be.   That's a sad statement on our choices.

Let me start by stating emphatically and unequivocally - let's make the Eastern Shore of Maryland an Andy Harris free zone.

Pardon me.  I don't want to offend him.  Since he's always quick to point out that it's "Dr." Andy Harris, perhaps I should afford him the respect and refer to him as doctor.  Of course Congress isn't a doctor's office.  Perhaps Andy Harris should've remained in practice, which is where I would refer to him as "doctor" if I were brave enough to seek his medical services.

Yes, something about my elected official insisting he be referred to by a title rubs me the wrong way.  Since the government is of the people, for the people, and by the people, Mr., Ms., or full name is all an elected official should expect to be referred by.  It would serve politicians well to emulate George Washington's example and shun titles in sincere humbleness.  Note I didn't write "President" George Washington, but who does?

There's more to my opposition to Andy Harris than his bit of arrogance on insisting he be called doctor.   It's his voting record that has me saying, "Enough already!"

Andy Harris rode the Tea Party wave into Congress eight years ago.  I don't know the principles that describe the Tea Party other than they are mostly old people fifteen or twenty years either side of Andy Harris' age.  They coasted on the peaceful road of success during their early adulthood.  When the world changed after 9/11 and their life of luxury collapsed with the Great Recession in 2008, they grew angry and started hunting for scapegoats to blame for all their woes.

Andy Harris' voting record reflects that angry, blame everyone-not-like-me mindset.  Voting along strict, far right party lines, his support of the extreme ideology of his party is more important than the ideology of his constituents.  I'll let the group, Politics That Work, a nonpartisan group providing fact based information for voters, sum up Andy Harris' voting record.

Summary of voting record: Representative Harris opposes taxing businesses, consumer protection, disaster relief, funding education, environmental protection, financial sector regulation, gun control, public health, foreign and humanitarian aid, humane immigration policy, labor rights and wages, LGBT rights, avoiding default, poverty amelioration, racial equality, increasing revenues, taxing the wealthy, a robust safety net, higher spending, domestic surveillance, women's rights and supports big business, hawkish foreign policy, taxing the middle class. 

Of the summarized list, I can applaud Andy Harris only for his stance against domestic surveillance.  Since I'm not a one-issue voter, his stance on domestic surveillance and rights to privacy are not enough to sway my overall negative opinion of his performance in the last eight years.

If what I have given so far is not enough to convince you Andy Harris is bad for the Eastern Shore and bad for the country, consider his call for his colleagues in the Senate to refuse to hold confirmation hearings on President Obama's pick for the US Supreme Court seat vacated by Anthony Scalia.  I wrote him asking why he would encourage the Senate not to do their job as dictated by the Constitution.  I also asked a whole series of other questions related to his support for ignoring the Constitution.  You can read my letter and his response (or should I say non-response?) here.

In a nutshell, he gave me a lesson on the Constitution, which happened to be the same lesson I gave him while asking my questions.  He ended his response with the House doesn't hold confirmation hearings.  The Senate does.  Again, I already told him that.  I wanted to know why he was encouraging the Senate not to hold the confirmation hearings in defiance of the Constitution, the main question he never did answer.

If "no" to Andy Harris, who does that leave us with?

Slim pickings.

I perused each and every candidate's official website and, if they had one, official FaceBook page.  Each and every one had a bunch of words tied together with a lot of hot air to make sentences out of their collection of words.  A sample:

• I served in the military.
• I believe in the second amendment.
• I am for taxing the wealthy because Republicans won't.
•  I'm running because people need a representative who cares and works for them. 
• I think we need responsible gun ownership.
• I can get things done unlike the career politicians currently in Congress.

Those are paraphrased quotes that give a feel for what the eight candidates (excluding Andy Harris) pass off as their qualifications.

"Wait a minute," you might say.  "There's eight candidates, but only six quotes.  Are the other two candidates you didn't quote the qualified ones?"

Hardly.  Two of the candidates shared the "I served in the military" qualification.  The other candidate, Michael Brown (D), doesn't have a campaign website.  I can't even verify he knows he's running for office. For the same reason, I excluded Libertarian Jenica Martin.  She supplies no evidence she is a serious candidate such as an active campaign website or active social media account.

Guess what?  I have all six qualifications claimed by the seven active candidates.  Would you vote for me?  If your answer is no, then you know why we have slim pickings in candidate choices this year.

For the primary election, I will vote for Martin Elborn for two reasons.  First, I missed the deadline to change my party affiliation to Independent so I can still vote Republican.  Second, he won the coin toss.  That means Lamont Taylor is out.  He's probably a nice guy, but lousy at winning coin tosses.

On the Democrat side, I can eliminate five candidates right away.  Michael Brown because best I can tell, either he stands for nothing or he doesn't know he's running.  The four of the five remaining are running by virtue of the gerrymandering of our district.  I strongly believe congressional districts should be drawn on geography and population, not on how the redistricting favors one party over another.  Those four, Steve Worton, Erik Lane, Allison Galbraith, and Jesse Colvin, live on the other side of the Bay.  They talk a lot about themselves and a little about life over there, but not one mentions the Eastern Shore, our watermen, or our farmers.

At least none of the Democrats refer to the Eastern Shore as the outhouse of Maryland, but none of them seem to care we're over here, either.  (Yes, the military had me out in the Arizona desert when a former Democrat governor called the Eastern Shore a more vulgar term for outhouse, but even I heard the remark way out there.  This drunk redneck also has a long memory.)

All this rambling means there's one Democrat who lives over here, Michael Pullen.  His slogan play on words involving his last name struck me as odd.

"Pullen for Congress"
"Pullen for racial, social, and economic justice"
"Pullen for women"

Ok, that last one is creepy, but you get the idea of what he's doing.  If this is as creative as he and his staff can be, we may as well start recruiting our congresspersons from middle school, if we haven't already started that.

Reading his official website, I got the feeling a student in grade school wrote the page content for him.  I'm not the world's smartest man, but I know when I'm reading a children's book and a children's book is how his web page read.

I use a tool for my own writing, the Hemingway App, and I was curious how Mr. Pullen's writing stacked up.  The app passed him with flying colors.  The app also strives for a sixth grade reading level and Mr. Pullen's came in at the seventh grade level.  Major newspapers, like The New York Times or The Washington Post, are written on the eleventh grade level.  This article by me you are reading came in at an eighth grade level.  The low score might mean I've had a couple of beers too many.

Now I have to be careful here.  Some of your most famous authors, even the Pulitzer Prize winning ones, stick to the seventh to ninth grade reading level.  I don't know the science that goes behind these reading apps and how the levels are determined, but I can read Hemingway or King or any of the other great authors and not feel like I'm reading a grade school student's work.

My conclusion?  Mr. Pullen either wanted to get his message across in the clearest, simplest manner using the easiest to understand language and structure or, like Andy Harris insisting he be referred to as doctor, Mr. Pullen holds a degree of snobbery and contempt for us commoners.  Yes, most people are more comfortable reading two levels below their grade level so most high school graduates are comfortable reading at the ninth or tenth grade range.  Perhaps Mr. Pullen doesn't realize most of us on the Eastern Shore have graduated high school.

The last tidbit sealing my decision to make the Eastern Shore a Michael Pullen free zone in addition to an Andy Harris free zone is last summer, against the backdrop of the Talbot Boys (a monument honoring Talbot veterans who fought on the Confederate side of the Civil War), Mr. Pullen called for the immediate removal of the monument.

First, we honor all veterans, even the veterans from unpopular wars.  We don't diminish any veteran's service through faddish revisionist history claims.  It's imperative our elected officials stand behind our veterans, even our veterans from unpopular wars.  Second, the Talbot Boys is a local issue.  Congressional members (and candidates) concern themselves with national matters.  Mr. Pullen's ploy was plain, unadulterated pandering to a select group of voters.  Mr. Pullen spat on the veterans of a past war for the vote of Richard Potter, president of the Talbot NAACP, and possibly one disinterested citizen.  Pictures don't lie.

If she were running, I'd vote for her.  Looks like
she could take on DC one claw tied behind her back

Does all this rambling mean I endorse Martin Elborn?

Sorry, no.  So I'll ramble more for you entertainment or frustration.  I'll try to make it short, but you might want to grab a beer or a glass of wine just in case.

My normal method of looking for achievements and measurable goals failed to pick a suitable candidate to replace Andy Harris.  I have to lower my expectations and set the bar for the candidates that even they can hurdle.  Where they live and the coin toss is out.  How straight and narrow they toe the party line is in.  The more one plays party puppet, the less likely they'll get my vote.

On the Republican side Martin Elborn will get my vote in the primary.  I don't know if I'll vote for him come the general election, but if he wins the primary, he has a lot of work ahead of him.  Lamont Taylor is probably a nice guy, but he regurgitates the party line almost word for word - pretty much like Andy Harris does.  We have too many puppets in Congress.  We don't need to send another one.

On the Democrat side, I have to bring in the four candidates who live on the other side of the Bay since Michael Pullen is in exile with Andy Harris.  We have, in no particular order, Jesse Colvin, Allison Galbraith, Erik Lane, and Steve Worton.

Following the standard of who toes the party line the straightest, Steve Worton is out.  The overall tone of his official campaign site reeks of us vs them, that is Democrats vs Republican and Democrats are the only ones who have it right.  I can't vote for him in the primary, but if he shows up on the ballot in the general election, I'm in a real dilemma if he runs against Andy Harris.

Allison Galbraith, Erik Lane, and Jesse Colvin pass the puppet test.  Since I can't vote for any of them in the primary, I only gave a cursory glance at where they stand on the issues.  One didn't stand out over the others.  If Andy Harris is on the ticket come November, I hope one of these three oppose him.  They will get my vote.

If you want to learn more about any of the candidates, please visit Ballotpedia.   You'll find every candidate listed and all the links to their Internet presence (official website, FaceBook, and Twitter accounts).  Know you candidates before you go to the polls!


TL;DR folks:
We need to make the Eastern Shore an Andy Harris free zone.  While we're at it, we may as well as make it a Michael Pullen free zone, too. 

For your listening pleasure:

Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks