Steny Hoyer’s* seat. I talked with Charles back in August, back when it was merely very, very likely that Lollar was running; I liked what I heard. He’s running as a strong conservative, with an emphasis on fiscal responsibility - but without ignoring the social issues, either. Below is video from his speech to the Cecil County Tea Party on the Fourth of July:

Charles Lollar for Congress. Donate here.

Moe Lane

*Interestingly, Hoyer was the last Democrat that I ever voted for, which is a mistake that I wouldn’t make again even if I still lived in the district. We don’t really have time for quote-unquote ‘conservative’ Democrats whose only difference between them and their liberal compatriots is in how much the rubble bounces.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Assuming that there’s any sort of on-message at this point. Via Hot Air, here’s the latest cloud of ink from a Democrat perhaps worried about the way things are going:

Hoyer (D-Md.) emphasized his support for a public option in a teleconference call with reporters, but also said he wants to ensure Congress sends a bill to the president.

“I’m for a public option, but I’m also for passing a bill,” he said. Democrats believe the public option is necessary, useful and important, he added, “be we’ll have to see.”

No doubt we’ll soon enough get a clarification of the explanation of the correction of the restatement of whatever the heck it is that the Democrats want to do this week. Although what are progressives going to do with Steny, anyway? Give money to Charles Lollar?

Well, they should. But that’s just the Marylander Republican talking.

Moe Lane

PS: In other words, it is not yet time for me to publicly join in the Crowder Victory Dance. And I am sure that the world finds this delay much to its liking.

[See here for the rest of the footnote.]

Senator Ben Cardin is having another townhall. It’s tomorrow. You can RSVP to attend if you live in Maryland.

Keep in mind that he stockpiled SEIU, AFL-CIO, and ACORN members at the last meeting, then belittled his constituents when they asked him questions.

I encourage you to show up.

Remember, you must RSVP.

Details are:

Wednesday, August 12th - 1 p.m.
Hagerstown Community College
Kepler Theater
11400 Robinwood Drive
Hagerstown, MD 21742

Parking is available adjacent to the theater.

RSVP - robin_summerfield@cardin.senate.gov

I had the opportunity to speak with Charles Lollar, Charles County (Maryland) Republican Central Committee Chairman, in a phone interview last week. Below are some of the things that we discussed.

First off, a bit of background: Charles Lollar is a business owner and member of the Marine Corps Reserve who has been spending the last few years promoting things like the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights. Lollar credits his family upbringing to his fiscal attitudes, particularly when it comes to the importance and value of hard work. His name has been floated as a possible gubernatorial candidate for Maryland 2010 election; however, he has recently started an exploratory committee involving running as a challenger to Steny Hoyer’s Congressional seat.

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Frank Kratovil (D-MD) is a freshman member of congress representing Maryland’s First Congressional District. He’s also extremely vulnerable.

You’d think he wouldn’t do stuff like this.

A young boy in the crowd asks the Congressman, “My grandfather is a retire war veteran. What are you going to do to make sure he is cared for with Health Care?”

Congressman Kratovil’s response? He starts talking about suicide.

See for yourself:

Why to make the kid go home worrying! Oh, as the Salisbury News points out, Kratovil never did directly answer the boy’s question after lecturing him on solider suicides.

Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark (Democrat-Californyland) has represented California’s 13th Congressional District since January 1973. In 2007 and 2008, though, he claimed Anne Arundel County, Maryland, as his home, filing for tax exemptions on a waterfront house he claims is his only residence.

A fact sheet provided by the California secretary of state’s elections division (”Summary of Qualifications and Requirements for Partisan Nomination for the Office of United States Representative in Congress“) suggests that any candidate, incumbent or not, must at very least be a resident of the state in order to run for Congress:

I. QUALIFICATIONS

Every candidate shall:

A. Be at least 25 years of age, a U.S. citizen for seven years, and a resident of California when elected.

Emphasis added. Further, the U.S. Constitution seems to be fairly clear on the issue of residency and eligibility for Congressional office. From Article 1 § 2:

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

When contacted by Bloomberg news, Stark (D-CA? MD?)claimed the Maryland house as his only residence. “I don’t have, I don’t own another residence,” he said, adding that he spends “about two-thirds of the year” in Maryland.

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I’ll need to remember this one if I ever have issues with my own state taxes:

Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel calls Maryland home for tax break

Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel may call himself a life-long Bronx resident, but he has also called Maryland his primary residence for years to get a local tax break that state officials have just squashed.

Engel, who rents an apartment back in his district, also owns a $1 million house with his wife in the well-off Washington suburb of Potomac, Md. - a property that has been afforded $7,000 in tax breaks since he bought it in 1993, The Associated Press reported.

The NYDN article goes on to give Engel’s claim that he wasn’t trying to defraud anyone - which is interesting, given this New York Times article on the subject:

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Contrary to popular conception, the South was not united during the Civil War. Every single southern state gave thousands of their sons to the northern armies and Maryland was no different. In fact, Maryland gave more soldiers to northern armies than it did southern (About 32,981 fought for the north and only 4,039 fought for the south). But this does not mean that Maryland was a state with overwhelming northern sentiment. Federal authorities were constantly suspicious of Maryland’s pro-Confederate sentiment, so much so that they feared New President Abraham Lincoln’s travel through the state might end in an assassination attempt. Being a border state, it had an awful lot of vocal southern sentiment and that sentiment shows in the state song, “Maryland, My Maryland.”

And now, 144 years after the civil war ended, legislation is going through the Maryland state house in Annapolis to change the long standing lyrics of the state song(adopted in 1939). It seems the “Confederate sympathies” in the song are too much for lawmaker Pamela Beidle (D-Anne Arundel) to take.

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On Iran, that is:

Sen. Benjamin Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, says Obama agrees with George W. Bush: “Iran’s got to stop financing terrorist activity. Iran’s got to give up its desire to become a nuclear weapons power. Its as clear as that.”

But what does Ben Cardin (D-MD) really know, anyway? After all, this is the guy who claimed the Patriot Act of 2001 “predated” his 1986 election to Congress, telling his alarmist supporters he couldn’t stop it because it was already in effect when he came to DC (never mind the fact that he actually voted to reauthorize the policy in 2006, when running for the Senate).

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