Maryland, My Maryland

Robert Schmad at Da Caller, Dem Senate Candidate Had ‘No Interest Whatsoever In Immigration’ — Now Migrant Sex Offenders Are Flooding Her State

Democratic Maryland Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, while serving as the executive of Prince George’s County in 2019, said she had no interest in helping the federal government enforce immigration laws, according to a resurfaced video.

Alsobrooks, speaking to members of a Latino-focused healthcare nonprofit, vowed not to cooperate with federal immigration authorities as she believed doing so would go beyond her duty as a local official. Agents working at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Baltimore, the state’s largest city, arrested a record 161 noncitizen sex offenders as of Sept. 9, an all-time record. Baltimore County, like Alsobrooks’ Prince George County, is a “sanctuary” jurisdiction that restricts how local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

“You probably have heard already, we made a very big statement, and we did so on purpose to say that the local government, I have no interest whatsoever in immigration, in serving detainers and all that kind of stuff is not the business of the local government,” Alsobrooks told workers at La Clinica del Pueblo in 2019. “I don’t care, you know, how long you’ve been here.”

As Prince George County executive, Alsobrooks implemented a policy where the county would only notify ICE of illegal immigrants in cases where they were arrested and charged with gang-related or violent criminal offenses, according to her campaign website. She also advocated to allow unlawful immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses during her tenure as state attorney in 2013.

“As County Executive Alsobrooks runs from her record on this issue, the facts are clear,” Larry Hogan, the GOP nominee for Senate, campaign spokeswoman Blake Kernan told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In her first year in office, she barred Prince George’s County from complying with ICE detainers, and the results have been devastating. Alsobrooks ignored the detainers of two noncitizen offenders who went on to murder a fourteen year old girl in Anne Arundel County after she let them go. Alsobrooks oversaw the release of sex offenders and MS-13 members who have gone on to commit violent crimes. In 2019, she said ‘we are not participating in immigration enforcement,’ and has lived up to that promise. When she says where she stands, voters should listen.”

Two teenage illegal aliens in Prince George County were arrested for attempted murder in 2018 and released in 2019, Fox Baltimore reported. Detainer requests from ICE were ignored by local officials, and both were charged in May 2019 with murder related to the death of a 14-year-old girl.

More recently, police arrested an illegal alien in the county on suspicion that he murdered a man using a machine gun, a local ABC affiliate reported. William Pavon Mancock, the accused killer, was not deported after being jailed for a drug charge in November 2023.

A September poll conducted by Gonzalez Research & Media Services, Inc. found that 84% of Marylanders believe local law enforcement should be required to cooperate with ICE when a detained migrant has a criminal history. The majority of Americans also support mass deportations, according to multiple polls.

One of many reasons I'll suck it up and vote for Hogan. 

Maryland, My Maryland

 Hat Hair cites Fox, Oops: Larry Hogan's Senate Opponent Has Some Delinquent Payment Issues

Fresh off headlines that the Democrats' Senate nominee in Maryland received an improper tax credit, new documents indicate that Angela Alsobrooks also was late in paying thousands of dollars in homeowners association fees.

According to documents obtained by Fox News, Alsobrooks failed to pay $8,121 in homeowners association fees on time in seven cases from 2008 through 2021.

The fees, known as HOA fees, are usually assessed monthly or quarterly by a homeowners' association to pay for the services it provides.

Alsobrooks, the chief executive of Prince George's County – Maryland's second-largest county – faces former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in a competitive race to succeed Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin, who is retiring this year after serving nearly two decades in the Senate and nearly six decades as a state and then federal lawmaker.

Do you think she'll be as reluctant to spend taxpayers money as she is to part with her own?

Maryland, My Maryland

 CNN admits Angela Alsobrooks improperly claimed tax deductions on DC, Maryland properties

Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maryland, improperly took advantage of tax breaks she did not qualify for, including one meant for low-income senior citizens, saving thousands of dollars in taxes on two properties she owned in Washington, DC, and in Maryland.

A CNN review of property records and tax bills shows that for both properties, Alsobrooks claimed for more than a decade a homestead tax exemption that is meant to apply only to someone’s primary residence, violating state and local tax relief requirements.

She also improperly claimed a senior citizens’ tax break on her Washington property, cutting the tax bill in half. Alsobrooks, 53, never qualified for that tax break, but her grandparents, who owned the property before her, likely did.
 
A senior adviser for Alsobrooks told CNN that she was unaware of the problem and that her attorneys are working with both Washington and Prince George’s County, Maryland, to resolve the issue.

Alsobrooks saved nearly $14,000 in taxes between 2005 and 2017 on her northeast Washington property by using tax exemptions meant for the district’s primary residents, lower income residents and senior citizens, according to property tax bills reviewed by CNN.

But she did not live in Washington, according to public records. Since 1995, she has been registered to vote in Prince George’s County, where she’s been a longtime government official. She’s currently the county executive there, where she oversees the county’s budget and its tax collection division.

Connor Lounsbury, senior adviser to Alsobrooks, told CNN that after her grandmother moved out of the home in northeast Washington, Alsobrooks paid the mortgage on the property until it was sold in 2018. “She was unaware of any tax credits attached to that property and has reached out to the District of Columbia to resolve the issue and make any necessary payment,” Lounsbury said. 
 
In 2005, Alsobrooks bought a townhouse in Prince George’s County. State records show she applied for and received a homestead exemption in 2008 for the townhouse. It’s unclear when, but she eventually began renting out the property – while continuing to take the exemption meant for primary residents.

While county records for her property tax bill on the townhouse go back only as far as fiscal year 2020, it is estimated that the exemption would have saved her at least $2,600 since then.

In 2014, Alsobrooks bought another home in an “equestrian” community in Prince George’s County. She lists the property as her primary residence on her mortgage – but does not take a homestead exemption there, something her campaign points out has actually cost her money.

“When Angela bought her new property, the homestead tax credit from her previous home was not transferred,” Lounsbury said. “This resulted in no financial gain for Angela. In fact, she ended up paying more in taxes than she would have had the credit transferred over. Nevertheless, Angela is working to repay any credits received on the old property.”

It's reassuring that she's working with the tax people, now that she's been caught cheating on her state taxes. If we are to believe that all this tax avoidance was an accident, I think it's fair to question whether she is smart enough to be a Senator, though, to be sure, the bar is pretty low. 

Maryland, My Maryland

Leah Barkoukis at TownHall, Manchin Endorses Republican in Governor's Race

Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) backed former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in his Senate bid, calling him “the right person” for the job.

Manchin, who left the Democratic Party in May to become an independent, praised the Republican for not being afraid to push back on his party.

“Forget about being a Democrat or Republican,” said Manchin, reports DC News Now. “Larry Hogan is just the right person with the right attitude for the job. He’s not afraid to speak against your party and he won’t be controlled by any party or any type of ideology.”

The move will likely anger his former party as it’s seen as a snub against the Democratic nominee, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
. . .
According to a polling average from RealClear Polling, Alsobrooks is up 4.4 percentage points.

I'll take it without complaint. As I keep saying, Hogan is not the best Republican, but he is about the best Republican who has the possibility of being elected in Maryland. 

Maryland, My Maryland

Jude Russo at Am Con thinks Hogan Is Blowing the Maryland Senate Race. "A Republican can’t win by being Democrat Lite." Why not? It's worked for Hogan before. 

The forces of Maryland politics are conspiring to make a jackass out of your humble correspondent, which he doesn’t appreciate—he has that base covered all by himself.

First we argued that Rep. David Trone, a grotesquely wealthy arriviste with bog-standard liberal politics, had it sewn up for the Democratic nomination for senate against Angela Alsobrooks. Trone’s polls were sagging as the primary approached, but Alsobrooks’s highest title to date is executive of Prince George’s County (not a name synonymous with good government in the Old Line State). Even Spiro Agnew, erstwhile Baltimore County executive, spent some time in the Governor’s Mansion before leaping into national politics. Alsobrooks walked away with it, 53 percent to 42—Trone didn’t even cover the spread. So be it. Every gambler loses some, for better or worse. We wrote about it.

We then predicted that the solidly popular former governor, Larry Hogan, would be in good shape to capture the seat for the Republicans in the general election. Preliminary polling had shown him in a dead heat or edging out both Trone and Alsobrooks. Hogan was a recognizable character in American politics, the red governor of a blue state. You wouldn’t want him for president, but he was probably a cut better than your Parris Glendenningses and Martin O’Malleys. He had run a budget surplus while actually improving services like the Motor Vehicles Administration and beating cancer, which is (we are told) a big sympathy-winner. The right wing of Maryland Republicans regarded him as a bit of a squish, especially after some high-profile differences with President Donald Trump, but it didn’t seem insurmountable in a cycle that has seen the 45th president dance away from social issues and endorse whatever centrists are willing to smoke the peace pipe.

It is now a month and a half later. The latest polling shows Hogan’s support in the mid-30s, more than 10 points behind Alsobrooks. So far from fielding a competitive showing against a weak candidate, Hogan is wandering into the realm of pain where people use words like “blowout” and “landslide” and (our favorite, watch for this one here when he loses) “massacre.”

Alsobrooks is still a weak candidate; the same poll that showed Hogan 11 points behind pegged her support at an anemic 48 percent. (This is in a state where there are more than twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans.) So what happened?

A couple things. First, Hogan in mid-May vowed that he would be a pro-choice senator, coming out in favor of codifying Roe v. Wade at the federal level. The play here is obvious. The prevailing theory of Republican defeat in 2022 is that the Dobbs decision freaked out fiscally conservative (or at any rate, anti-tax) but socially liberal suburbanites. The first problem is that he had previously touted himself as a pro-life Catholic and as governor made marginal moves to restrict abortion access in the state. The Maryland Democrats have not forgotten. The second problem is that this disavows one of the GOP’s greatest victories at the federal level, and cuts against the party’s current states’ rights approach to the issue. Gratuitously, too—nobody is very worried that abortion is about to be banned in Maryland.

Then, worse, Hogan vocally repudiated Trump’s peace overtures, saying that he has “no interest” in an endorsement after the former president had said he would like to see Hogan win his race. The reasoning is analogous—the theory is that the Trump name is poison in the suburbs, so running away from it is the thing to do.

This is a penny-wise and pound-foolish approach. Trump is at the top of the party’s ticket, whether you like it or not; while the Maryland GOP relies on swinging suburbanites, the party’s rural bloc is all in on Trump. Your humble correspondent lives in the country. Outside the teeming college-town metropole of our county seat, the political (and physical) landscape is indistinguishable from the Pennsylvania exurbs that carried Trump to the presidency. These voters are the reason the GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2020 was a hardline lawyer involved in the former president’s election-fraud suits rather than Hogan’s anointed successor; they are a plurality of the state’s actual Republican base, such as it is. With a Trump endorsement, we suspect they would have held their noses to vote for Hogan (“the bald freak,” in local parlance). Without it—well, spite is a powerful thing. For the GOP to win statewide office, you need all those voters, as well as a share of the suburbs.

Hogan has tacked to the center and overshot. A voter may reasonably ask, If the Republican candidate is at war with the party leadership and has repudiated a huge part of the national party’s successes and current program, why not just vote for the Democrat?

I was dubious of Hogan's chances at winning a Senate seat in the first place. Why? Although Hogan was a pretty popular Governor from the other side, the Democrat party is firmly in control of Maryland politics. Even moderate Democrats are likely to remember him fondly while pulling the lever (our voting machines don't have levers) for Alsobrooks, just out of party loyalty, and because control of the Senate may well rest on that choice. MAGA Republicans need to look at the same calculation. A weak Republican in Hogan would be far better than the far-left Democrat Alsobrooks.  

It might also amuse fellow Marylander that our current governor, Wes Moore, is being touted by some as a potential replacement for Joe Biden. Ned Cosby at Am Think, After Biden -- Moore, or less? 

Some of us weary of DEI wonder if it means “Didn’t Earn It?” Others hiss and remind us that DEI means “Don’t Even Inquire!”

That's what's in mind now given the unanswered questions swirling around Wes Moore, the black Democrat governor of Maryland, who's being trotted out in the press right now to discuss the faltering of Joe Biden.

Moore certainly seems to be a Democrat opportunist in the mold of Rahm Emmanuel who said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” A bridge collapses in Maryland and he imagines himself being sworn in as POTUS.

That's an actual possibility now, given that Joe Biden has messed up his June 27 debate, and the names of potential replacements are being bruited about. Sure, he denies interest. But they all do at this point.

At the risk of being awarded the “Scarlet R,” amid this media buildup, I would like to ask, as a resident of Maryland, a few questions about Moore, who is sure to be given glowing press coverage:

Did Wes Moore earn a Bronze Star during his time in the Army? Does he, like Joe Biden, embellish and allow others to embellish his own history to advance his career? What kinds of petty crime did he commit before his mother sent him to military school? Is he the latest DEI messiah from the Democrat party, hoping to out-Obama Obama?


But for now, I would respond with caution. As the press is bound to be touting him for his dream job of POTUS, I remember that Barack Obama was also feted in the press, and became POTUS before he was thoroughly vetted.

I don't have a particular animus against Moore, I didn't vote for him, and I don't like my tax money constantly being spent of DEI grifts, but that was inevitable with any Democrat governor of Maryland, especially a black one. I just don't see him getting much attention outside of Maryland with which to make a shot at the presidency. Maryland is eminently overlookable. 

Maryland, My Maryland

A Double! First, From Da Caller, Democrats May Have Just Shot Themselves In The Foot — In Must-Win State

Polling for Maryland’s Senate race largely suggests Larry Hogan, the widely-popular former Republican governor, fares better in a general election against the Democrat who voters chose to be their nominee Tuesday.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks defeated Rep. David Trone by over ten points among a crowded field of Democratic primary hopefuls on Tuesday, after the congressman invested over $61 million of his own money into the race. Some Maryland political operatives who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation argued that Trone’s loss puts Democrats at a financial disadvantage in the Hogan-Alsobrooks matchup in November.

“It poses a challenge for the Democrat Party nationally, because, you know, David Trone being the self-funder — as precarious as it is with West Virginia, you know, poised to flip — they have to hold serve, and, you know, in a state that heretofore was a given,” Paul Ellington, Republican strategist based in Maryland and former state GOP executive director, told the DCNF. “I think the Democrat Party, although they wouldn’t say at the national level, was hoping that the results would have been a little bit different.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is hoping to keep its slim majority by defending vulnerable Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, as well as open seats in Michigan and Arizona. The seat currently held by Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is almost certain to flip red with Republican Gov. Jim Justice’s Tuesday nomination, as the senator announced his retirement in November 2023.

Len Foxwell, a Democratic strategist based in Maryland, echoed Ellington’s sentiment, and told the DCNF that Trone, the owner of Total Wine, would’ve been able to “bankroll his own general election operation.”  

“While Alsobrooks will obviously have all the money she needs to match Larry Hogan dollar-for-dollar and then some, because control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance, [sic] that will come at a cost of money that otherwise could have gone to embattled Democrats in purple or red-leaning states,” Foxwell told the DCNF. “To that extent, it makes the national party’s job a little more difficult.”

As I've noted before, I'll support Hogan, not because he's a perfect Republican, but because he's a Republican who might be able to win in Maryland. 

Hank Berrien at Da Wire, Federal Court Rules Maryland Parents Can’t Opt Kids Out Of Classes With LGBT Content

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled 2-1 against Maryland parents who sued their local school board for not letting their children in grades K-5 opt out of reading books supporting transgender ideology and gender transitioning.

The Montgomery County Public Schools board denied the parents their request to be notified when the books would be read to their children and the opportunity to opt out.

“The Board is violating the parents’ inalienable and constitutionally protected right to control the religious upbringing of their children, especially on sensitive issues concerning family life and human sexuality,”

. . .
A district court ruled against the parents, prompting them to appeal to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied the parents’ request for a preliminary injunction but allowed the possibility of changing its position once the classes have already been taught, writing:

We take no view on whether the Parents will be able to present evidence sufficient to support any of their various theories once they have the opportunity to develop a record as to the circumstances surrounding the Board’s decision and how the challenged texts are actually being used in schools. At this early stage, however, given the Parents’ broad claims, the very high burden required to obtain a preliminary injunction, and the scant record before us, we are constrained to affirm the district court’s order denying a preliminary injunction.

Judge Marvin Quattlebaum dissented, writing, “I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the parents have not produced enough evidence to establish that their free exercised rights have been burdened. The parents have met their burden. They have produced the books that no one disputes will be used to instruct their K-5 children. They produced declarations explaining in detail why the books conflict with their religious beliefs. They have produced the board’s own internal documents that show how it suggests teachers respond to students and parents who question the contents of the books.”

Maryland, My Maryland

Da Balmer Sun, Alsobrooks defeats Trone in Senate primary, will face Hogan in November. Proving that while money might be able to buy happiness, it can't always buy elections. I'll be grateful to see the end of the Trone ads on TV. 

I will support Hogan. As I've noted in the past, while Hogan may not be much of a Republican, he's about as Republican as a politician can be and win statewide in Maryland. I will not let the perfect become the enemy of good.