PG County Executive Alsobrooks Running for Senate. Deserves Election?

[Turnerbro]

Originally Posted by Quick Enough

Why should any Repubs waste their time?


MD is a HEAVY dem state.


And hasn't changed.

I mean... Hogan won two elections so it's not a complete waste, AAC and Baltimore county could flip to red if a non Trumpeter runs. Regarding Alsobrooks. She deserves consideration just like anyone else. Personally she never really appealed to me on a personal level. I think she's going to have to really connect with people outside her bubble in PG if she wants a chance to win. I'm skeptical about her doing it, though she certainly could prove me wrong.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by Turnerbro

I mean... Hogan won two elections so it's not a complete waste, AAC and Baltimore county could flip to red if a non Trumpeter runs. Regarding Alsobrooks. She deserves consideration just like anyone else. Personally she never really appealed to me on a personal level. I think she's going to have to really connect with people outside her bubble in PG if she wants a chance to win. I'm skeptical about her doing it, though she certainly could prove me wrong.

The last GOP Senator from Maryland was J. Glenn Beall........lost to Sarbanes in the 1970s, too lazy to find the exact year.........so it's been over 40 years.

Maryland can go red for gubernatorial elections if the GOP candidate is moderate and the Dem candidate is incompetent (looking at you KKT, Brown, Jealous.) In those cases, swing voters will choose the better administrator, knowing the DEM dominated legislature holds most of the power. This is true in NE states too, not just Maryland.

National Elections are completely different. Elect even a moderate GOP candidate, and you just ceded one of 100 votes to the Republicans 8/10 times or so....even "moderates" rarely buck the party majority in the Senate. It rarely makes sense to cross party lines in Senate races unless you have a very senior ranking Senator who brings back a ton of pork to your state. Babs won Allegany County a few times in the 20th century, and even after the blue dogs went red in their voting habits, she would overperform all the other Ds on the ballot because she did come out to our part of the state and fight for specific interest of ours.

[SethGrayson]

Originally Posted by DCBornAndRaised

OP here. Yes, the quality of life in the county has declined especially for many who reside inside the beltway and are in unincorporated parts of the county, where we have no municipal government to seek for help. We are completely dependent on the county.

Waste management services have continued to decline. I and others do not understand how the current company continues to receive the county contract for recycling and trash pick-up. They drop trash and glass in the street and make no effort to pick it up. They leave trash in the bottom of the can where it will sit and stink for another week because we are now down to 1 pick-up a week. They throw the bins around and break them and thrust them into parked cars. We've embraced composting now. The problem is the same company picks up composting - or not. Missed collections abound weekly for compost, trash and/or recycling. That compost will now sit until the collection next week - unless they miss that one too.

When Alsobrooks took office she promised that she was going to get more inspectors to address all the issues in our communities with regard to code enforcement and property standards. It did not happen. Quality of life was already diminished because of the few number of inspectors. Her budget did not provide for more inspectors. There were 7 for the entire county and it stayed that way throughout her term. Only now I hear that the budget now includes more inspector positions.

DPIE is just about "useless". There is limited code enforcement of property standards. We've got violations that are not addressed and service requests to 311 are closed without action and without explanation as to what conclusion was drawn in order to close it out. We've got citizens submitting the same requests over many years because absolutely nothing is done to address them. We've got people constructing additions to homes with no permits. We've got people tearing up their yards/lawns, and putting concrete across the front of their houses, of course no permit. We've got swimming pools filled with stagnate water - for years - attracting mosquitoes and frogs who croak through the night.

We've got very overcrowded houses with so much trash that the bin cannot be closed, every week. Birds pick at the plastic bags not in the can and garbage and trash is strewn across yards and streets. We've got people entertaining in the yards as if they have no neighbors and the loud music and other noise is of no consequence to anyone. We cannot get the noise ordinance enforced. The police department "just got" 8 noise meters at a cost of $126 per meter and has given ONE meter to each of the EIGHT police districts.

We've got single-family homes being used as multi-family homes and boarding houses with transitory residents. We've got 10-15 cars of tenants in these illegal multi-family homes - that are at most 4-bedroom single-family homes - that take up all the street parking so homeowners compete for parking near the homes they own. We've got folks piled into basements that are "not habitable" per standards for ventilation, cooking, light and egress.

We've got cars blocking driveways. We've got people running car repair businesses out of their homes and parking their customers cars on the street waiting to be serviced. We've got people selling food on the sidewalk. We've got people selling food out of their homes without any license to do so. We've got residential properties with tall grass, weeds, abandoned cars, furniture in the yard, chickens, goats, old rusted appliances. We've got tractor trailers parked on residential streets.

When she was running for re-election for county executive, she did not speak on these issues. I asked her campaign several times what she would do to address these concerns. Never heard a word.

So yes, the quality of life is in serious decline and I have been here 40 years and can tell the difference. Maybe this is why the county is losing citizens to Charles County which is now the wealthiest Black county in the country. For high taxes what are we getting?

I don't know why you love code enforcement so much. They're not your friends nor are is "quality of life" their primary focus.

Fact is, the county's base has a large number of illegally immigrated Hispanics and less than savory characters, and the county isn't going to whack these bases too hard because a discrimination or fair housing lawsuit could very well be filed for excessive overrearch.

[SethGrayson]

Originally Posted by Turnerbro

I mean... Hogan won two elections so it's not a complete waste, AAC and Baltimore county could flip to red if a non Trumpeter runs. Regarding Alsobrooks. She deserves consideration just like anyone else. Personally she never really appealed to me on a personal level. I think she's going to have to really connect with people outside her bubble in PG if she wants a chance to win. I'm skeptical about her doing it, though she certainly could prove me wrong.

Hogan also appointed liberal leaning attorneys like Rand Gelber as judges. Plus, with the legislative and judicial branches firmly not GOP, any GOP exec is red-in-name-only.

Alsobrooks is just another attorney climbing up the political ladder. She has name recognition but Peegee people don't appeal to the rest of the state. It's usually Baltimore or Moco people.