Whiners in Westminster
One of the goofier political battles of recent memory is occurring right now in Westminster, Maryland.
The Carroll County Times reports that candidate for Westminster Mayor Mona Becker has called it “reprehensible” that the Maryland Republican Party and its auxiliary groups are volunteering for her mayoral opponent Dennis Dillon this Saturday.
I’m sure it is totally coincidental that Mona Becker is a Democrat.
Here, Becker expands upon her asinine criticism:
“I think it’s really reprehensible that they are getting involved in the race,” Becker said about the Maryland Republican Party. “Westminster is an amazing city and we don’t need individuals that don’t understand how Westminster functions, and it has functioned very successfully, to be coming in and trying this.”
Becker said she trusts Westminster residents to make the best decision for the community, and that decision is best made by talking to people who live in and have been involved with the community for decades.
The arrogance of Becker to say “we don’t need individuals…to be coming in an trying this” is off the charts insulting to the very people that Becker claims she wants to represent.
I don’t live in Westminster, obviously. But I have a strong connection to the city, having gone to college there and spending a lot of time in Westminster and Carroll County. I’ve been around Westminster before Mona Becker had ever heard of Westminster. But the idea that non-partisan elections in Westminster are somehow above reproach and that no partisan organizations get involved in them shows a shocking naiveté on Becker’s part.
I’ve got some news for Ms. Becker. Partisan groups have been helping candidates for Mayor of Westminster and Westminster’s Common Council for a long time. When I was in college, both the College Democrats and the College Republicans helped out with candidates running in these elections. Want to know how I know that? Because I was President of the College Republicans at Western Maryland College at the time. I was there. I experienced it. I lived it.
Becker would be better served calling the Carroll County Democratic Party, the Maryland Democratic Party, the Young Democrats, the College Democrats, or some other liberal group to come out and volunteer for her in the same way that Republicans are volunteering for Dillon. But Democrats wrote off Carroll County and towns like Westminster years ago. They don’t care about Westminster, and they do not have the time or the motivation to ride to help Becker out.
Mona Becker’s whining about this seems less motivated by her concerns that “outsiders” are going to help Dennis Dillon win. It seems more motivated by her own perception that she cannot compete with the support that Dillon has, the statewide left is not going to come to her rescue, and that she’s going to end up on the short end of the stick when the votes are counted on May 11th.
Carroll County Commissioner Dennis Frazier’s criticism isn’t much more enlightened.
Commissioner Dennis Frazier, R-District 3, who wrote a letter to the Times on the subject published Tuesday, said in his opinion municipal elections should be nonpartisan, and the country already has enough division as it is. He criticized the Carroll County Republican Central Committee for their heavy involvement and noted that they’ve been involved in nonpartisan elections before, like the board of education race.
“Why don’t we just look at the best candidate? Why do we have to divide it?” Frazier asked.
That last sentence is patently absurd, as if the people supporting Dillon over Becker didn’t already come to a conclusion. Frazier’s entire critique here seems less of an interest in the Westminster election and more of a pot shot at the Carroll County GOP.
The voters in Westminster are going to vote for the candidate that best supports their values and what they want in a Mayor of Westminster. Voters are not going to base their opinion on a mayoral candidate on whether or not the campaign volunteer is from Green Street or Greenbelt. And Mona Becker’s whining about this seems to indicate that maybe she’s not the best choice to lead Westminster the next four years.