Opinion: The Case for Angela Alsobrooks

Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate last week won praise from Maryland Democrats, who pointed to the governor’s experience and approach to politics as key assets in the fall campaign. Maryland Republicans, with one notable exception, saw little to like in the final piece of the Democratic ticket that will face off against former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential choice, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md-05) said in a statement that Democrats and other voters should be excited for his friend Walz, whom he called an invaluable member of the House Democratic Caucus during his time in Congress. “His plainspoken, common-sense approach to governing allowed him to deliver for veterans and Minnesotans,” Hoyer said. “I know he will bring that same dedication and empathy to the vice presidency.” Walz served in the House from 2007 until January 2019, when he became Minnesota’s governor. He was reelected in 2022. Harris’ decision on her running mate came hours after she officially became the Democratic Party’s nominee for the presidency, clinching the vote of 99% of delegates in a virtual roll call. Walz and Harris went on a battleground state tour together last week, debuting in Philadelphia. Before his political career, Walz was a high school teacher, football coach, and command sergeant major in the Army National Guard. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore highlighted fellow Democrat and veteran Walz’s experience in the Army and his “proven track record of progress” in a recent post on X, formerly Twitter. “His incredible journey of service…isn’t just a source of inspiration for future generations and evidence of his deep commitment to this country; it’s also proof of his effectiveness as a leader who is going to generate wins not just for the Democratic Party in November, but for the entire country,” Moore said. “To the window...to the Walz!!!” the Maryland Democratic Party tweeted, inviting Maryland residents to sign a card welcoming the governor to the campaign. Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md-08) called Walz “a rock star to veterans, teachers, football players, and common-sense Americans.” Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic candidate for Senate, said in a statement that the Harris-Walz ticket presents a vision that stands “in diametric opposition” to the Trump-Vance ticket and is instead focused on protecting freedoms. “I couldn’t be more excited for Vice President Harris, for Maryland, and for our country in her decision of Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate,” Alsobrooks said. Walz signed numerous pieces of LGBTQ+ protection legislation throughout his governorship including bills that protected gender-affirming care, outlawed book bans due to LGBTQ+ content, and banned conversion therapy. The governor also signed bills protecting abortion in Minnesota and people who travel to Minnesota for the procedure. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who also served with the governor in Congress, said there was no better person to serve alongside Harris. “Tim has always put our country first,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “I'm excited and ready to do everything I can to turn out the vote and elect President Harris and Vice President Walz — a brighter future for all Americans and our democracy depends on it.” Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin kept his endorsement succinct, posting on X: “Harris-Walz. Strong. Experienced. Authentic. Unifying. Exciting! Can’t wait to cast my ballot.” Rep. Andrew P. Harris (Md-01), the sole Republican in the Maryland congressional delegation, joined other party members in accusing Walz on X of being “pro-open border" and repeating the false claim that Harris is the “border czar.” “It is no surprise failed Border Czar Kamala Harris picked a running mate who is more pro-open border than she is,” Andy Harris tweeted. “The same person who said he would invest in a ladder factory to defeat Trump’s border wall is now vying to be VP.” Walz was critical of Trump’s border wall proposal, supported a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, and signed a law that allows undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses. “The selection of Tim Walz as the Democrat candidate for vice president just confirms what we already knew: this is the most extreme, far-left ticket in modern American history,” the Maryland Republican Party said in a statement. However, Republican Senate candidate and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan struck a different tone than his GOP counterparts. Hogan congratulated Walz on X and said the country needs more governors on the national level because “governors have to actually get stuff done." “While we come from different parties, I have always appreciated his dedication to public service,” Hogan said, acknowledging their past working together as governors. Hogan is in an awkward place in his own party, whose national convention in Milwaukee he skipped last month. He has said he will not support Trump, even though the former president has endorsed him. Capital News Service is a student-powered news organization run by the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. For 26 years, they have provided deeply reported, award-winning coverage of issues of import to Marylanders.

Shore Progress (formerly known as the Lower Shore Progressive Caucus) enthusiastically welcomes Tim Walz's selection as Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate. Walz, the current governor of Minnesota, brings an impressive array of experience and achievements that resonate deeply with Eastern Shore values and aspirations. As a Command Sergeant Major in the Army National Guard, Walz's dedication to service and leadership is unquestionable. His 17-year tenure as a teacher underscores his commitment to education and our children's future. Walz's track record as governor highlights his capability to enact meaningful change and advance progressive policies that improve lives. Major Achievements of Tim Walz: Universal free school lunches: Ensuring that every child receives a nutritious meal, contributing to better learning outcomes and health. Universal background checks on firearm sales: Strengthening safety and security by implementing comprehensive checks. Legalization of recreational marijuana: Promoting personal freedom and economic growth through sensible drug policy reform. Enshrined abortion rights in law: Protecting women's health and reproductive rights in a landmark legislative move. Expanded access to pre-kindergarten: Investing in early childhood education to give every child a strong start. Major investments in summer learning programs: Enhancing educational opportunities and reducing learning loss during the summer months. Paid medical and family leave: Supporting working families by providing essential leave benefits for medical and family needs. Tim Walz's background as a non-Ivy League, blue-collar Midwesterner and his roots in a rural community mirror our own experiences and challenges. His life and career exemplify the values of hard work, dedication, and a commitment to serving the common good. "Tim Walz is an everyday guy like us," said Jared Schablein, Chair of Shore Progress. "He understands the struggles and aspirations of rural communities. His selection as Kamala Harris's running mate ensures that our voices will be heard and our needs addressed. Walz's progressive leadership aligns perfectly with our mission and values, especially in areas like childcare, child poverty, and labor rights." Walz stands out as the most progressive vice presidential choice among the finalists. His proven ability to get things done makes him the ideal partner for Kamala Harris. His selection signals a strong commitment to advancing policies supporting working families, protecting rights, and promoting economic and social justice. Shore Progress is excited about the future and looks forward to working towards a brighter, more equitable America with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at the helm. Together, we will continue championing the causes that matter most to our community and ensuring a better future for all. Shore Progress is an organization that fights for economic, social, and environmental justice. Its goal is to work on the local level to bring about positive change for the underserved and underprivileged. Its mission is to identify, recruit, and elect progressive candidates, and to promote labor and progressive issues.

Back in June, a Common Sense article on the importance of voting responsibly said, “Let’s look at the presidential race. The fact is that one of two men, Joe Biden or Donald Trump, the Democrat or the Republican — barring some unforeseen event — will be the next president of the United States.” That phrase about unforeseen events was prophetic — though the part saying it will be the Democrat or the Republican who wins in November is probably still true. Probably. We’ve had more than the usual quota of the unforeseen during the last two months. Politics is always subject to the unexpected, but this year seems to have produced a bumper crop of surprises. First, a lackluster debate performance by Biden — caused in part by a severe cold — sent a wave of panic through Democratic elected officials and voters. The perception that 81-year-old Biden was “too old,” which was already being peddled by Republicans, took on strength — although their own candidate, at 78, is hardly a young man. After that debate, serious news outlets including the New York Times began calling for Biden to end his campaign. Then, a 20-year-old sniper fired into the crowd at a Trump rally in Butler, Pa. — killing one and wounding several more, including the former president. The injury to Trump — a nick on the right ear — was a few inches from being a fatal head shot. A flood of speculation and conspiracy theories followed, fueled by the fact that the shooter, who was killed by police, was unavailable to provide hard facts about his motivation for the assassination attempt. And then, just after the Republican National Convention came to an end, President Biden announced that he was ending his re-election campaign, and endorsed Vice president Kamala Harris to take the top spot in the Democratic ticket. The response by most Democrats was enthusiastic, while the Trump campaign, which had geared its strategy to attack Biden, was caught unprepared. What a surprise! After pushing the line that he was too old to run, they weren’t ready for him to take them at their word. Following all these events, the election campaign we thought we were in store for in early June has been replaced by something quite different. After Biden’s withdrawal, the Republicans are faced with the question whether their own candidate is “too old to be president.” Trump’s rambling, nearly incoherent performances on the campaign trail haven’t made that question any easier for them to answer. Harris’s background as a prosecuting attorney should give her the debating skills to take on her opponent far more energetically than Biden did in the June debate. Possibly in recognition of that fact, Trump at first refused to take part in the debate scheduled for September 10 on ABC News. Instead, he proposed a September 4 debate sponsored by Fox News, where he probably felt he can escape tough questions and fact-checking. Then, on August 8, he reversed course and agreed to the ABC debate, plus two more at unspecified dates. One wonders if his advisers convinced him that ducking out of a debate made him look like a “chicken” — something totally at odds with the image he has cultivated. For her part, Harris has made it clear she wants to debate Trump, calling for him to “say it to my face” after some of his remarks, and she has said she is willing to debate Trump — in his words — “anywhere, anytime, anyplace” in addition to the originally scheduled September 10 debate. Meanwhile, JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, probably seemed a safe choice when the prospective opponent was Biden. A Christian conservative, Vance seemed likely to shore up the Republican base in an election where a significant number of voters were unhappy with both presidential choices. Now, Vance’s record of outright sexist comments risks alienating a significant number of voters, especially the swing voters who are likely to be the deciding factor in a close election. Democrats are gleefully pointing out these gaffes. On the other hand, it’s not clear how many voters are comfortable — even in 2024 — with the idea of a woman president. Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016 was a surprise to many. Harris’s choice for vice president is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz , a popular progressive from a midwestern state. A military veteran and a former high school teacher, Walz served six terms in Congress from a district that previously had elected only two Democratic representatives since before the Civil War. He is expected to add to the ticket’s appeal in neighboring rural states the Democrats need to win in November. Walz has been on the reported shortlist for the position since it became open, so his selection doesn’t qualify as a surprise. That doesn’t rule out something unexpected, though. It wasn’t that long ago that John McCain and his advisers saw Sarah Palin as an asset to their ticket, though most commentators thought otherwise after the election. The 1972 Democratic ticket initially had Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton as George McGovern’s running mate, but he dropped out after the revelation that he was seeing a therapist for depression. Things have changed enough that this probably wouldn’t disqualify a candidate today. With just over two months until the November 5 election, there’s still room for more surprises. In fact, the “October surprise” — some unanticipated last-minute revelation — has been a fairly regular feature of presidential elections as far back as October of 1840, when federal prosecutors charged Whig party officials with a scheme to have Pennsylvania residents illegally vote in New York state. More recent examples include Lyndon Johnson’s announcement of a bombing halt in Vietnam the weekend before the 1968 election in an unsuccessful attempt to boost Hubert Humphrey’s candidacy, or the 2016 announcement by then-FBI Dir. James Comey that he was investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails. Who knows how much those October surprises affected the final results? And who knows what the respective campaigns may pull out of their sleeves by October of this year? Still, the next president of the United States will be Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, barring some unforeseen event. Stay tuned for the next big election surprise. It’s sure to come. Peter Heck is a Chestertown-based writer and editor, who spent 10 years at the Kent County News and three more with the Chestertown Spy. He is the author of 10 novels and co-author of four plays, a book reviewer for Asimov’s and Kirkus Reviews, and an incorrigible guitarist.

Believe it or not, those who idealize the 1950s may be right on target, at least in some areas: By the mid-50’s the U.S. was at peace for the first time in almost a decade. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Brown vs. Board of Education case outlawing school segregation opened the way for the civil rights movement, leading eventually to much greater racial equality. During the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, the top income tax bracket in the U.S. was 91% and taxes on corporate profits were two times greater than they were in 2017. The tax on large estates went up to more than 70%. And keep in mind that Eisenhower was a Republican, albeit of the old school. One third of workers were unionized and on an equal footing for negotiation with management. In 1955 Fortune magazine reported that the incomes of the top 0.01% of Americans had dropped by more than half of what they had been in the 1920s and their share of total income had dropped by 75%. The average corporate CEO received a salary 20 times greater than his company’s typical employees, while by 2016 the salaries of CEOs were more than 200 times more than that of the average worker. Well-paid workers were able to consume more, thereby leading to business expansion and hiring, and thus raising corporate profits and producing higher wages and more hiring. Since the passing of that halcyon period of economic growth and greater income equality, this country has basically jumped back to the period of the “Robber Barons” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That transformation began during the administration of President Ronald Reagan and has continued when Congress has had Republican majorities and under other Republican presidents, culminating in Donald Trump’s major tax cuts for the wealthy in 2017 with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of that year.

For thousands of years before Europeans arrived in North America, the first Americans fished and hunted in and around the Chesapeake Bay. Along with numerous varieties of fish, these indigenous people also prized oysters. Oysters are a keystone species, meaning that they are essential to many other species and for the general health of the Bay. Originally, the Bay had massive reefs, built from the shells of generations of oysters. These reefs provided habitat for many other species. In addition, oysters via their filter-feeding help to keep the Bay’s water fresh and clean. A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water every day, removing toxins and debris. In those early days, the waters of the Bay were filled with oysters, a seemingly endless supply. When the early European settlers began arriving, the Chesapeake Bay quickly became an important food source and economic driver for the colonies. However, over the decades the number, variety, and size of the Bay’s aquatic species declined. This trend sped up increasingly in the 1800s and 1900s as commercial fishing grew and more efficient techniques such as tonging and dredging were developed. The oyster reefs suffered great damage which also affected the other species that depended on the reefs, including crabs, eels, seagrass, and many varieties of fish. Reefs vanished or were greatly reduced in size. By the late 1800s, over-fishing along with various forms of pollution had significantly reduced oyster the population in the Chesapeake Bay. Over the next hundred years or so, pollution from agricultural fertilizers, gasoline engines, and factory chemicals all contributed to the decline in the Bay’s abundance. Today it’s estimated that the oyster population is a mere one to three per cent of its levels in the late 1500s and early 1600s when Europeans began to colonize the Chesapeake Bay area. As this became apparent, both government and conservation organizations started programs to protect and restore the Bay. It has been a long haul and only recently has there been much progress. There is still a long way to go but projects to rebuild the oyster reefs and oyster populations have begun to make some significant progress. One oyster sanctuary and reef restoration in Maryland was started in 2011 in Harris Creek on the Eastern Shore. The project showed almost immediate improvement in the oyster population. This proof of concept encouraged the involved parties to expand their efforts. Thus in 2014, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement was signed, extending a partnership between governmental and private organizations that had been working on oyster reef restoration. Organized by the Chesapeake Bay Program, the cooperating partners include, among others, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the six states — Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, plus Washington, D.C. — that are part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The projects focused on 10 tributaries of the Bay — five in Maryland and five in Virginia. Four of the five Maryland oyster reservations are in rivers on the Eastern Shore.