Montgomery County Losing Its Blues?

Last Saturday, I drove to Annapolis for the 2nd ever conference of the Maryland Conservative Action Network. No, that is not a typo.

Yes, there are conservatives, non-liberal-types actively involved in Silver Spring.  Walking through the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel, I thought I saw a neighbor, then someone I regularly see at Whole Foods. 

As I signed in and got my pre-registration packet, I noticed name tags of people I am sure I knew.  I thought I was the only one there? the only brave Silver Spring resident who makes disagreement with the powers that be, known. But there among western Marylanders who braved a "real" snowfall (but they know how to drive in it) to get to our state capitol, among the Eastern Shore folks (you know, the ones who sing, "I don't give a darn about Maryland, I'm from the Eastern Shore!), among the Baltimoreans (who think they ARE the state), there we stood, we who purple out the blue waters of Silver Spring, Montgomery County and the state of Maryland.

We who believe in small government, local control of our schools, telling the federal government to back off ... wait a minute, that also describes Takoma Park! Yes, we believe in the same ideals, just take a different route. At the heart of it all, we believe the same as you.  And, now we are speaking up, making ourselves known.

The conference covered the issues coming up in our impending election, redistricting, Plan Maryland, the referendum on the DREAM Act but of most importance to everyone in Silver Spring and statewide, is the disaster of the "voting dead" and our aging election judges.  Election Integrity Maryland is a movement of nonpartisans working hard to replenish the volunteers who sit as poll watchers and judges.  Many, many election judges are retiring and the "younger" need to step up.  Training is more involved than it may seem to be as we stroll up to cast out votes each election time.  And cleaning up the voting roles is something we need to direct our Boards of Election to accomplish.  The local BOE should be the focus of all in Silver Spring, especially those who can step in to sit as an election judge or a poll watcher.

The conference also allowed a presentation panel of 4 contenders for the US Senate seat in the GOP primary nomination race (who will be in competition with the current Democrat Senator and 2012 candidate, Ben Cardin): Dan Bongino, Robert Broadus, William Capps and Corrogan Vaughn.  A 5th contender, Rick Hoover was a no-show.  It will be an interesting 2012 election campaign.

"Turning the Tides", the theme of the conference, was well represented by its "Don't Tread on Me" take on the historic Gadsden flag, replacing the coiled snake with our Maryland crab!  It drew out more than 200 attendees from all parts of our very, very diverse state but for this blogger, it drew out the Silver Spring people I know, shop with and live near!  I look forward to the next one!  http://www.mdconservatives.com/