Capital Oped

Collins, Michael, Hogan backs video of legislative sessions, Capital, March 1, 2016.

Snider Comment

Yes, it’s about power not kids but not in the exclusively partisan terms the author describes, although partisanship is clearly a very important part of the power dynamics. The narrow focus on partisanship helps explains this curious error: “During the O’Malley administration, not one Republican was appointed to the Anne Arundel County school board.” This is not true. And the explanation is that the Executive Director of the Teachers Union–the SBNC’s kingmaker during O’Malley’s governorship–has been quite happy to support Republicans for many public offices, including the Board of Education. The bottom line for him is not partisanship but the interests of his union, although one cannot gainsay that his union is more closely aligned with the Democratic than Republican parties. If a Republican supports his interests and has a good chance of winning, he’ll support him. For example, John Leopold won his endorsement when running for county executive, and some years (although not since 2006) more Republican than Democratic candidates for county council have won his endorsement.