As Anne Arundel County Turns...

In case you missed last night’s VRWC, which there is certainly no reason you should have, then not only did you squander an opportunity to listen to a fantastic interview with Councilman Jerry Walker and his thought process behind his selection of County Executive Laura Neuman, but you also missed an expose of the dirty behind the scene politics in Anne Arundel County.

This all started a few weeks ago when disgraced County Executive John Leopold resigned from office following his conviction.  That left an opening for potential successors. The would-be county executives, all of whom were required to be Republican, were required to submit applications to the Anne Arundel County Council, who would then vet and vote on the candidates.  

That’s when it all started…

As an Anne Arundel Central Committee Member, I receive several emails from activists throughout the year. These emails are sent to my jbraswell@aagop.org account through the www.aagop.org website. 

This is the first email I received…

Notice a few of things:

1. It was sent to my jbraswell@aagop.org address.
2. The sent address wspangler7@gmail.com and return address wspangler2368@gmail.com are different.
3. The personal attacks made towards Walker and Grasso: “It’s nice to know that even though two of our Council members lack the ethical and moral compass to guide them in such times…” Yeah, those are personal attacks. 

What can we deduce from this? This person clearly does not support Councilman Grasso, who has already announced that he is running for county exec, nor does this person support Councilman Walker.

So I decided to respond...

A few other things to notice:

1. I used my law office address to respond jbraswell@lawbraswell.com
2. She responded to my law office address
3. I don’t have a vote for Anne Arundel County Executive. My job is to support all Republicans and to defend those who are attacked.
4. This person attacked me. I don’t care. 

Remember, this person used my law office address.

Fast forward to the selection of County Executive Laura Neumann. It did not take anytime at all for the attacks to follow…personal attacks.

For those who follow Capital-Gazette and other local news sources online like Eye on Annapolis and Patch, you will have notice several personal attacks directed towards both County Executive Laura Neuman and Councilman Jerry Walker. You can view the links and the comments yourself, but one stood out – the Eye on Annapolis comment section and a person by the name of Caroline Reed, who posted her dissertation on Friday (it was also posted on Red Maryland).  Here is that specific screen shot from Eye of Annapolis.

Most of these are attacks are of a personal nature. Someone has an axe to grind.

Then something curious happened. Along with my fellow Central Committee mates I received an email on Saturday from Caroline Reed. This email contained the exact same diatribe that she posted the prior day. Here is a copy of that email.

Notice two things

1. Reed cites the article
2. She sent it to my law office address, NOT my aagop.org address. While other central committee members received the same email VIA their aagop.org address, I did not. How did this individual know to use my lawbraswell.com address from the beginning?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened. I responded to Ms. Spangler’s original email that was sent to my aagop.org email with my lawbraswell.com email. Spangler responded using lawbraswell.com. Caroline Reed immediately used my lawbraswell.com email when first emailing the Anne Arundel County Republican Central Committee.

Need further proof? Take a look at this comment from the moderator on Capital-Gazette.com

Yes, further proof that there is a certain individual out there looking to disparage Laura Neuman.

This person does not like Walker or Grasso and does want County Executive Neuman in office. Why would this person hold such a grudge? In AAGOP political circles, it means one thing 99.9% of the time – another candidate is in the fold.

We cannot stand for this kind of behavior, particularly in the wake of such vitriol or spiteful attacks. Listen, you can attack policy and ideals all day and all night. That is what public debate is about. However, a line needs to be drawn when one goes personal with untrue and defamatory statements. This is not who we are. We are better than this.

The future candidates for Anne Arundel County Executive, all of whom are more than qualified to hold the office, should take note. This is not the way to run a campaign. Stick to the issues. We are pretty confident we know the individual running this smear campaign, and once we are 100% sure we are going to expose him or her.

Funny how those who profess Reagan and his 11^th Commandment would abuse it when political opportunity…and money presents itself.