Help Me Fight Corruption and Injustice in Baltimore
Hello friends,
Can you guess what I do for a living these days? I try to kick lousy politicians out of office. And since I live in Baltimore I have an ample supply of lousy politicians in my own back yard. I don’t know what you’ve heard about Baltimore politics outside of our regularly-scheduled police abuse and corruption scandals… Basically our entire political structure is a centuries-old patronage machine that has moved boldly into the 21st century by massively neglecting the citizens of Baltimore and heaping rich rewards on the various corporations, bail bondsmen, out-of-state developers, casino lobbyists, liquor distributors and other shining examples of people with money in their pockets and favors that need doing. All the ‘bad things’ you may have heard about our city are directly tied to this cycle of willful governmental neglect.
This year my focus has been on getting two of my friends and mentors elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. Glenn Ross and Andy Ellis are running to unseat two of the most entrenched, powerful, and deeply unpopular legislators in the state of Maryland. They are running together as Green Party candidates in East Baltimore’s 45th legislative district (we have multi-member districts), where despite having probably the most influential set of elected representatives in the state, we have some of the most glaring poverty, inequality, and underinvestment in the entire country.
Glenn Ross is a long-time community leader and urban environmentalist who has spent over 40 years defending his community from the forces of hatred, neglect, and greed. He was once awarded the title of “Best Community Activist” by the Baltimore City Paper. Over his career he has built successful coalitions across geographic, economic, and racial boundaries to secure resources and fight for positive change on problems that our politicians don’t want to be solved.
Andy Ellis is a veteran organizer who moved to Baltimore almost 20 years ago to build a public school debate program to empower local youth of color to find their political voices. Under his leadership, Baltimore produced the first-ever all-black team of national debate champions. Since then he has been deeply involved in building grassroots political power for progressive causes and marginalized people across Maryland.
Our opponents on the other hand, are garbage.
Del. Cheryl Glenn is a longtime legislator with an impressive knowledge of parliamentary procedure, who uses this knowledge to hoodwink her constituents and pump the brakes on progressive change. More than once I’ve watched her lie to voters’ faces, telling them she opposed some terrible new law like increased mandatory minimum sentencing because she voted down a widely-opposed bill, only to sneak those exact same provisions into a different bill after everyone thought the issue had been settled. For reasons I can’t fathom, she publicly aligns herself with other top leaders who have been identified as the primary obstacles to civil rights legislation in Maryland.
Del. Talmadge Branch is the House Majority Whip, the 3rd-ranking member of the House of Delegates, and has been in office since I was in the 2nd grade. And while most of us have used at least some of the last 25-odd years growing as people and maybe doing something good for the world, Talmadge has spent it taking fat donations from a who’s-who of shady powerbrokers and making sure that rich, terrible people get their way. Are you a millionaire bail bondsman who needs to make sure we still have the nation’s most unjust bail laws so everyone accused of a crime (by the Baltimore Police Department, no less) goes tens of thousands of dollars into debt to avoid spending time in our infamous local prisons before they’ve even seen a jury? Make that check out to Talmadge Branch. And this is just what’s in the public record. Walk down a street in East Baltimore and ask about Talmadge Branch to hear some tales.
We can win this race. The Baltimore City Green Party already rose in 2016 to match the Republican Party’s local power, and in this race we have left them in the dust. This is a head-to-head between the worst of what the Democratic Party establishment has to offer, and a burgeoning movement for sociopolitical change. In our district a progressive already took down the longest-serving member of the Maryland Senate in this year’s primary and we are here to finish the job in November. We have knocked on thousands of doors while our opponents have done nothing. While our opponents run on seniority and threats, we are running on ISSUES: an increased minimum wage, criminal justice reform, industrial waste cleanup, a youth jobs guarantee, and more.
The only thing our opponents are beating us at is money. We’re not surprised. Verizon, Budweiser, and the Prison-Industrial Complex aren’t offering us $6000 checks, and we wouldn’t take them if they did. We think that with our superior volunteer base, social outreach, and hustle we need $36,000 to win both seats in this election. Last I heard we were around $14,000, raised entirely from ordinary people like yourselves. By supporting us you can help us print more literature, pay more staff, place more targeted online ads, and cover more ground for the final push.
DONATE $10, $25, $100 or $WHAT.EVER.YOU.WANT
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Every dollar helps. The time to break the machine is NOW. We can do this.