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Most citizens care deeply about Calvert County. However, many of us are too busy to attend forums, visit candidate websites (for those who have them), or study their records on those issues that we really care about. Therefore, we either don’t vote, or we cross our fingers and vote for people from our party, or we vote for the few candidates that we have met or heard about.
Keep Calvert Country-Grow Responsibly can help! Unlike other groups who endorse candidates outright, we are not going to tell you who to vote for but we can tell you how the candidates compare based on what they have written, said or done about the following issues that we hold dear about quality of life in Calvert. For us, they include the following:
We grow no faster than our highways, aquifers, and schools can handle (and believe us, the projections about roads and the aquifers are scary!*)
As we grow, we are good stewards of our rural economies (farms, forests, and fisheries) and the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River.
We don’t become Waldorf! That our town centers are not endless nondescript strip commercial developments. They remain attractive and inviting places to live, work and shop.
Our government is fiscally responsible and responsive to its citizens (there is room for improvement in this category!)
We have a strong economy and good jobs for our residents.
We protect our rich natural and cultural heritage.
We support our strong civic organizations and promote positive interaction among all citizens, celebrating our cultural and ethnic diversity.
If any of these issues interest you then you may want to view our scores for the candidates below. Click here to download scorecard.
How did we do it?
Our rather large citizens group is non-partisan and our issues cross party lines. So we asked a panel of 5 self-described Republicans and 5 self-described Democrats from our group to undertake an exercise in citizenship by reviewing all the resources that we could find, including candidate websites and campaign materials, candidate interviews and questionnaires from civic groups who requested them, newspaper articles, Voter Guides, voting records, and Candidate Forums (see more on sources at the bottom).
Then we assembled to discuss the candidates’ stated positions and vote. Panel participants did not all know each other, nor were they introduced, as that really shouldn’t matter. There was no indication among the participants as to party affiliation. Each of the ten participants scored the candidates on a scale of zero to 10. Then we added up the results, and divided by 10 to get the average.
We have to say that we were disappointed with a few of the candidates. They did not prepare their own web page (or were late), they chose not to complete questionnaires, or changed their answers based on which groups they were speaking before. Overall though, we think it is a pretty good class of candidates that offers some clear choices for the future of Calvert County.
How should you use our results?
Before you use our analysis, take a look at our non-partisan PLATFORM to see if you agree with any of it. Please use that as a guide as to whether to use all or part of the results. We think that it is better than asking your brother-in-law, or the mail carrier, or tea leaves, or counting the number of signs per candidate. Many citizens simply don’t have time to attend all the meetings that we did or read all the materials. Short of that, we think that we have a pretty great resource to get you started in evaluating candidates.
This is a pivotal year for the future of Calvert County. Please do all you can to be informed and vote! This is way too important to leave it up to chance.
And remember, citizens get to vote for all 5 Commissioners, regardless of where they live: 1 candidate each in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Election District and 2 “At-Large" candidates.
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*to learn more about our roads and the state of our aquifers, read our blogs.
Sources Used for Evaluation by Panel (in addition to personally attending Candidate Forums):
At-Large Candidate Websites
Steve Weems - No website found
1st District Candidate Websites
Mike Hart - No website found
2nd District Candidate Websites
3rd District Candidate Websites
Kelly McConkey - No website found