Driven by opportunism and backed by cowards, three men are desperate to be the only voice in Delmar
None of them will say why
None of them will say why
This opinion piece is part of a series ahead of the Delmar, Maryland local election.
Benjamin Jorden apparently wants to be the mayor of Delmar, Maryland because the righteous anger aimed at the current mayor will make it easy.
Jorden, who had never had an inkling of civic service since moving to Delmar to start a business is asking voters to give him and his friends complete power over the town’s purse strings and future.
Their stated plan is simple, get elected and work the rest out later.
During a brief interview, Jorden was not only unable to articulate a cogent plan for his administration, he was offended by the insinuation that he should even have one to get elected.
While he makes time to go door-to-door handing fliers rife with misinformation to his would-be constituents, Jorden hasn’t taken the time to look closely enough at the town’s budget to suggest the efficiencies, cuts and new perspective that is supposedly the centerpiece of his plan.
Exploiting One Cop’s Death With Another Cop’s Photo
Worse, after using the tragic murder of a police officer as the catalyst for wanting to be mayor all of a sudden, he is now benefitting from an anonymous mailer exploiting a lie about Lt. Wade Alexander, second-in-command of the Delmar police department.
The flier, which not only accuses the current mayor but also (improbably) the town manager was supposedly paid for by “local business owners.”
These are three men who, if elected, will be elected on lies made on their behalf from people who very well may want something from them.
Since it is anonymous we may never learn the names of the cowards behind these lies or ever be able to call them out for the audacity it takes to use one policeman’s death as a reason to smear another.
Still, the act itself raises a serious and legitimate question: Why has so much money been dumped behind a candidate slate that aims to completely undermine the democratic process?
That isn’t hyperbole. If elected, Jorden and his cronies will have an immediate majority on the Maryland commission.
A majority that, as far as their latest propaganda states, will do a better job at developing the downtown. This may come as news to Delmar, Del. Mayor Mike Houlihan, the person whose responsibility it is to develop the downtown.
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Blaming the Maryland mayor for failing to do the Delaware mayor’s job isn’t even in the top 10 weird and outrageous claims that Jorden and his slate have made in their relentless effort to take advantage of one of the town’s most tragic events.
Outrageous, Uninformed Claims
Jorden claims to have decided to run all on his own. His slate mates, Cory Shaffer and Jacob Boothe have told the same story.
None of them has detailed how the three of them, having decided independently to run for Mayor and Commissioners respectively, found one another and decided to try and take over the town.
They claim to have just been talking about it, but you should excuse me if the massive amount of money and coordination that followed, the shadowy benefactors and the coordinated exploitation of the police department for political gain makes that claim ring a bit hollow.
That it took a tragedy to ignite the political will to bite the tax bullet is something we all have to live with.
These are three men who, if elected, will be elected on lies made on their behalf from people who very well may want something from them.
The men who yearn to yield absolute power in Delmar between them have not one second of experience in public service. None of them has compiled a budget. None of them had attended town meetings regularly until after they had conceived their power grab.
More important, as the centerpiece of their rhetoric exploits the same police department they claim to support, none of them seem to respect the voters.
They have uttered and encouraged rhetoric framing this election an up or down vote on supporting the police. To drive home that point their supporters stole a photo of a police officer and lied about him. This isn’t the support for the police that the town deserves or needs.
A Cynical Power-Grab
During my brief chat with Jorden, he said that they will rely on “the town manager that’s there now” to help them with the budget process.
Jorden’s supporters have fixated on the town manager’s salary, positively foaming over how unfair it is to keep giving raises to a person who does her job well. She even goes above and beyond helping people who bumble into public office understand the nuts and bolts of how government works.
There should be a real concern among residents over a move to oust her for a less-experienced and (thereby cheaper) replacement.
Alternatively, maybe they’ll replace her with one of the anonymous cowards who slandered the police in their names.
I need to be clear here. It has been my opinion for more than two years that the fear of having to raise taxes caused the leadership on both sides of the state line to drag their feet when it came to the police union. That it took a tragedy to ignite the political will to bite the tax bullet is something we all have to live with.
This would be a different election if Jorden and his buddies were only running because of a tax hike. In fact, that would be a harder campaign to win, and one wonders whether they even would have bothered.
What we need to ask ourselves as residents is whether we want to elect people who would take advantage of a person’s death to seek and attain power they never had and were never interested in until they thought it would be easy to get. Beyond that, the rest is just chatter.
Tomorrow: Delete and Block: Benjamin Jorden’s Approach to Governance
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