Thurmont Town Commissioner Marty Burns

(1/18) District 4 residents. Do you think your vote counts? Well of course you do, but the Frederick County Republican Central Committee (FCRCC) doesn’t. You see Governor Larry Hogan appointed Delegate Schulz to his cabinet as Secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations, which left her Delegate seat vacated. As the law would have it, the County Central Committee makes the nomination to fill her seat. Because she was a Republican it’s the County Republican Central Committee who appoints her replacement.

Because the election ink isn’t dry yet the respectful/honorable thing should have been to appoint the next highest republican vote recipient. That is if you care about the voters. However the FCRCC doesn’t care about voters, which means they don’t care about you, they only care about what Senator Michael Hough wants. He’s bought them lock, stock, and barrel and be dammed what the voters want.

Senator Hough’s wife is the chairman of the FCRCC, his children’s godparent is on the Carroll County Republican Central Committee (CCRCC). He doesn’t like Delegate Schulz, Senator Brinkley, or Wendi Peters and because they wouldn’t form an alliance with him and Delegate Kathy Afzali, they went on one of the most vicious, libelous political attacks I’ve ever seen against all three and put two other names on his "slate". He crucified and vilified Schulz, Brinkley, and Peters and it worked for two of them. Only after Kelly Schulz won the primary did he put her name on his signs.

Mr. Hough had a conversation with Wendi Peters where she told him he could unite the party, and more importantly honor the voters, but he guaranteed her she wouldn’t get the appointment. Although the Frederick County Farm Bureau supported Wendi Peters during the election, Senator Hough strong-armed them to choose someone else to support.

When he heard the Governor was considering Senator Brinkley for a cabinet post, he lobbied hard against it. He was heard saying he doesn’t need to listen to anyone because he got 60% of the vote. His wife went to the CCRCC and told them that their vote didn’t count because they were so small and that they should just accept the decision of the FCRCC. They have blocked Republican voters from posting on their facebook page who oppose their view or are critical of their decisions, they have even blocked elected officials from posting on their page too. They are elected officials, yet they are preventing their constituents from expressing their views. If that doesn’t scare you, it should.

Three candidates made it to the FCRCC short list. One candidate that made the top three was so upset at the process that he withdrew from consideration. However, the FCRCC lied to everyone and said he simply failed to show up for the 2nd interview. That my friends was a lie.

We don’t need this kind of politician nor his bought and paid for minions on the FCRCC representing us, they don’t care about district 4, They only care to retain the support of Mr. Hough’s "Political Machine" and use it and his money to help them in future elections in four years. They have literally prostituted themselves for his support and don’t dare go against that. Senator Hough is a Congressman Mooney’s "Minnie me" who took the Mooney playbook and played it to a "T" against Schulz, Brinkley and Peters. Unfortunately, most people bought it. Heck they’re even going after the most popular elected official in Frederick County, Sherriff Chuck Jenkins. Evidently there are some extremely interesting emails between Delegate Afzali and Sherriff Jenkins.

Thankfully our dear Governor threw them an impressive curve ball by telling all of them that he wasn’t satisfied with their candidate selection process. It’s clear this Governor is a principled leader who has heard all of the garbage taking place and he has decided he’s not going to play by their dirty rules. He wants clean, open, and transparent processes with regard to issues like this and hopefully everything else he does. The interesting thing will be to see what the FCRCC does next. Honor the voters? Unite the party? Or tick off our new Governor? Whatever they decide, one thing is clear Michael Hough isn’t the leader of the Republican Party, Governor Larry Hogan is.