How Not to Run for Public Office

on May 21, 2014 at 6:00 am

Barry Donadio and a tank. When you figure out why, let me know…

Meet Barry Donadio.

Barry Donadio is a former Secret Service Agent, Security Company Owner, and author who is running for both Queen Anne’s County Judge of the Orphans Court and the Queen Anne’s County Republican Central Committee. He will be elected to the Central Committee based solely on the number of people running, but he continues his campaign for Orphan’s Court Judge.

And what a train wreck that is to watch.

You see, Donadio’s campaign has comparatively little to do with actually being an Orphan’s Court Judge. It does have a lot in wrapping himself in Tea Party rhetoric. I’m not sure what gun issues have to do with probate law and wills, but that doesn’t stop Donadio from having an entire section of his website devoted to the 2nd Amendment.

Don’t believe me. This is what this guy’s logo looks like.


Barry Donadio is soluting the camera. Why? Who knows…

Man I don’t know about you, but nothing makes me think of the Orphan’s Court like the Gadsden Flag and the Gonzales Flag.

It’s something that I commented on back in February:

#ProTip: If you are running for Orphan’s Court Judge and you’re talking about the 2nd Amendment you’re doing it wrong
— Brian Griffiths (@BrianGriffiths) February 9, 2014

It is also something that Matt Newman wrote about on his blog around the same time. But he does love that logo, plastering it and links to his Facebook page anywhere that he possibly can.

Other hot topics that Donadio discusses on his website are the environment and responsible growth. Neither of which, of course, have anything to do with wills and probate. The only reference Donadio actually makes to the Orphan’s Court is on the default page of his site when he talks about no issues related to why he would make an effective judge or why he is a better alternative than the incumbent judges.

The environment is ponderous man…….

Just to confuse people though, Donadio has more logos than Carter has pills:

At what point does one have too many logos? Well before this point….

Mind you, logos aren’t the only issue with his campaign. On his campaign Facebook page he notes that he notes that “Barry R Donadio (R) formally of the United States Secret Service runs for Political Office in 2014.”

Formally?

If you scroll through the posts on Donadio’s page, not one of the posts mentions the Orphan’s Court or issues related to the Orphan’s Court in anyway.

One of the things that Donadio did use his personal Facebook (but not campaign) page for was the gin up an entirely imaginary controversy:

One of my supporters forwarded this information to me. I am a bit alarmed by it. I did notice her doing this during the parade and tried my best to make it a positive event. I am glad someone actually observed what I was experiencing and took photos of it. I think this behavior along with the blocking of my sign by the business that my opponent operates makes me concern she is a sitting Judge.

I received this from a DONADIO supporter:

During the Kent Island Day Parade on May 17th 2014

Barry Donadio’s opponent who is the current Judge of the Orphans’ Court Kim Cascia, is dressed in the all tan suit with glasses (Captured in 4 pictures). Her car is the silver car in front of Barry’s blue Jaguar, but she is 25 to 30 yards behind it with Barry’s car. She even is blocking Barry’s car at times(photo 3371). Not to mention, Kim Cascia’s husband and children are with her car. She stays in front and next to Barry’s car passing out her business cards for the entire parade route. Barry and his daughter are caught on film looking at her in pity. (photo 3392) Does anyone find Cascia’s obsession with Donadio weird and creepy?(photo 3372)

You can’t make this stuff up!

Here are the associated pictures with the post:

Walking a Parade Route like a person? What a concept!

While Cascia campaigns, Donadio takes a ride

One of these candidates is trying to win. The other is riding in a convertible

Wow. Handing lit to a voter. How novel

So basically, Donadio and his supporters are angry that Judge Kim Cascia is “obsessed” with him because instead of arrogantly riding in a parade in a convertible like Donadio did, she was actually trying to actively campaign for votes.

Unfortunately, this is not the only episode of Donadio’s arrogance getting the best of him. Take a look at this video from the Queen Anne’s County League of Women Voters Candidate Meet and Greet. Donadio’s appearance begins at the 24:20 mark

While the aforementioned Judge Cascia talks about her family, work, and experience as an Orphan’s Court Judge, and Chief Judge DiPietro talks about his life history and experience as Chief Judge, Donadio uses the phrase “it was me” four separate times, and then goes on a verbal safari about “fair and impartial treatment for all” and what to call him if he was to win.

Tuesday, Donadio’s arrogance was on full display. Our former Red Maryland colleague tried to make a useful suggestion regarding Donadio’s posting of an event of the Queen Anne’s County Republican Club and it just…..went downhill form here.

Post by Andrew Langer.

Andrew Langer is a veteran of the political scene for how long now, and most importantly to Donadio a Queen Anne’s County Republican primary voter. So what did Langer get for his troubles?

Barry R Donadio: Tip of the day: to Mr Andrew Langer, I am not the President or an Officer of that club and I do not make up the date, time and place of the clubs events. I do not manage that site. In fact, I understand that the clubs leadership will form it as a group on Facebook soon and delete the current site. I do post there as I do on many other sites. We have freedom of speech here in Queen Anne’s County, so we the People of this county will post as much as we please good Sir. No, I will not stop speaking about 2nd Amendment infringements either. I am a US Citizen protected under the Constitution. You are welcome to join me tonight at the QAC Republican Club meeting for Republican unity, not attacks and division. Follow my lead Sir. Thanks for sharing.

What a failure to communicate the location of the Queen Anne’s County Republican Club’s meeting had to do with the 2nd Amendment, who knows. But Donadio continued on in this vein in multiple Facebook avenues tonight.

Now you’re probably asking yourself “Brian, why are you spending so much time on a nobody like Barry Donadio?” Well, part of it is to highlight bad behavior by somebody who should know better. But it is also to highlight a couple of different things:

A reminder to vet primary candidates up and down the ballot. As a primary voter, you have a duty to take a look at candidates up and down the ballot to make sure that your vote is going to candidates who are credible and are good representatives of conservatism. Not this nonsense.
Why we made an effort to recruit good candidates to run for Central Committees. The Queen Anne’s County Republican Central Committee has seven spots and only eight candidates are running. Which means that we as a Republican Party are likely stuck with Donadio as an actual voting member of the Central Committee until such time as he resigns the position sometime in the next four years, which he will almost invariably do. Lots of wannabe politicos want to run for both Central Committee and another office, get elected to Central Committee, then realize that they aren’t really made of the stock that is ready to do what Central Committees do. Since Donadio is running in an eight-way primary for three spots (including former County Commissioner and US Senate Candidate Eric Wargotz), he will likely be another guy who runs for office who washes out of the Central Committee in less than a year.

I almost kinda feel sorry for Donadio because he clearly has nobody who knows anything about running for local office that’s helping him (or that he is listening to at least) so his noted enthusiasm is being misdirected towrds nonsense like logos instead of important things like issues related to the office you are actually running for. And spellcheck.

There are many ways to run for office. I would recommend not doing it this particular way.

Author

Brian Griffiths

Brian Griffiths is the Editor-in-Chief of RedMaryland.com, Maryland’s leading news conservative news source. He is also a host of Red Maryland Radio and The Air Raid on The Red Maryland Network, Maryland’s only podcast network of political content. In 2004, Brian became Maryland’s first political blogger, earning him the nickname “The Dean of Maryland Bloggers.” Brian has been involved in Maryland conservative politics since 1998 when he became involved in his College Republicans chapter. Since then he has been involved in numerous local, state, and federal-level campaigns. He was twice elected Chairman of the Maryland Young Republicans, the only person to be twice elected to that position unanimously. He also served as the Assistant Secretary and the Northeast Regional Vice-Chairman of the Young Republican National Federation. Additionally, he served four years as a member of the Maryland Republican Party Executive Committee from 2011-2015. In addition to his duties with Red Maryland, Brian is also a columnist for The Capital in Annapolis, where he writes about state and local issues. His writing has also been featured in the Baltimore Sun, Maryland Reporter, the Pasadena Voice, and Camden Chat. Brian is also a frequent commentator on local politics for WBAL Radio in Baltimore and WMAL Radio in Washington. Follow Brian on Twitter @BrianGriffiths or on Facebook at facebook.com/briangriffithsMD

How Not to Run for Public Office

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