megsimonaire

Bryan Simonaire Can Learn from his Daughter

As many of you have undoubtedly heard by now, Delegate Meagan Simonaire has decided that she will forgo her already announced bid for re-election in 2018.

Now the cynical among you may think that Ms. Simonaire decided not to seek re-election next year because he will encourage disgraced former Delegate John Leopold to seek his old seat next year instead of launching a bid for State Senate and challenging Simonaire’s dad (we’ll discuss this idea in greater detail on tomorrow’s episode of Red Maryland Radio).
Delegate Simonaire has had her share of issues as a Delegate. However, I think we need to take the time to thank Meagan Simonaire for being a shining example of a citizen legislator. Meagan Simonaire realized that in order to advance in her career, that she was going to need to make a sacrifice. That sacrifice was to no longer be a candidate for public office after her term ends next year. This is the very embodiment of the idea of a citizen-legislator that the Founding Fathers intended. The founders intended that citizens serve in public office for a period of time, and then go home back to their homes, their jobs, etc. They did not seek to establish a class of career politician anywhere in our system of government.
Know who could use this lesson? Megan Simonaire’s dad. Liberal Senator Bryan Simonaire has been in office since 2006 and is already running for a fourth-term. Simonaire, of course, has become a walking publicity stunt, more committed to getting his name in the paper than serving the people of District 31. This, of course, reached its apotheosis through Bryan Simonaire’s brazen and crass exploitation of suicides by veterans earlier this year.
The real beef with Bryan Simonaire in this regard is the promise that he made when he was first elected in 2006. In 2006, Simonaire promised that he would serve only two terms in the Senate. He’s already serving his third term and now has decided that he wants a fourth. He has no significant accomplishments during his time as a Senator and has certainly fallen asleep at the switch when it comes to trying to push forward conservative principles in the Senate. When District 31 could be served by a conscientious conservative, instead it’s stuck with Bryan Simonaire who is a guy taking up a chair who just happens to have an R after his name.
Maybe Senator Simonaire should follow the example set by his daughter and put the emphasis on the citizen as opposed to the legislator as he promised to do in 2006.


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