There’s a protest brewing in Montgomery County that proves once again that the strings of the Maryland Democratic Party are pulled by union bosses….
The Washington Area council of the AFL-CIO is organizing a protest of the Montgomery County Democratic Party Spring Ball (analogous to a Republican Lincoln Dinner) that is being held on May 11th. The reason for the protests is that the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee endorsed Question B in Montgomery County which took away the right of collective bargaining for police officers.
The issue with the AFL-CIO is not with them, as they have the right to protest or not protest as they see fit. It is the number of Democratic politicians who feel compelled to join the protest and refuse to cross the picket line. As the AFL-CIO release notes, Lt. Governor Anthony Brown and U.S. Senator Ben Cardin are among those who are refusing to cross the line. As David Moon notes at Maryland Juice, State Senator Brian Frosh and Delegates Bill Frick and Jon Cardin, all candidates for Attorney General, are also skipping the protest.
As Moon notes “the MCDCC ball is one of the key revenue generators for the MoCo Democratic Party’s annual budget” and the Committee is being put into the position where they may have to issue refunds to donors who refuse to cross the AFL-CIO picket line.
I’ve been around politics a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of Democratic protest that seem self-defeating from the outside, but I have never seen Maryland Democrats drink the kool-aid quite like I have on this particular issue. This is not a case where Democrats are boycotting a particular business or candidate, but they are boycotting their own party apparatus. This action will clearly have a deleterious effect on the ability of the Montgomery County Democratic Party to raise additional money, train activists, and deploy resources to other, more competitive counties in Maryland.
And it is only when you think about it in those terms when you realize that this is how much the Maryland Democratic Party and its leaders are beholden to powerful labor unions. The AFL-CIO said there was going to be a picket line protesting this event, and not one Democrat with statewide ambition seems to have the stones to cross that line. It’s as if the union said “jump” and the Maryland Democratic Party asked “how high?”
The Maryland Democratic Party has proven itself, in this one episode, to be little more than a fully owned subsidiary of organized labor. Really helps to answer the question of whose interests elected Democrats are serving in Annapolis, doesn’t it?
