Susan Olsen’s March 21 letter to the Spy, in which she criticized First Congressional District candidate Dave Harden for his emphasis on national security issues, ignored the three fundamental points of the upcoming Democratic primary election.
First, Andy Harris has been a terrible congressman and has repeatedly embarrassed the First District with his far-right, extremist actions. On this point, I think we can agree. He has sided against law enforcement, against emergency responders, against offshore wind and even against cost relief at the gas pump. Andy Harris must go.
Second, Heather Mizeur simply cannot win a general election in our moderate-to-conservative district. Contrary to Ms. Olsen’s mischaracterizations, the fact that former delegate Mizeur used to live in Takoma Park isn’t the issue here. What is relevant is that she represented Takoma Park for more than a decade as an elected official and has the far-left voting record to show for it.
Ignoring the fact that Delegate Mizeur voted for higher income taxes, higher sales taxes, higher business taxes and higher gas taxes, or pretending that these votes simply never occurred, won’t make them go away. Nor can we pretend that she never criticized the American experience as one of “toxic individuality” and bashes capitalism as a system that “promotes scarcity and hordes supplies.”
We can either have this conversation during the primary, while we still have our choice of candidates. Or we can wait until the general, when Andy Harris will have millions of dollars to define her as a far-left Takoma Park transplant whose mindset is fundamentally different than that of the typical First District resident.
Finally, Dave Harden can win. He is a moderate Democrat whose career as an American foreign service officer and diplomat will serve us well in a time of such uncertainty around the world. The humanitarian, economic and political consequences of the Russian slaughter in Ukraine will affect the U.S. in so many ways. It will be so important to have in Congress a man who has negotiated peaceful outcomes and preserved our national interests in some of the world’s most dangerous places. He is a man of the First District who, when elected to Congress, will only answer to the families of the First District and not the political bosses on Capitol Hill and Annapolis.
Dave Harden is my choice. I encourage everyone to take an in-depth look at his vision at www.hardenforcongress.com.
John Queen
Chestertown
Why does the Harden Campaign misrepresent so much information? In my op-ed, I never said that Harden’s national security expertise and experience is a bad thing. In fact, I admire him for it.
I wrote the op-ed because Harden is continually demeaning Mizeur for not being of Eastern Shore stock despite her having lived in Chestertown for the past 8 years while Harden has lived here — well, NEVER. My LTE had one point; Mizeur has a great deal of support on the Eastern Shore, and I proved it by listing her endorsements.
Queen’s inference that somehow Mizeur single-handedly raised taxes in Montgomery County are
absurd. Mizeur served as Delegate right after the Great Recession when taxes had to go up for Maryland to recover financially.
Furthermore, I do not believe that Harden has the political acumen to win the general election against Harris. He displayed as much when he called out all the currently serving Maryland House Representatives for something they had the absolute right to do. If he alienates his fellow Democrats now, how will he be able to work with them in Congress? In contrast, Mizeur has spent the last 25 years forging relationships that will enable her to get legislation passed. Mizeur has also demonstrated her ability to work with Republicans.
No one seems to be rushing out to hear Harden speak either. At the last Harden event I attended, only 10 people showed up which included two campaign workers.
It is great that Harden has national security experience in remote conflict areas; however, I believe that Mizeur is such a good consensus builder that she will be able to handle national security decisions just fine while at the same time finding solutions to Eastern Shore problems.