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SAMPLE PODCASTCharles Candidates Wrangle on Education
The candidates for president of the Charles County Board of Commissioners quarreled over their records on education this week. In the latest online podcast recording for Commissioners President Wayne Cooper 's (D) campaign, Bill Fisher , president of the Education Association of Charles County, accused Cooper's opponent, Commissioner Al Smith (R-Waldorf), of having a record on education that is "about as low as it gets." "I would have to give Mr. Smith a D-minus," Fisher said in the recording. The EACC, the union representing 1,600 of the county's teachers and school administrators, has endorsed Cooper. Smith said he is proud of his positions on education and called the attempt to taint his record "a hopeless case." "They're just showing their true selves when they allow themselves to go down to the depths of what they're going to, to try and help Cooper," Smith said. Fisher's comments mark the latest tango in a campaign for the top seat in county government that has grown particularly personal and bitter in recent weeks. In late September, state Del. Murray D. Levy (D-Charles), Cooper's predecessor as commissioners president, said the race was a choice between a "strong leader" and a "hot politician." Without identifying Smith by name, Levy characterized him as "somebody who's off the mark, talking before they know what they're talking about." Speaking on behalf of the county's public school teachers, Fisher said Cooper is "the man of the future," and tried to compare the candidates' leadership styles. "If you're going to be a flash in the pan and just say something off the top of your head, 'Boom, we want to do this tomorrow,' well hopefully you'll have something to back it up," Fisher said. "I think Mr. Cooper does, and he is a soft-spoken person, he is a mild-mannered leader. "To be honest with you," Fisher continued, "isn't it nice to be able to speak with someone who can speak with you rationally, can speak with you on your terms in a manner that is acceptable and is pleasant?" Cooper, who served as president of the Charles County Board of Education before becoming a commissioner, has made education his top campaign priority. "Anytime anyone gives you kudos, I think it's humbling," Cooper said of Fisher's remarks. Fisher also criticized Smith for not communicating directly with the EACC often enough in his years as District 3 commissioner. He also said Smith did not seek the EACC's endorsement, which is considered one of the biggest in local politics. The EACC endorsed Democratic and Republican candidates this year. In the podcast recording, Cooper's campaign communications consultant, Maury Tobin , accused Smith of floating an idea in late 2005 to remove sheriff's deputies from the schools, replacing them with private security guards and redeploying the deputies to patrol the county's major corridors, Route 210 and U.S. 301, near the Prince George's County border. The assertions come as Smith has continued to take heat for his comments this summer that much of the county's crime is being committed by people crossing into Charles from Prince George's. Smith categorically denied the Cooper campaign's accusations. He said he proposed moving the deputies as a way to increase street patrols without cutting costs, but never suggested patrols focused on the county border. "They're lying worse than a rug, and they must be smoking something for them to even be thinking that," Smith said. "I'll take whatever appropriate measures I have to to make sure they're held accountable for spreading that kind of mistruth," Smith added. "It's absolutely laughable that that's all they can hold onto, spreading a bunch of lies. It doesn't surprise me at all." Said Cooper: "He's proposed several things like this over the years of that nature. You know Al, he says what's on his mind sometimes." Tobin said Smith's record on the board is fair game for the campaign. "We think that if he has a record and if that record contains bad ideas and horrible rhetoric, we're going to talk about it," Tobin said. |
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