With 100.1 percent of the ballots counted, it appears that Andy Harris got the vote of every right-thinking man and woman on the Eastern Shore and at least two and probably more from a Windy Rosin.
At least I think that’s what she said her name was — the short, blond woman who stood ahead of me in the long line at the Ramsey GMC Real Good Deals, Easy Financing Voting Precinct yesterday. She appeared very knowledgeable about the process, and helpful. “Vote early,” she advised me, “and vote all day long. That’s my motto.”
I wondered, does that really work?
“For a while,” Windy admitted. “But you’ve got to move around. Then you can’t show your face here ever again.”
I couldn’t help asking, why would anybody want to do that — give up home, friends, reputation and thereby ensure that Andy Harris got reelected?
“For personal reasons,” is how Windy explained it.
I got that. They can be compelling. And I had some other questions for her, about something that had been troubling me for a while, and, really, she was the most experienced voter I’d ever come across.
Was the GOP, I asked, running the LaFerla write-in campaign? I mean, I’d occasionally seen signs in Chestertown, printed in very pale blue and discreet hints of lime, quite tastefully small, reading: “Write In LaFerla.” And, even if a majority of extremely sharp-eyed voters noticed and did exactly that, wouldn’t LaFerla still be likely to lose?
Because most people have at least two names, and ballots almost universally print both of them, and election judges can be notoriously picky, and in some places they’d been known to reject a ballot with just one name on it. And you couldn’t blame them, because what if there were more than, say, one LaFerla in the First District. And if a LaFerla actually got the most votes, would they give the job to John, Susan, or maybe Kathleen, to name a few? And how could an unsophisticated voter be expected to write in both correct names if the LaFerla campaign didn’t tell what they were?
So, I wanted to know from the wily veteran, was somebody just being naïve, or was this all a sneaky scheme by the GOP to make sure the actual candidate, John LaFerla, had no chance of winning?
Windy shook her head and smiled pityingly. No, she explained, it didn’t take a conspiracy to sink the hopes of Democrats in the First District, where most folks have their heads screwed on rightward. “I could practically do that,” she boasted, “all by myself.”
~John Lang
Melinda Bookwalter says
She did….
Fletcher R. Hall says
Sounds fishey to me.
Rosen was bounced from the ballott for legal reasons. I believe election officials in any Eastern Shore county are savvy enough to not let Windy initiate this wacko plan.
Nancy Schwerzler says
Thanks for the laugh with this column. Ms. “Windy” certainly did the handiwork of the GOP, with which she was affiliated before she suddenly switched to the Democratic party just in time to file her candidacy. And she conveniently made sure she didn’t pull out of the race until after the deadline to remove her name from the ballot so the state party could put LaFerla’s name on. Harris had nothing to fear from her but LaFerla would havce been a strong candidate to shine some light onto Harris’ positions especially on women’s health issues. While not usually giving much credence to conspiracy theories, the fiasco of Ms. “Windy” certainly makes one wonder if there wasn’t some creative collaboration going on here.
Of course, given the redistricting Harris probably would have won anyway. You can’t fault the state Democratic organization for not wanting to invest a lot of money or other campaign support into the last minute write in campaign since they had other more pressing priorities.
Marge Fallaw says
While also not prone to conspiracy theories, I guess I really should have put the comment here that I left on the page entitled “Editorial: The 1st Congressional District”:
“I find it interesting/curious that Rosen and Harris are such near neighbors, she apparently living at 81 Montvieu Ct. and he apparently at 49 Montvieu Ct. (post office Cockeysville 21030).”
john lang says
Marge,
It is curious, and interesting, to say the least. Google map shows an Andy Harris lives four doors down and across the street from a Wendy Rosen.