Thus ends the 16 hour days of waving, door knocking, record keeping, sign posting, blog posting, etc., etc.  Believe or not, I will miss it.  It has been a great experience.  I have met hundreds of wonderful people and had a chance to engage many of you in great conversation.  We have talked about the many needs in our community and the possible solutions to those challenges.  It has been exciting and invigorating.

None of this would have been possible without the support of so many of you.  While I want to post this ‘thank you’ publicly, consider it simply a place holder.  I will be in personal touch with each and every one of you that allowed me the opportunity to pursue this dream.

To Senator Conway

My congratulations go out to you on the successful defense of your Senate seat.  The citizens of the 43rd legislative district have put their confidence in you to represent their issues in Annapolis.  As a citizen of the district, I offer my help to you.  Let’s make this district the best in Maryland.

Over the last few days a lot of attention media has been paid to the upcoming election and the Torres campaign. As always, it has been exciting to see the community’s interest and support.  The Johns Hopkins Newsletter published an article covering the high level of their students’ involvement in our campaign and interest in seeing real leadership in the 43rd. Check it out here.

Also, blogger and examiner.com writer Adam Meister, who expressed his support of the campaign late last month, published further information about Conway’s campaign financing. In the post, Conways’ connections to special interests, problem liquor stores and unethical community members come even further into light–check it out here:

http://www.examiner.com/politics-in-baltimore/i-endorse-hector-torres-for-state-senate-the-43rd-district-curious-carter-conway-finance-info

If you didn’t get a chance to see the candidate close-up story aired by WBAL-TV last night, here is a link to the video.  Stay tuned for more news about the campaign.  Be sure to check the blog often as we approach election day, Tuesday, September 14th.

http://www.wbaltv.com/video/24947144/detail.html

Friends,

Please click HERE to provide your availability for election day, that way our Field Director can communicate with you and get you outfitted in a Team Torres t-shirt for the big day!

Hector needs you on Tuesday the 14th.  Please give one day to make our friend and colleague Hector Torres a Senator.

-Team Torres

The campaign seems to be moving at incredible speed toward election day.  It is only a week away.  As we continue to canvass neighborhoods and wave to neighbors at various intersections, we can sense a very positive pulse to our efforts.   Our biggest hurdle now is our election day effort.

If you haven’t had a chance to get actively involved in our campaign you can still add a lot of value to it.  On election day, we hope to have volunteers at each and every polling place in the district.  Please consider donating time to the Torres team.  Spend your Tuesday, September 14th with us and help bring positive change to our city.  Even if you can’t give us the entire day, a few hours in the early morning or early evening, greeting voters at the polls, will help our efforts.  We’ll even provide you with one of the very trendy Torres t-shirts you’ve seen on the website.  Please contact our field coordinator at max@torresmaryland.com and let him know your hours of availability, any preferred polling location in the district, and any other relevant information.  We truly appreciate your support!

-Hector

Maryland’s Senate is an interesting place.  The body as a whole chooses a President who presides over the chamber.  The President is given great discretion, not the least of which is the discretion to appoint chairs to the six standing committees of the Senate.  These committee chairs wield significant power and influence in the Senate.  It is a system that can and has been abused.   As the expression goes – power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 Senator Joan Carter Conway gave us a prime example this past legislative session when she abused her power as a committee chair over a seemingly straightforward consumer-friendly bill: allowing Maryland citizens to buy wine online from wineries and retailers.  This seemingly benign legislation, a consumer right enjoyed by over 80% of Americans in 37 states, was immediately targeted by the liquor wholesalers in Maryland, some of her most generous campaign contributors.  Although this legislation was endorsed by an overwhelming majority of legislators throughout the state, it never saw the light of day in Senator Conway’s committee.

 Knowing that the public and Senator Conway’s colleagues supported this bill, the liquor lobbyists played their final card, “bottling up” the legislation in Senator Conway’s committee.  No matter that seven of the nine committee members pledged their support for it, the chair refused to bring it up for a vote.  In fact, Senator Conway went on the record in the Baltimore Sun before the bill was even heard in her committee to say that the bill “is not going anywhere.”  How can it be that a single person can hijack something so many people want at the expense of our democracy?

 Let me be clear: It’s not about the wine!  It’s about the process.

 During our district debates, Senator Conway has talked about this issue.  She has mentioned several justifications for her action, all of which ring hollow and misleading.  She claimed to be concerned about underage drinking even though the 37 other states with legalized wine shipping have lower rates of alcohol abuse.  She claimed that the House of Delegates needed to act first, but no Senate procedure requires this.  Finally, she made the argument that we, her constituents, are not concerned about this consumer right and dismissed the over 75 letters she received from constituents as not representative of the 43rd District.  Interestingly enough, she became the prime sponsor of a bill to require mandatory insurance coverage for an obscure in vitro fertilization procedure after hearing from just two people in the 43rd.   

 Does she listen to us or not?

 Did the thousands of dollars in donations made by liquor interests influence the manner in which this legislation was handled?  Can the Senator really accept thousands upon thousands of dollars from lobbyists and not be swayed by her donors?  She claims she can take money from anyone and still be impartial.  If that is the case, then how does she explain her willingness to champion an issue for two constituents while ignoring the will of the people?  Make your voice heard this election season and vote me into office.  I promise I’ll listen to you.

Friends,

Tomorrow night the 901 Arts, the Better Waverly youth art center at 901 Montpelier, hosts its first annual fundraiser- 901 Day.  The event is at 901, on 9-01, and costs $9.01- come out and support this wonderful community based program in our district.  901 Arts is special space dedicated to providing arts to community residents, especially to neighborhood youth. There are visual art classes, drawing classes, piano lessons and monthly Saturday workshops for different age groups. In the summer there is MICA/MACA art camp for youth culminating in an Artscape exhibit- efforts like these are already helping us to build a better Baltimore- come out and support!  I hope to see you there.

Hector