By Eric Beasley
I hate trying to write an article that requires profuse use of negative adjectives to describe a person. A thesaurus only goes so far when helping me to describe the wretched and vile personas in Maryland politics. Too bad Mos Eisley is just a proper noun.
Today I was forwarded an e-mail from someone with the unfortunate pleasure of being on the mailing list for Delegate Afzali. You all remember her, right? Let’s take a trip down memory lane…. (Shoutout to Walter Olson for his stellar chronicling of the Afzali)
In 2012, Delgate Afzali came out against Question 6 (Same Sex Marriage) with one of the most illogical e-mails that I have ever seen. Some of her more troubling statements:
* “What makes it hard for a girl to grow up with a gay father is that she never gets to see him loving, honoring, or protecting the women in his life.” (From “Out From Under: The Impact of Homosexual Parenting)
* Women with gay or bisexual fathers are significantly less comfortable with closeness and intimacy, less able to trust and depend on others, and experience more anxiety in relationships than women with heterosexual fathers. (Arch Psychiatric Nursing 2009)
You know what? Having ANY parent is better than having none. Having two parents is better than one. Plus, these claims made by anti-LBGT advocates have been contested by the study’s author.
Delegate Kathy Afzali “hates ‘dem Gays.” Strike One.
In December 2013, Delegate Afzali tried to foray into “science” again, this time talking about Gubernatorial candidate Heather Mizeur:
It’s my firm belief that marijuana makes you lazy and stupid, and while this may really encourage Delegate Mizeur’s base, my base are the hard-working taxpayers of Maryland who are probably not the ones who are smoking marijuana and being lazy.
Kathy Afzali “hates ‘dat new-fangled Marijuanas.” Strike two, Delegate.
But I would remiss if I forgot to discuss the most disgusting display perpetuated by the Afzali. Last year during a fire company banquet, the not-so-good Delegate got a little text-happy and sent the following messages out of the blue:
You have no power. Get used to it
You are such a wimp and phony
Who could she be speaking to? None other than Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins. The most popular man in Frederick, and far from a wimp. Do you want to know how popular he really is? During the Frederick Fair in 2014, the Sheriff was at the Republican Party tent. He saw a fight break out at the fairgrounds and went straight into Sheriff mode. Broke up the fight, calmed everyone down, what you would expect of any law enforcement officer. After the tussle, which turned out to be a familial dispute and no charges were filed, one of the men told the Sheriff, “Even though you almost arrested me, I’m still going to vote for you.” That, my friends, is power and influence.
Now that you all remember who this Delegate is, since she is never seen outside of the election cycle in the 4th Legislative District, let’s get to the new stuff.
Wow. Just wow. First off, quite literally every political wonk has been tracking the primary election. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Plus, this e-mail was sent out today, Thursday April 14th. Early voting started today, not yesterday. Confused much?
Secondly, notice the bold print. Let’s phrase this sentence another way. “HOW DARE YOU DISAGREE WITH ME YOU MINDLESS PEON.” Guess what, as a legislator it is your job to listen to your constituents. If you can’t handle the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.
Third, what does she mean by “crossing party lines” for the school board candidate? There’s only one Republican running, Cindy Rose. So what could “Icky” be planning here?
Before we get to to the BOE race, check out this li
ttle snippet from the bottom of the e-mail. Is she for real? Does she actually believe that CD8 is not in Frederick County? Just look at the map, the green sections are the 6th District, which she felt it necessary to make an endorsement in. Most of those white sections are CD8, which includes half of Frederick County. Compares this map to here own legislative district and you will see that a majority of her serfs, ahem, I mean “constituents” actually live in the 8th Congressional District. Maybe she failed Geography? Maybe she grew up under Common Core Curriculum?
Speaking of Common Core, let’s get to Icky’s endorsements:
Personally, I do not know a whole lot about Lois Jarman. I haven’t heard anything good, I haven’t heard anything bad. What I do know is that Lois Jarman is a seasoned LBGT rights advocate. Seems kind of weird for someone that hates the gays so much to be endorsing her. However, Afzali’s votes have never really made much sense. But let’s talk about Joy Schaefer for a minute.
First off. Ms. Schaefer is a big fan of Common Core. She’s also a huge fan of PARCC testing. Don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself.
There you have it. Joy Schaefer <3 PARCC testing. The way this letter should have started out is by saying “We have concerns with PARCC testing, it sucks. Stop making kids do it. Try letting them learn instead of testing them into oblivion.”
Delegate Afzali endorses a Liberal Democrat who supports terrible education policy. Strike three.
There is only one candidate running for the Frederick County Board of Education that cares about our kids. Obviously, Delegate Afzali does not care about principles or values, or even being a Republican. She’s more concerned with high school drama, like when she vague-texted the Frederick County Sheriff or continuously calls the Rose family by the moniker “The Lunatics of Knoxville.”
Don’t listen to the Afzali. Vote for Cindy Rose, and only Cindy Rose, when you go to the polls.
UPDATE: THIS TIME WITH VIDEO!!!!
A little birdie reminded me about a video that was shot last year of Delegate Afzali discussing some issues directly relevant to this e-mail. Exhibit A:
We as Republicans need to support them in any way that we can…..We’ve have some challenges in Frederick county with Republicans fighting amongst themselves. Republicans speaking ill of fellow Republicans. What is Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment?
Strange how the 11th Commandment doesn’t apply to this BOE race.
Or how about this for gay-bashing? Exhibit B:
So that’s where I was this morning. I was the witness at her wedding. It was a beautiful affair….I’m glad that she married a man.
You’re wrong about only one candidate caring for kids. I have been lucky enough to work with both Lois Jarman and Mike Buninsky and promise they both tired of how our students continue to be short changed. If you go to eithers campaign Facebook page, you’d learn a lot about their positions on key issues.
We’re allowed to disagree. As I said in my article, I do not really have an opinion of Lois Jarman. I wouldn’t mind her being on the school board, but I do not necessarily want her on the school board.
Mike Buninsky’s campaign signs have too much Soviet imagery for me to believe that he would be nothing more than a statist on the school board.