Now that the primary election is over, and voters move on to Round 2 in the St. Mary’s County judicial election, here’s an opportunity to join a new grass roots organization. The organization is called “Republicans and Independents for a Qualified Judge.”

This group is being formed to give Republicans and independents a voice and choice in the upcoming election. One candidate, Joe Stanalonis, has used his primary campaign to try to take away that voice by using deceptive or outright wrong information to make it appear that he is qualified. For example, he tries to hide his lack of experience in civil law by citing his juvenile court experience. While his statement is technically correct, it is also totally misleading; juvenile court is, in fact, criminal court for minors. It has nothing to do with civil litigation.

Many Republicans apparently took their local central committee’s endorsement at face value and voted for Mr. Stanalonis. As a Republican, I’m outraged that Mr. Stanalonis, a Democrat, was able to manipulate the St. Mary’s County Republican Central Committee.

Judicial qualifications should be the No. 1 reason for endorsing anyone who will be making decisions about the property rights and liberty rights of our citizens for the next 15 years.

As a former independent, I feel the pain of independent voters who were disenfranchised from voting for either candidate in the judicial primary. The opportunity now exists to correct that unfortunate situation with the general election in November. I am particularly extending an invitation to independents to join this organization because of your reputation for making choices at the ballot box based on the candidate’s qualifications, rather than a political party label. Most independents are not easily manipulated by a misguided sense of party loyalty or easily fooled by distorted and deceptive campaign rhetoric.

Of course, dissatisfied and alienated Republicans are also welcome to become members of the group. As a matter of fact, currently the majority of group members are Republicans.

If you’re interested in joining this grass roots organization, contact me at 301-884-0163 or donahuedda@earthlink.net.

Dan Donahue, Mechanicsville