Hale is not the person we should have representing Calvert interests

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006

As the article stated ‘‘Three Virginia residents — Gary Sypolt, Paul Koonce and Thomas F. Farrell — all high ranking officials with Dominion, the owners and operators of Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant in Lusby, have each made contributions of $1,000. When asked if the contributions might have had something to do with Hale’s support for Dominion’s controversial expansion plans for Cove Point, Hale admitted, ‘‘I’m sure it does. There’s the board’s willingness to support the expansion and me personally getting in front of what seemed like a hostile audience and supporting it.”

Now that quote of Mr. Hale’s did surprise me. If Mr. Hale was referring to the hearing at Solomons Holiday Inn with the Department of Natural Resources to take public comments before DNR rubber stamped the construction permits, yes, he was there. Yes, there was a hostile audience, consisting of scientists, agricultural preservation specialists, members of CAPE (Concerned About Plant Expansion), farmers, Calvert County citizens and taxpayers. Most of these people were Mr. Hale’s constituents. Constituents, who all save one, were and still are opposed to this debacle. This environmental nightmare is now a done deal, with land on farms that are supposed to be in agricultural preservation for life taken by eminent domain, two rivers and 600 streams crossed including the Patuxent and beautiful St. Leonard’s Creek in our county, 50 tons of nitrogen expelled from the new gas turbines into the air over our Bay and county, and more than 200 foreign owned liquid natural gas (LNG) ships a year traveling up and down the bay with their explosive cargo and fouled bilge water. None of this matters to Mr. Hale as long as we get the tax contributions from Dominion. On Mr. Hale’s Web site under the heading ‘‘Protecting Our Environment,” he states ‘‘I also believe that we must be careful of taking ‘action for action’s sake’ and masking a lack of true environmental protection through the use of window dressing actions. I believe that getting people to change their lawn mowers from gas to electric or changing old gas cans to new ones represent exactly this type of action. ”

I guess it’s fine to allow silt and construction debris to turn our rivers and streams brown as long as we stop using our gas mowers. Brilliant!

When the DNR asked the audience if there were any public officials present, Mr. Hale identified himself from the back of the room as the president of the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners. When asked if he had anything to say, he said ‘‘no.” He then went out the back door as fast as he could, so quickly in fact that most there did not realize that he had left before the public comments started. If this is what he is referring to as ‘‘personally getting in front of what seemed like a hostile audience and supporting it,” then I would have to suggest that Mr. Hale is a little truth challenged. I was there. He never even sat down for the very short time he was there. It would have been a testament to political courage for him to stand up, speak and listen to the many fine people who did speak truth to power that night, but he chose to cut and run.

From the same article quoted above: ‘‘Regarding the environment, Hale stated, ‘I see a lot of blue ribbon events but not much action.’ ” Is he referring to Senator Bernie Fowler’s annual walk into the Patuxent River? Del. Sue Kullen, Hale’s opponent, walked into that beautiful river hand in hand with Senator Fowler and worked with him to pass legislation to try to save this precious resource. She worked hard to try to save this river and will continue this hard work with Fowler when she is elected. She has the endorsements from The Maryland League of Conservation Voters, Clean Water Action, The Blue Crab Candidate Project, Maryland State and Calvert County Teachers Associations, even the NRA.

What has Mr. Hale done? What organizations have endorsed him? Has he made any suggestions or come up with any plans to do something about any environmental issues? I mean other than to ask for a vote at the commissioners meetings he rarely has much to say about anything. Dave Hale, The Great Tie -Breaker. Please Mr. Hale, let me see that ‘‘action.” Oh, I forgot, ‘‘action for actions sake.” You do want us to give up our gas mowers and get new gas cans.

Mr. Hale also received large contributions, from many other business interests: Empire Homes of Columbia, $4,000; Richard Kabat of Potomac, former agent for Faison, the developers of Dunkirk Gateway, $2,000; Calvert Commerce Center in Crofton, $2,500; Gardiner Realty of Crofton, $1,500.

Columbia? Potomac? Crofton? Virginia?

What’s going on here? What other big money interests have contributed, how much have they contributed, and what do they expect in return for all their money?

Mr. Hale’s opponent, Kullen, also received money from Dominion, $250, and Constellation Energy Group (CEG) $550. Most of the money that she has received has been in small amounts, small by political contribution standards anyway. Heck, I saw her on Route 4 with her husband, Steve, her campaign manager and a few friends digging holes and putting up her own signs. I have liked this woman’s work ethic from day one, but this just amazed me. I made a u-turn (no small feat on Route 4) and wrote her a check for $100 on the spot. I’m sure many other citizens have made similar small contributions. These contributions will be a drop in the bucket to what Mr. Hale is getting from outside the county.

And all that money from his constituents outside of Calvert County is being spent on TV ads, and signs, lots of big ‘‘Hale Yes” signs. A Republican friend of mine said she wondered what David Hale was running for, as Mr. Hale seemed to have his named placed above the current governor on the signs all over the county (He has removed Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich’s name from most of those signs recently).

In a letter to the editor written by Stephen Keefe of Port Republic dated Sept. 15 ‘‘The ‘why’ started to come into focus in the Aug. 30 issue of a local newspaper, in which all of the current members of the Calvert County Board of Commissioners expressed ‘dismay’ and uniform displeasure with CARL’s advertisements and positions. Commissioners President David Hale defensively stated ‘You are on drugs if you think this board has treated the school system as a burden.’ ”

I know there have been many things said in public that were inappropriate or rude, but this was particularly ugly. No elected official should resort to this type of nasty personal attack on a citizen, whether he agrees or disagrees with their opinions. This ongoing feud between Calvert Alliance for Responsible Leadership (CARL) and the Dunkirk Area Concerned Citizens Association (DAACA) has become worse as time goes by. If Mr. Hale talks this way to citizens in public, what must he say behind closed doors?

I’m sure his constituents from Virginia have no problems with this nasty behavior. Look at the way their politicians act. Is this the way we want to be represented in the state legislature? We here in Calvert County can do better than that, and we don’t have to look very far or go outside the county for support. We can elect Kullen, so she can continue the fine, hard work she has been doing quietly for the last two years. She has earned our trust and our votes come Nov. 7.

Please vote for Kullen. Take a minute to look at her record on her Web site, www.kullenforcalvert.com. Check out the legislation and endorsements tabs. It is impressive reading. Kullen is the best person for the job.

David Hale for delegate? I say Hale No!

Wm. Conway, Owings