Maryland Republicans were beside themselves with joy that in a blue, blue state they succeeded in electing a Republican governor in the fall of 2014.
The bloom is now off the rose as Governor Larry Hogan says point blank he will not vote for Donald Trump and doesn’t agree with most of what Trump says. (By the way, Hogan owes some of his electoral success to help from NJ Governor Chris Christie an up front supporter of Trump, so who knows what is going on there!).
By saying what he did, he has now, for all intents and purposes, thumbed his nose at 248,000 Marylander Republicans who voted for Trump in the primary. See Blue Ridge Forum here (248,000 orphaned GOPers).
I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds of Maryland Republican politics, but long-time Republican observer and former staffer for Congressman Roscoe Bartlett said this (below) on her facebook page.
This would have been an excellent way for the Governor to respond to demands that he tell Marylanders where he stands in this fall’s election. My prediction is that Hogan has just guaranteed that he will be a one-termer.
Keep in mind that the man who wants the governor’s mansion two years from now is Congressman John Delaney, an uber-wealthy Democrat who is apparently already bored with Congress and has been hounding the Governor to say if he supports Trump. (Delaney wins this round!).
Here is the sensible thing Hogan should have said. Maybe it’s just as well he wasn’t smart enough to give a nuanced answer.
Sallie Taylor on facebook:
SCREAM! How hard would it be for Hogan to reply “I am certainly not going to be voting for the former Secretary of State who put all our safety at risk by setting up her own unsecured email system, who failed to protect her own people in Benghazi , who appears to have been selling government favors for contributions to the Clinton Foundation.” And then Hogan just needs to walk away. Unless he is joining O’Malley and is supporting Hillary Clinton for President then how he is answering makes perfect sense.
Enough of that…..
Since this is a blog about refugees, I decided to see how the numbers are looking during Governor Hogan’s Administration. Remember he was one of the 30 or so governors who declared that Obama shouldn’t resettle un-vetted Syrians in the state and then he went silent.
Maryland doesn’t get a huge number of refugees compared to states like Texas or Michigan, but a steady stream does arrive.
However, much to our surprise more entered in the year after Hogan was elected than in any one of Martin O’Malley’s years.
Editor: It is a good thing we checked these numbers yesterday because today that important data base maintained by the US State Dept. is not available. We hope this is a temporary problem, but if by Monday it isn’t up and running, then we know the Obama Administration is blatantly blocking the public’s right to know who has been seeded into their towns.
Yesterday I went back ten years in the data and found that in 2005, Maryland resettled 751 refugees with a gradual increase each year until 2015 when the number jumped to 1,453 (under the Hogan Admin). In those last ten plus years, Maryland ‘welcomed’ 12,112 refugees.
In 2016, the state has, as of June 15th, received 137 Syrians (35 in 2015 and 93 so far this year). The Syrians were distributed to Baltimore, Ellicott City, Riverdale, and Silver Spring.
MD resettled Muslim refugees from Iraq, Burma, Afghanistan and Somalia among many others from around the world.
Here are the towns and cities where refugees were resettled this year (some got only a handful, others got large numbers with Baltimore and Silver Spring being the top destinations).
Arbutus
Baltimore
Catonsville
College Park
Dundalk
Ellicott City
Elkridge
Gaithersburg
Halethorpe
Middle River
Nottingham
Riverdale
Rockville
Silver Spring
Looking for fresh territory! Hagerstown?
Rest assured, the contractors are out scouting new sites in Maryland and may have their eyes on Hagerstown (again).
Back in April (when we were away for a few days) the Hagerstown Herald Mail reported that the local “interfaith” group invited Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (one of nine major resettlement contractors headquartered in Baltimore) to come and discuss bringing Syrians to Hagerstown. See here.
Watch for it! And, know that they don’t technically have to have an office in Hagerstown (as Virginia Council of Churches did in 2007 before the program was closed) because they can resettle within a hundred mile radius of an existing office.
See our archives on Baltimore refugees by clicking here. Could the stress from forced multiculturalism be an important factor in why Baltimore is now a city out of control?