WHY I'M RUNNING
The Issues
PRO-BUSINESS • PRO-LABOR
Partisan politics says that you have to choose whether you are pro-business or pro-labor and pick your party accordingly. I refuse to make that false choice.
I started my business from nothing but some modest equity in my home and my reputation. I know what it’s like to put everything on the line. As a member of the Greater Severna Park & Arnold Chamber of Commerce and the Catholic Business Network of Baltimore, when I say how important our small and local businesses are to our community, it's personal. I will advocate for them as your councilman.
At the same time, our community benefits most when the labor that powers those businesses has just wages and can support their families and engage in the local economy. A race to the bottom might benefit some stakeholders, but at the expense of our community as a whole.
I will bring my unique experience as a pro-labor business owner to County Council and ensure that our local government supports all the economic interests serving our community.
“Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” – Cesar Chavez
At the same time, our community benefits most when the labor that powers those businesses has just wages and can support their families and engage in the local economy. A race to the bottom might benefit some stakeholders, but at the expense of our community as a whole.
I will bring my unique experience as a pro-labor business owner to County Council and ensure that our local government supports all the economic interests serving our community.
Partisan politics says that you have to choose whether you are pro-business or pro-labor and pick your party accordingly. I refuse to make that false choice.
I started my business from nothing but some modest equity in my home and my reputation. I know what it’s like to put everything on the line. As a member of the Greater Severna Park & Arnold Chamber of Commerce and the Catholic Business Network of Baltimore, when I say how important our small and local businesses are to our community, it's personal. I will advocate for them as your councilman.
SUPPORT POLICE AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
THE CHESAPEAKE BAY:
CONSERVATION-MINDED DEVELOPMENT & BRIDGE IMPACTS
Of course, you can’t talk about the Chesapeake Bay in District 5 without mentioning the impacts of the bridge that spans it. Like me, you’ve probably been late getting home or missed your child’s pick-up time because of the incredible traffic from the aging and accident-prone Bay Bridge. This perennial problem significantly reduces the quality of life in our district!
Public safety is a fundamental duty of government.
Without it, all our other things of value– all our other rights– are in jeopardy.
If you’ve never carried the responsibility for someone’s safety and needed to process a situation, draw your weapon, and be faced with a choice that could end a person’s life and cause a cascade of secondary consequences, it is hard to appreciate what it is like. Mercifully, during my deployments to Afghanistan, I never had to fatally discharge my weapon. Still, I know what it’s like to stare down that grave choice and how the slightest misinterpretation or human error could have changed everything. As councilman, I will never engage in rhetoric that minimizes the weight placed on our officers and the debt our community owes them. I will prioritize and advocate for all our first responders in our county budget.
Nonetheless, a citizen’s right to life, due process, and avoiding unnecessary search and seizure are bedrock founding principles of our nation. I will support policies and initiatives that focus on harm reduction, accountability, and reducing the burdens placed on our police. Our community cannot thrive without respect and support for both, which I will do as councilman.
If there were a beating heart in District 5, it would be the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. So much of our recreation and economy– from food procurement and dining to real estate– rely on a healthy bay. While modern life certainly requires activities and infrastructure with environmental impact, I believe that sustaining this vital resource must be a priority of state and local government. As councilman, I will seek science-minded solutions that take a multi-pronged approach– engaging government, business, and conservation organizations– to address environmental challenges.
My education and experience in engineering and construction make me uniquely suited to more meaningfully engage with our state legislators and Department of Transportation to champion not just our interests, but real solutions to one of our most pressing issues.
REAL FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP
One of my greatest disappointments with our current representation on council is the simplistic and partisan approach to our county finances. From voting against every single county budget prior to an election year to voting against accepting millions in appropriated state grants for our county, we don’t have the bridge-builder who understands the value of funded government that we were promised and deserve.
My experience on the government side of contracting and acquisitions taught me to hold a humble view of what government can do. We cannot just throw money and regulation at problems and expect quality results and no adverse secondary consequences. Yet prudent investment in public goods is essential to having a thriving community worth living in!
We need a councilmember who can legislate beyond simple slogans and selling one-sided talking points. I don’t play those political games.
The truth is that we can’t tax-and-spend our way to utopia any more than we can have competent, functioning government and community services without actually funding them. My promise to you is that I will respect you enough to be forthright and will never serve any interest beyond the good of this community. I will seek budgets that fund prudent, just, and needed investment in our community while never forgetting that, as County Council, we are only stewards of your hard-earned dollars.