DAVID CRAIG FOR GOVERNOR VISITS HAGERSTOWN

   I attended a meet and greet for Republican gubernatorial candidate David Craig last evening at Bulls & Bears in downtown Hagerstown. The event was well-attended by citizens, elected officials, and community leaders. After Commissioner Terry Baker introduced the candidate, he came to the podium and gave a short speech with all of  the standard Republican candidate content. He said nothing bold or daring, but he had the presence of  a good man who has been serving his country in one form or another for many years. I had no prior knowledge of Mr. Craig and I found him to be a pleasant man who seemed to present himself with a good balance of confidence and humility.
   After his speech he did do something fairly bold by taking a few questions from the audience. I was all ears as he was asked about the recent gun control bill (SB281). He gave a long answer that made me a little impatient because all I wanted to hear is that he is 100 percent against it and that he would do everything in his power to repeal. He did not. He did say that he thinks we just need to enforce the many gun laws already on the books.
  When asked about taxes he was righteously indignant against the "40 new taxes" (that number varies in all of the writings and speeches that I've heard), and stated that he would do everything that he could to lower or repeal many of those taxes. He said that if he is elected the budget for that first year will have already been  in place, but that his first budget would be truly balanced  and not falsely balanced by robbing money from other funds to balance it.
   The crowd seemed to want to be polite, including me, since this was his first visit to the area. The moment that I posted this event on-line I began to receive a lot of negative information about the man and his record on issues such as Agenda 21 and Plan Maryland that may or may not be true. I plan to do my research on this and every candidate. I did not want to ask obnoxious questions at his coming out party...particularly when I don't already know the answers...yet.  I will be ready the next time that our paths cross.
 

Senator Shank may not like this picture...but I thought it was charming. Sorry Chris!