Editorial: O'Malley Neglected Montgomery County in Storm
An editorial in the Atlantic alleges the governor focused on his political career while one of the nation's most affluent counties was left powerless, literally.
In an editorial entitled Outage Outrage: The Politics of Electricity, contributing editor Gregg Easterbrook wrote in The Atlantic this month that Gov. Martin O'Malley has neglected the state of Maryland to focus on positioning himself for a run for the presidency.
The long and massive power outage after the June 29 "Derecho" storm, the public outrage over the continuing problems with storm response and how O'Malley's political future might be tied up with those issues is the focus of the opinion piece.
But Easterbrook had Montgomery County, in particular, in mind, conceding he is a Montgomery County resident whose home is serviced by Pepco:
Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of the nation's bluest and wealthiest counties; its perennially awful power service raises the question of whether liberals can make the trains run on time.
Easterbrook says there's nothing the Montgomery County Council can do because under Maryland law, the state has sole authority over power utilities.
He outlines Pepco's performance history in an effort to answer his own question: "How does Pepco get away with this?"
Read the rest of Easterbrook's criticism of O'Malley and the state's response to the power outages on The Atlantic web site.
Do you agree with Easterbrook's assertion that Montgomery County's power issues reflect a larger issue for Democrats?
Could the state's problems with utility service threaten O'Malley's national political ambitions? Tell us in comments.
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Editor's Note: Patch has requested comment from a spokesperson for the governor's office.
MJ
3:48 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
I wouldn't vote for O'Malley for dog catcher less alone president, and thanks to Obama reminding my generation, as well as showing my kids age group what an old fashion "tax and spend" liberal is really like neither will a lot of other people.
Jerry
4:26 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
We are long overdue for a tax revolt both in Maryland and in Montgomery County. To that end, every home should have a backup power generator. The cost of that generator should be a tax credit, and its maintenance and operation a tax deduction. Pepco is probably doing the best it can given all the large mature trees in Montgomery County. It imported repair crews from Canada, Louisiana, Mississippi, and other distant locations. The delay wasn't so much performing the actual repairs but locating the problem. For example, on my street, a simple wire was lying on the street for six days. My neighbor and I found a repair crew working several blocks away, and told them about the problem. Once they were informed, they arrived and fixed the problem in about an hour.
Stuart Klein
4:36 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Montgomery County deserved everything it gets since it likes being treated as the state's ATM but keeps electing the same tax and spend liberals to the county council and the state legislature. The new, retroactive tax increases on anything over 100k, plus the county's SECOND real estate increase in the last two years prove how dumb county residents are when the vote. I lived in Santa Monica, CA for awhile and Montgomery County makes that socialist utopia look conservative.