23 out of 26

While Marc Norman wraps himself in the US Constitution and proselytizes about the threats to our rights as citizens to petition the government he neglects to come clean about the tactics his group used to secure signatures for his petition for a referendum on CB58.

Allow me to share some things that most people are unaware of. 23 out of 26 petitions submitted to the Howard County Board of Elections in the first phase of the petition gathering were submitted by union employees, not union members. All these employees signed an affidavit that they were not paid for this. I find that very hard to believe, but we’ll leave that alone for a minute. At least one of these union employee petition gatherers identified themselves as being members of the Howard County Citizens Association.

Only three of the 26 petition gatherers, Marc Norman, Angela Beltram, and Amy Polefrone were from Howard County. Together these three people collected only about 10% of the total number of signatures submitted.

The union is not concerned with traffic or big box stores or the health of the existing supermarkets around Turf Valley. Before they got on board with Marc Norman and his statistically insignificant Howard County Citizens for Open Government, they approached Brian Gibbons, the developer of the proposed shopping center and offered him a deal. If Harris Teeter agreed to go union, the union would support the development. When Harris Teeter declined the union hooked up with Marc Norman.

I seriously doubt if anyone who signed the petition was aware of this.

This petition has a stench so bad it can be smelled from here to Annapolis.