Tom D’Asto would like to unseat Mary Kay Sigaty for the District 4 council seat. He ran unsuccessfully against her four years and now he is prepared to give it another shot.
It would be an understatement to say that he faces an uphill battle. He seems to know that too. In this story by Sarah Breitenbach in the Columbia Flier he acknowledges that the county does a good job “with providing for schools in our area, they did a good job clearing the snow off the streets this winter -- I can't complain about that."
So how does he plan to distinguish himself from the popular incumbent?
“D'Asto, 44, said he is wary of developers and their commitment to uphold agreements with the county.
"I'm just (going to) hold their feet to the fire," he said.
Okay, but I hope he can provide some specifics about where and when the county has failed to hold a developers feet to the fire. The most recent egregious failing of a developer in the county that I know of is the Villas at Cattail Creek waste treatment fiasco with J. Thomas Scrivener and Don Ruewer. In that case the county sued the developer. While that may not exactly match the medieval torture that Tom referred to it’s about as much as the county can do.
The bottom line is that Mary Kay has done a pretty good job seeing that the community’s interest is served by the development community. In both the village center redevelopment legislation and the Town Center redevelopment legislation she worked to insure that the commitments made by developers were enforceable.
I’m sure Tom is a nice guy and is fully capable of doing a good job but if he wants to win the District 4 council seat he’ll need to present a much more compelling argument for replacing Mary Kay.
Daily
19 hours ago
15 comments:
Go Tom!! This is your year.
-signed, Independent
Is he a tool of the ruling over-class in Howard County?
Got my vote.
He has a slightly better chance (and platform) than anthony jordan. Sigaty, Ball and Fox will be almost impossible to beat.
It’s almost as bad as a first-time county council candidate running against an incumbent when the candidate has never voted in a local election or done anything of consequence in his neighborhood. Or worse, when this candidate can’t raise any serious money, uses what is raised to pay for water and bags to clean up neighborhood trash and has a such a weak platform like take over the school board, add 1 traffic light, add more business signs, and use inmates to clean up roads.
The numbers don’t work in districts 2, 4 or 5 for the opposite party to unseat the incumbent unless the candidate can raise a respectable amount of money, has actually done something of consequence in the district and has a reason why voters would vote for them over the incumbent.
I bet Tom is a least smart enough to know that and willing to be honest with himself and his party.
Anon 6:29, so you're saying that D'Asto is more like all the neighbors rather than the few power elite? He'll be an excellent representative, and Mary Kay is very very very beatable. She's low hanging fruit for any candidate to pluck that seat out from under her. Where the heck anon 6 14 gets the opposite impression is a mystery. Need to talk to people outside your circle, I guess.
money money money. who cares?! use facebook, email. people are less and less impressed with campaign literature.
Whoa Whoa whoa. The county did NOTHING for cattail residents for FIVE YEARS!! They lived in unbelievable conditions and it wasn't until loud voices began to organize that the county stepped in. The county gets NO credit for suing the same developer who is now asking for ANOTHER septic system in Doughoregan!!!!
You're out of touch, 6:29. People must have forgotten to visit you at the "home for the politically irrelevant." For completeness, at least make sure to include collecting toys for the homeless shelter around Christmas time. I'm sure that was worthless as well.
These are well entrenched incumbents, but I don't get the negativity towards putting effort into a campaign and making it a contested election. Neither Anthony nor Tom are standing in the way of political powerhouses that would be there but-for their candidacies. Let them run, support them or don't.
The energy is on the side of unseating incumbents, not supporting the powerful. Don't underestimate energy of a few motivated energetic people who have it well within their power to wake the sleeping masses.
Anon 12:10 haiku:
Ha ha ha ha ha!
That is so hilarious!
Thank you for the laugh.
anon 12:10
I think we have seen how much energy there is for Jordan. Didn't he raise like $1,000 and his own party doesn't support him. D'Asto has just come out, so we have to see. His support is likely to be similarly "energetic."
As evidenced by TAG's recent dismal failure, most people in Howard County are fairly happy and those who aren't are not given a good alternative in the current crop of either used to be incumbents or clueless jokes.
I think it's funny how difficult it is to tell what any of the folks opposing incumbents on the County Council would do differently. What, specifically would they have done or would do differntly that would make people vote for someone different?
Don't know where some of the previous commentators are coming from. Tom D'Asto has done a great job on our watch, and has reported at least two confirmed sightings, with one more possible.
Even the air force has admitted that there was something there on the Jan. 14 occurrence.
Tom, don't waste your time on this race. Go for governor. You'll win in a walk. We're all behind you.
Keep up the good work for prison reform.
Are you saying this guy has spotted UFO's?
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