Posted on 09/12/2002 7:07:22 PM PDT by Hail Caesar
For immediate release
9/12/2002 10:00 P.M. EDT
Despite spending less than $500, Alzona, a fiscal conservative, wins 72,610+ votes (42.3%) in the statewide Republican Primary Election for Maryland Comptroller
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Augustus Alzona, 301-530-8883 e-mail: alzona@verizon.net
Press Release
In his very first campaign for statewide public office, Augustus Alzona (R), a Bethesda CPA and management consultant, received an impressive 72,610 + votes (42.3%) cast in the September 10th Maryland Gubernatorial Primary Election. A well-known grassroots conservative, civil/constitutional rights advocate and minority community activist, Alzona, was around 7.7% short of the votes required to become the very first Filipino American Republican ever nominated for a statewide office in U.S. history.
Mr. Alzona, an elected member of the Maryland Republican Party Central Committee (Montgomery County, District 16), spent less than five hundred dollars ($500) on his humble bid to become the Maryland Republican Party's nominee to challenge entrenched incumbent, William Donald Schaefer (D), in the November 5th general election. Alzona was the very last candidate to file for statewide office on July 1, 2002.
Despite his conservative credentials, Alzona earned some of his top vote percentages in Baltimore City (48.35%), Baltimore County (43.38%), Montgomery County (47.07%), and Prince Georges County (47.17%). He even did surprisingly well in the more rural counties of Talbot (45.65%) and Kent (46.15%) on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Had he won the primary, Alzona would nonetheless have faced an uphill general election battle due to the incumbent's tremendous fundraising advantage among certain elements of Baltimore's gambling, developer and business establishment especially since Alzona refuses to accept campaign contributions from any industry tainted by corruption.
Alzona, the only statewide Republican candidate to sign the Maryland Taxpayer Association's "no new Maryland taxes" pledge, was campaigning on a platform to stand up for the constitutional and privacy rights of all Maryland's citizens. Also, he would have ordered a thorough, outside independent "People's Audit" of all government agencies, contracts and "sweetheart deals" involving Maryland politicians, lobbyists, contractors and government employees. Among other considerations, this would have rooted out any potential systemic corruption and helped assure the people of Maryland that the state would not face a crisis analogous to the Enron or WorldCom type bankruptcies. Maryland currently faces an over $1 billion dollar budget deficit and the $25 billion employee pension fund has recently declined over $3 billion under the current incumbent's watch.
Alzona's primary opponent Gene Zarwell (R), the 61 year old former military officer who finally won this primary, has publicly praised the tyrannical, 80 year old Democrat incumbent and former governor of Baltimore, William Donald Schaefer (D), as his "mentor." Zarwell did lose several previous Republican primaries for statewide office (Comptroller, U.S. Senate - twice) and U.S. Congress before this one. Alzona has won three previous Republican primary elections for local office in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Republican gubernatorial nominee, U.S. Representative Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. (R), did not endorse Alzona's candidacy. Instead, the Republican congressman has declared his support for Democrat candidate Schaefer for quite some time now.
### Authority: Elizabeth Alzona, Treasurer Augustus Alzona, Candidate
Interesting, but not suprising. Pro-Abortion Ehrlich also supported liberal Gilchrest over conservative Dave Fischer, as did Bush, the director of the MD GOP, and the GOP Congressional Campaign Committee. How much more hinting will be neccessary before conservatives realize they are no longer welcome in the Republican party?
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I can see a big difference in political parties here.
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