Carroll County Commissioner Robin Frazier opened a meeting of the Commission with a prayer invoking Jesus Christ despite a federal court order. She views the order as a wrongly issued violation of her First Amendment rights. Interestingly, two of Frazier’s colleagues were not present based on the video.
Frazier is “willing to go to jail” and said that America will soon be “all the way to Communism if we don’t start standing up and saying no.” She lumped the anti-prayer ruling with plots to take away guns, palm scan her children, and take away property rights through Plan Maryland. No wonder two of her colleagues skipped.
Frazier represents Council District 1 along the Pennsylvania border. She served a previous term on the Commission prior to four years in the Ehrlich Administration.
Remembering the time when Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore erected a surprise monument to the Ten Commandments, I couldn’t help but think she must be running for something. In Moore’s case, he ran for governor unsuccessfully at the next election after being removed from office.
And sure enough, Frazier has three challengers in this year’s primary for reelection: Cynthia Foley, Tina Mawhinney, and Stephen Wantz. The first two seem like less promising challengers with no money in their campaign accounts. Foley is a former unsuccessful candidate for the Board of Education. Mawhinney ran as a Democrat in 2010 and lost with just 24%. (If you have reason to believe otherwise, let me know.)
However, Wantz poses a serious threat. At the time of the January campaign finance filing, Wantz had $6100 in his campaign account compared to $3500 for Frazier. Moreover, she won the primary with only 41% in 2010, rather weak for someone who held the seat previously and with connections to a Republican governor.
Wantz has been very active in Carroll County both fighting fires and in emergency ambulance services. Not a bad record for a prospective candidate. In contrast, Frazier tweets about the “Bathroom Bill” and Second Amendment rights.
Frazier also chose to sing part of the 2014 State of the County address, a moment fortunately saved for posterity (check out around 3:20):
In comparison, Wantz seems less interested in grandstanding but actually focusing on Carroll County’s real issues based on his campaign video. A welcome approach from candidates of either party in any county in the State.
