Gene Stanton Enters District 4 Delegate Race

(3/23) Every school day, I teach students the importance of understanding and learning from history. I constantly explain that history can change on a dime and if we fail to learn from it, we are doomed to repeat it, sometimes quite literally.

As a historian, I see our country, state, and our community in a very interesting time historically. I believe we are presently at a crossroads where either big money rules our beloved country, or a place where we the citizens rise up and take back our country. We must take our back from the big money interests and continue to grow our vibrant middle class, protect the less fortunate and respect the wealthy. We must strengthen our communities, protect democracy and respect our capitalist system.

You see, we write our history with our support and with our votes. Unfortunately, a lot of people nowadays are voting for people who do not have their best interests at heart, or worse yet, do not have the best interests of their family at heart.

It’s time to ask ourselves why it would ever be OK that some of our schools are falling apart and we are told there are no funds to rebuild them? Maryland is currently the number one state school system in the United States. We need to keep it number one, not just in a few counties but throughout the state.

Why is it OK that our roads are constantly gridlocked when we pay so much in state and federal taxes? Why is it OK that our beautiful green spaces and farms are disappearing so that developers can make millions, all the while ignoring the infrastructure needs of the future and existing citizens?

For awhile now, we have ignored our infrastructure needs and to some degree even neglected our schools.

I decided to seek the District 4 seat because I realized that the only way that the House of Delegates will address the concerns of middle class Marylanders is by electing someone committed to working with both parties to advance solutions for the issues we face. I believe that District 4 is best served by sending a Delegate to Annapolis who has a common-sense, pro-business approach like myself. A moderate who believes District 4 should have a voice in the majority party in Annapolis. This is important, because when budget deals are made, we need someone on the inside from our area. We can’t all just be on the outside looking in.

I have always been interested in public policy and I understand how it affects all of us. I also know that I can be very passionate about important issues, and I have never been shy about sharing my views.

As a high school teacher I understand the importance of Education. This is an issue that touches me personally. A lot of my students are unable to go to some colleges because of the cost. Many of these are kids worked hard and deserve to go to good schools. Education touches all of our lives weather we have school aged children or not.

• Good schools give our children the ability to excel in the future, which gives future generations the opportunity to participate in the economy as past generations have. It reduces crime and improves the quality of life for all of us.

• Good schools help increase our property values. Parents of school age children prefer to move to regions that have good schools and they’re willing to pay top dollar for homes in those areas.

As your delegate from District Four, I guarantee you that I will fight fervently for our school children every day, to make sure that all of Maryland’s public school children have the very best education possible in the United States.

As a ten year resident and a homeowner in Frederick County, I have watched the traffic problem get worse and worse every year. One only need to turn on WTOP early in the morning to know that I-270 is a consistent mess. Residents in our area spend far too much time stuck in traffic. One of the reasons I am running is to fight to get I-270 and U.S. 15 widened from Germantown to Monocacy Blvd.

We should explore alternatives as well, but we must widen our roads to relieve congestion. However, the costs of new projects to improve transportation should be with the state and federal government, not on local governments.

At the same time that we improve transportation with better roads and mass transit, we must also preserve our unique way of life and not become like the counties in which many of us work, while we choose to live in Carroll and Frederick counties.

This is a special place. Most of us live here because we enjoy the rural, small town nature of our area. We don’t want to become another center of congestion like parts of Montgomery County.

Development projects like the Monrovia Town Center will only end up making existing local residents pay for the added burden of new schools and improvements to state and county roads that come with the additional population that thousands of new homes would bring. If I become your next state delegate, I promise to fight against large scale development projects that pass the burden of additional infrastructure costs on to existing taxpayers.

Like most people I work a full-time job. I am a teacher. But as most teachers will tell you, teaching is not just a job, it’s a calling. This is one of the reasons we need to make sure teachers get the raises they were originally promised in their contracts.

As a teacher, I sometimes hear people say that this generation of kids is lazy and too concerned with their technology, to the point of anti-social behavior. Yes our kids are very technologically savvy, but they are not anti-social and they are not lazy. This generation works very hard in school. In fact, because of technology, I believe they work harder than we did. I fear that we are not doing right by our kids and we need to fix that. This generation is America’s future, it is Maryland’s future. If we give them the chance they deserve, they will do right by us and they will do right by their children. That means investing in our schools, investing in our infrastructure and preserving our environment.

I don’t have a lot of money. I am not independently wealthy and I completely agree that money has corrupted the political process. However, if I am going to win this race – and it can be won -- I will need to rely on small contributions.

Yes, I am running as an underdog. But life is short. And if we don’t take chances, we will never find reward. For all the times that every one of us face at some point in our lives where we are not supposed to win but we do anyway, for all the times that people tell you it can’t be done but somehow we get it done, for all the times we do something even when we know our chances are remote but we do it anyway, I run.

I run because it is still possible, because I know there is still a chance, because I, like everyone else, have faced plenty of obstacles in my life; because God has been good to me; and because I’m not done yet. I’ll run toward victory in this race with the hope that I cross that line before at least one other person.

I actually believe my chances are better than most people give me. Remember, I only need to medal in this race. I would like a gold, but I will take a bronze. Because in this race, if you get at least a bronze, do you know what they call you? They call you "Delegate."

But I can’t win this race on my own. I need everyone that wants to bring common sense back to politics to vote. I need all of you here today to urge your family, your friends, your co-workers, the people in your churches and synagogues to join in our campaign to make the Frederick County we love and even better place for ourselves, and to preserve it for future generations.

Walk the precincts with me. Make phone calls with me. Write letters to the editor, put a bumper sticker on your car. Do anything you can. And get everybody to the polls!

Let me make it clear from the outset, this is not just my campaign, it is your campaign. Because without your help, I can’t win, but with your help, we will most certainly win!

The race may be long, but it is worth the run. The mountain may be high, but it is worth the climb. As long as we work together we can make the Maryland we love the brightest star in our star spangled banner.

May God continue to bless America and continue to bless the people of the good state of Maryland.