The 2022 general election is just a few short months away, and Howard County will be deciding who will be their County Executive for the next four years. In 2018, Dr. Calvin Ball, a Democrat, unseated Republican incumbent Allan Kittleman after only one term, becoming the first Black County Executive in Howard County and reflecting our diverse, largely Democratic population. Now, in 2022, Mr. Kittleman is running again for County Executive, attempting to unseat Dr. Ball after only one term. Bless his heart.
To that end, Mr. Kittleman’s campaign has been busy characterizing Mr. Kittleman as a middle-of-the-road, independent candidate who can bridge both sides of the aisle. To the politically savvy, their strategy is obvious: for a Republican to win in the heavily Democratic sixth-wealthiest county in the U.S., simply gloss over your Republican bona fides while using dog-whistle politics to appeal to the one thing that has bipartisan support in this county: protecting privilege.
Let’s put on our muck boots and wade through the bullshit, shall we?
On his website, Mr. Kittleman introduces himself by leading off – in bold font – with the fact that he is the son of a former President of the Howard County NAACP. He mentions it again (with a picture!) on his “Meet Allan” page. He goes on to say, “Allan has continued his father’s legacy of ensuring that all Marylanders are treated equally.” All Marylanders except, of course, undocumented immigrants.
Now, to get a feel for Mr. Kittleman’s platform and intended audience, let’s take a look at his “Day One Plan.” It begins with “The challenges facing Howard County families are real and require immediate action,” which is absolutely right. The housing crisis, child care costs, and the continuing fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic are some of the local challenges that come to my mind. Not to mention the ever-present undercurrent of hate and bias that frequently rears its ugly head in our schools and communities. Surely Mr. Kittleman, since his father was the president of the Howard County NAACP, will have a solid plan for addressing these issues, right?
No.
Part 1 of Mr. Kittleman’s Day One Plan, titled “A Stronger and Safer HCPSS,” begins with his firm promise to re-instate school resource officers (SROs) in HCPSS middle schools, with no consideration of the fact that a number of people and students of color have raised significant concerns about school policing and its impact on discipline disparities. Next, he offers reparations to the opponents of the controversial 2019 redistricting process, intending to work with HCPSS to lend less weight to socioeconomic factors in redistricting decisions and even using the “neighborhood schools” dog whistle. Finally, he vows to “advocate for parents to have a greater voice in the school system,” which sounds suspiciously similar to the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” legislation that has been popping up all over the country in response to the critical race theory myth. (It’s worth noting that Howard County parents quite literally elect the members of the Board of Education and are involved in everything from PTAs to policy committees.)
Part 2 of Mr. Kittleman’s plan, regarding policing, states, “Howard County is experiencing record levels of violent crime.” Oh Lord, here we go. Is there anything more tired and predictable than employing “OMG CRIME” fear-mongering and statistic-twisting to win elections? Columbia has been named WalletHub’s Safest City in America for, like, four years in a row, and Columbia and Howard County as a whole have been recipients of a whole host of high rankings and accolades for livability, safety, health, and other quality-of-life factors. Is there a Republican anywhere in this country who can get elected without the use of Nixon’s “law and order” rhetoric?
Part 3 is titled “A More Affordable Place to Live and Work.” I got excited when I read that, thinking that surely now Mr. Kittleman will be addressing the need for more affordable housing, the lack of adequate public transit, and expressing his support for union labor and the Living Wage Coalition. Sadly, I was disappointed to find that Mr. Kittleman’s Day One plan to address cost of living concerns is to reduce the fire tax and ease regulations on small businesses. That’s it. But, I guess I should have seen that coming. Mr. Kittleman is a Republican, after all. Less taxes, moar cops, MOAR FREEDOM!
Most of the remainder of Mr. Kittleman’s Day One Plan is pretty much dedicated to portraying him as the white knight who will rescue us all* from the corrupt, incompetent, divisive Black guy. Make no mistake: Allan Kittleman’s campaign is garden-variety Republican rhetoric, playing to the fears and grievances of the privileged and making no mention of the needs and concerns of the marginalized.
In other words: Less taxes, moar cops, moar bullshit. But hey, at least his father was once the president of the Howard County NAACP.
*Not all of us, just the privileged