Hodge is Unfairly Accused

In his letter in Wednesday’s Cecil Whig, Dr. Mulvey indicated that he may be in the wrong profession. He should be an old-time politician since he has already mastered one of their defining characteristics, the habit of attributing only altruistic motives to all of his friends and only self-serving interests to all of his opponents. It never seems to occur to those folks that anyone could run for public office with a genuine desire to improve the community in which they live and work. I’m sure that when Robert Hodge was considering a response to the people who asked him to run for County Commissioner, it never entered his mind that it might be financially advantageous, as Mulvey suggests. Instead, I imagine he pondered the considerable sacrifice in time, money and piece of mind that it would involve, not to mention the media abuse to which he would become vulnerable.

It is grossly insulting to accuse a candidate of wanting to profit from a public office, with absolutely no evidence of such thoughts. It also indicates a complete ignorance of the County’s excellent ethics laws. A Commissioner is bound by law and by his personal integrity to recuse himself from all decisions remotely connected with his private affairs. I believe that Robert’s primary purpose in running was to attempt to reverse a trend in County affairs that he found very troubling. He saw, as I do, that opportunities for young people to start and succeed in business have been steadily eroded by excessive taxes, onerous regulations, and government interference. I believe he felt an obligation to try to preserve the elements in our society that allowed him to prosper and to enjoy life and work in Cecil County.

I was fascinated by Mulvey’s claim to knowledge about who owned the properties where Hodge’s campaign signs are displayed. Surely he didn’t check the land records for all of those locations. I’ll bet Hodge doesn’t even know where they all are, since they were erected by a small group of hard-working supporters, whose only instructions were to distribute them around the County and to get the land owners’ permission. It seems logical that a random distribution would put many of them on the properties of people who own the most land. All of this indicates that Dr. Mulvey is probably not going to join the throng of citizens who want to improve the quality of our County government by voting for Robert Hodge for County Commissioner in the Republican Primary on Tuesday.

Lulu's Beau