A new community group that hopes to galvanize the county’s independent voters and provide a forum for independent candidates held its second meeting at Miller Library on July 24.

“We can send a clear message to the incumbents that we have better options,” said Mona Brinegar, who launched Independent Voters in Howard County after feeling unimpressed with both elected officials and incumbent running for re-election.

“I have been watching the newspapers and waiting for someone else to do it,” said the Ellicott City resident about creating the group. “This year it seems like we had no representation at all from our elected officials. … There are thousands of independent voters in Howard County. We are even more ignored than the other groups.”

When no signs of such a group surfaced, Brinegar decided to call Angela Beltram, leader of the COPE citizens group, and some independent candidates.

“I just called one day sitting at my kitchen table,” she explained. The meeting at the library drew even more people – about 30 – than her first meeting, at Wilde Lake Interfaith Center on July 10.

Brinegar said she was very pleased with the result. “I really didn’t expect this much interest. It might have been the first time [people] saw anything [about those candidates] … so yes, I  was happy.”

 Speakers at the meeting included Angela Beltram, leader of the COPE citizens’ group; Steve Wallis, Independent candidate for county executive; and Kevin Zeese, candidate for U.S. Senate.

Both Wallis and Zeese discussed the importance of having alternatives to the two-party system, as well as their own qualifications as candidates.

“I have always been enamored with politics. What I haven’t been enamored with is that so many people are tired of the rhetoric between Democrats and Republicans,” said Wallis, currently the principal of Harper’s Choice Middle School.

Having eschewed the notion of being involved with political parties, he also spoke of the challenge of running as an Independent against candidates who can spend half a million dollars on a campaign.  

“It doesn’t have to be a Republican and Democrat thing, yet that’s in my face all the time,” he said. “If the majority of those independent voters decide to go to the polls, and feel there is a viable candidate out there, I don’t see why they wouldn’t vote for someone with all the experience that I have.”

The issue of money was a major topic for both Wallis and Zeese.

“I cannot imagine anything more wasteful than spending half a million dollars to say, ‘I’m your next executive,’” said Wallis.

After his speech, Brinegar replied, “$400,000 for a campaign? The next time I see one of those huge [campaign] road signs, I am going to think, ‘Who paid for this?’”

Zeese, an Independent candidate for U.S. Senate who has been nominated by three parties (Green, Libertarian and Populist), said the key is to get voters to believe in other options.

He noted a national poll that said *only 17 percent of Americans feel represented by their elected officials and said independent and third-party voters make up the fastest-growing group of voters.

“Voters feel trapped in a two-party system. … The two parties are status-quo parties. They are funded by status-quo donors.”

Zeese also commended Brinegar on her success with the new group.

“I have been at candidate forums one-fifth the size of this, so don’t be discouraged. This is a great turn-out for just getting started.”

For more information on Independent Voters in Howard County, visit www.howardcountyissues.org.

* this is an edit by KevinZeese.com, the edit is to correct the statistic.