Local Traffic Issues Cause New Political Action Committee to Be Formed

(8/22) According to a 2003 nationwide in-car study traffic survey conducted by Arbitron (www.arbitron.com), the average commute time to and from work for those using Frederick highways was over 64 minutes. This put Frederick County two minutes behind Washington DC as being the one of the sixth worst commute times in the nation. If a study were conducted today, surely it would be worse.

In response to this issue, two local business people formally announced today that they have formed The Committee to UNLOCK Frederick GRIDLOCK PAC. This bi-partisan political action committee seeks to identify and support local candidates of any party who offer practical solutions to the ever-increasing traffic problems in and around Frederick County.

Anthony John Thompson, Jr., and Howard L. Levine serve as Chairman and Treasurer (respectively) of the new PAC. Thompson is a financial advisor, and although he shares a name similar to incumbent County Commissioner John ‘Lennie’ Thompson, Jr., they are not related in any way. Levine is President of Ramar Moving Systems and has served on the board of the Frederick Area Committee for Transportation, a private non-profit organization known as FACT, which has over recent years lobbied to bring the state and federal funding for major improvements to Interstates 70 and 270. Neither of these PAC officers has involved their businesses in the PAC.

“I look at myself as an average business person,” says Mr. Thompson. “And confess that I don’t know all the hot issues in this election, but I do know that our roads are clogged with gridlock.” The founders of the PAC believe that the issue of gridlock needs to be put front and center in this campaign, because they see that the County’s growing traffic problem is what frustrates the community more than anything else.

“I got to know Thompson three years ago,” says Mr. Levine, “after he and his wife used our company to move them back to Frederick County from Florida. We have often spoken about the state of our roads as a major concern to my business and the hundreds of residents we serve. As this election season began to come into focus, we decided it was about time that someone became proactive about this issue.”

The PAC recently sent a traffic-focused email questionnaire to all candidates for local offices – County Commissioner, State Senate and Delegate (if they do not have an active email address registered, they did not receive the email). "We asked the candidates to tell us their plans to deal with our gridlock, as well as their qualifications. Once we receive their responses, we will collaborate with other well-versed members of our community to arrive at our recommendations. I am sure that we will end up endorsing both Democrats and Republicans,” Levine said.

As PAC funds are raised for this effort, the officers hope to express their views via the internet, radio, newsletters, and newspaper. Their website (www.unlockfrederickgridlock.com) should be live by Wednesday, August 24th. “At this point, we have put about one thousand dollars in our account,” says Thompson. “Although we haven’t solicited contributions, we believe our support is strong. One thing is certain; we find that no other issue draws passion out of the people we speak to as Frederick’s gridlock.”

When asked from what segment of the community they expect receive their contributions, Levine said that because this is an issue that impacts all members of our community, we expect a broad cross-section of business people, agricultural professionals, soccer moms and retirees to support the cause. They will provide a list of all their contributors on the website as funds are deposited into the PAC account.

“This is a topic everyone can relate to,” concludes Thompson, “and unless decisive action is taken in selecting the most qualified political leaders, our gridlock will only continue to get worse.”