Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.

This week, From and Fuller take on the possible raising of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. They also turn their attention to the passage of HR 1, authored by John Sarbanes (D-MD), which expands how and when Americans can vote at the same time when some states are preparing legislature to curtail or eliminate current voter rights, like voting on Sundays or automatic voter registration programs.

This video is approximately fourteen minutes in length. To listen to the podcast version, please use this link:

And in our outtake session, Al and Craig chat for a few minutes on the Republican conservative CPAC conference held in Orlando last week.

Background

While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.

The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.

Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”

Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors.

For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.

Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last five years, where now serves on the boards of the Academy Art Museum, the Benedictine School, and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors.

With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.

Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.

This week, From and Fuller talk about the Larry Hogan’s future and the politics of the 1st District. They also discuss Senator Mitt Romney’s well-received proposal on federal child allowance support.

This video is approximately fifteen minutes in length. To listen to the podcast version, please use this link:

In our bonus segment this week, Al and Craig remember the recently deceased Fanny Foxe and the Congressman Wilbur Mills’ scandal of 1974.

Background

While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.

The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.

Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”
Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors.

For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.

Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last five years, where now serves on the boards of the Academy Art Museum, the Benedictine School, and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors.

With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.

Bill Wright, the “Roadtrippin’” DJ, featured four times a week on WHCP in Cambridge and weekly on WKHS near Chestertown, keeps his listeners guessing by winging it each time. “You never know what I’ll play next,” he says, “because half the time, I don’t know either. Until I do.”

For the most part, you can narrow his selections to pop, rock, or folk songs recorded–even if just on a demo–between the 1950s and the day before yesterday. It’s like picking tonight’s lottery numbers. I remember once predicting that the next song on WHFS-FM in Bethesda would be “Walk Away Renee” by the long-forgotten Left Banke about ten years after their one and only hit. There was no prize, and I’ve never matched such a prescient feat since.

Bill Wright

Listening to “Roadtrippin’” is a bit like that. It’s fitting that it comes from a DJ who worked at the Annapolis/Baltimore successor to WHFS, known for its free-wheeling approach to playlists, which at other stations demanded repeats of the half-dozen songs everyone expects when you think of, for instance, Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones.

When I listen to Classic Vinyl on Sirius-XM in our car, I switch the channel every time “Stairway to Heaven” comes on. I once grooved to it way back when–10,000 listenings ago. The Stones, however, remain musically ageless to me. I’ve probably heard “Satisfaction” 100,000 times. But my all-time Stones favorite is the relatively obscure “Dead Flowers” with its nasty anti-Valentine lyric, “Send me dead flowers to my wedding/And I won’t forget to put roses on your grave.”

“Hey, I played that just last week,” Wright said during our recent phone interview from my home and his on opposite ends of Easton during a recent sleet ice-over. “Dead Flowers” never got much radio time, possibly owing to the verse that goes, “I’ll be in my basement room/With a needle and a spoon/And another girl to take my pain away.”

But that’s what Wright does on his two- to four-hour “Roadtrippin’” shows. The one thing you can predict is that he’s not going to follow a Led Zep B-side with “Stairway to Heaven.” (Many of his listeners, I’ll bet, remember 45 singles with A and B sides.)

A recent Wright show on WHCP led off with the Byrds’ “Fido” from the “Ballad of Easy Rider.” Dylan also made Wright’s cut that night with “Oxford Town.” Sorry, I didn’t know the lyrics to that one either, though it was one of the deep tracks on his 1963 “Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” album. On the same show, he spun a mini-set of six Doors’ recordings–none of which were “Light My Fire.”

Wright, 54, earned his ornery streak by resisting playing songs easy listeners might request in his first professional gig as a Winchester, Va., DJ after graduating from the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland. New ownership there soon turned the station into “Froggie radio.” Wright and the other DJs were expected to take on reptilian nicknames. “I was Swamp Thing for two weeks before landing a job in Annapolis” at WYRE/WRNR, where he worked with WHFS alums. “It was supposed to be adult contemporary, but I played pretty much what I wanted,” he recalls. “Free form, like I play now.”

After a decade in Annapolis, Wright, a Bowie native, sought a different lifestyle from nearby Crofton, where he was living at the time. “It was overpopulated,” he says of his motivation for moving to the Eastern Shore. Shunning pre-programmed radio, he landed at WKHS, affiliated with Kent County High School, where students get on-air experience on weekdays. But nights belong to the pros; some linked to WPXN in Philadelphia. Wright’s playlist remained as fluid as ever–even more so when WCHP added him to its roster of DJs whose tastes span myriad genres.

Along the way in his itinerant career, Wright picked up a Jammy Award nomination in 2000. The awards go to improvisational jam bands and DJs who play their music instead of whatever major record labels churn out, from Coldplay or Train to whomever. “Mine is the anti-radio show–not a lot of rules,” Wright says.

The title “Roadtrippin’” comes from his longtime preference for the peripatetic circuit of festivals that provide showcases for new musicians, including unsigned ones. “There’s a lot of good grassroots music out there,” Wright says. “If you send it to me and it’s good, I’ll play it.”

The word has gotten around. “I’ll play songs you may never have heard by musical legends along with songs by musicians you’ve never heard of.”

But like many working folks these days, Wright is itching to get back into his “office” –or rather a live radio studio. Uploading at home from his digital library numbering thousands of songs to be recorded for broadcast takes twice the time it would by “just winging it” in the studio. That means eight hours for a four-hour show. He may as well be working full time because he is, essentially.

But this too shall pass. And sometime later this year, Wright will waltz in late at night at the downtown Cambridge studio of WHCP–maybe not at WKHS as it is located in a high school–without a mask, mind you. He will sit at one of the station’s studio consoles and play whatever pops into his well-seasoned brain as he sifts through the music of our times. Music we may have missed along the way.

Call it the Wright Stuff.

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts writer and critic now living in Easton.

ROADTRIPPIN’ WITH BILL WRIGHT

Ten p.m.-midnight Mondays and Wednesdays, 9-11 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, WHCP 101.5 FM (low power signal available only in or near Cambridge), live-streamed at whcp.org Eight p.m.-midnight Thursdays, WKHS 90.5 FM (Worton), live-streamed at wkhsradio.org

If the last four years feels like a crash course in American civics, constitutional law, and history, the Covid-19 pandemic—and our forced retirement from whatever we considered normal— has allowed us time to jump down the rabbit hole of research to look for facts, context, and an equation to understand how we arrived to a democracy in peril.

Had you attended the online event “Thursdays with the Starr Center” last week you would have discovered another perilous moment in American history—Abraham Lincoln’s thirteen-day train trip from Springfield, Illinois to his inauguration in Washington DC—a subject brought to the fore by historian Ted Widmer in his book Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington.

For Widmer, the Starr invitation to lecture was a chance to return to Chestertown: he was the first Director of the Center (2001-2006) and shaped its mission to become a preeminent learning center for American history. The author of many other books, Widmer is currently the historian at the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York.

The evening was introduced by fellow historian and Starr Center Director Adam Goodheart, the successor to Widmer’s directorship. Goodheart’s book 1861; The Civil War Awakening stands as a stellar important contribution to the history of the Civil War. Over the years, Widmer and Goodheart have worked together on projects, including a 2010-2012 Civil War series in the New York Times. 

Widmer’s talk about Lincoln’s “Inaugural Express” train odyssey from Springfield, Illinois to Washington gave extraordinary insight to the gravity of the era, a year when six states had already seceded from the Union, the South was a burning fuse of insurrection, and the nation was adrift and desperate for a moral compass to guide them through the impending immolation of the young democracy.

While pro-southern militias awaited the President-elect in Washington, at least two assassination plots along the journey were discovered. Fear of plots to impair the electoral certificate count was rampant, and some believed Lincoln would not make it to The Capitol alive.

Where most historians address Lincoln’s Civil War years, Widmer finds the thirteen days before his presidency a window into the formation of the President he would become. Even during the train trip, few knew anything about the young legislator from the Midwest. Still, Lincoln used each stop along the way to build his reputation as a master of oratory and reveal himself as a “man of the people.”

Careful to hew toward a politically non-partisan approach to discussing the book, Widmer nonetheless conveyed such a vivid account of America teetering on the brink of civil chaos that one would be hard put not to find parallels with our current political dilemmas.

I recommend viewing the complete Starr Center talk on their Facebook page and buying the book. It’s elegant prose in the hands of a master historian who reminds us how tenuous the structure of Democracy can be.

This video is approximately eight minutes in length. For “Thursdays with the Starr Center” upcoming events, go here. 

Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.

This week, From and Fuller comment on the current divide within the GOP with Trump on one side and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on this other. They also talk about current efforts to kill the filibuster option in the Senate, which many see as the cause of gridlock in Washington.

This video is approximately twelve minutes in length. To listen to the podcast version, please use this link:

And once again, we continue with our additional content with a short discussion of the political implications of the Texas snowstorm on state politics below:

Background

While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.

The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.

Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”

Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors.

For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.

Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last five years, where now serves on the boards of the Academy Art Museum, the Benedictine School, and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors.

With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.

Talbot Family Network (TFN) recently announced the hire of Nancy Andrew as their new executive director. The purpose of the organization is to identify and develop support systems for Talbot County children and families. As part of her responsibilities, Andrew will administer and monitor the allocation of money sent to each county for child and family services from the Governor’s Office for Children. TFN also maintains a resource directory for the community–HealthyTalbot.org. 

But this new job doesn’t mean Andrew is new to the world of community service. You might even say it was in her blood. Her father, the late Herb ‘Herby’ Andrew, was on numerous community and nonprofit boards, besides spending four terms on the Talbot County Council and serving as Chairman of Talbot Bank. Her mom Della was a school teacher, 4-H leader, and for many years, ran the Easton Day Care Center (now Critchlow Adkins). 

With her family’s experience as a background, it’s not surprising that Andrew has spent over 15 years leading other community-based nonprofit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity Choptank and Talbot Mentors. “I’ve been on the receiving end of state funds before, through Talbot Mentors, for instance,” said Andrew, “but this is more on the administration end. I think sometimes organizations like Talbot Family Network that don’t provide direct services can be a little hard and a little more challenging for the public to appreciate.”

What Andrew does realize in the short time that she’s been involved are the various ways her organization can assist with some of the problems in the community. “Child poverty is an issue for Talbot County, and we need to make sure that families, particularly those with young children, are food secure,” she says. “Another program deals with improving school graduation rates. It is not a huge problem, but it’s a data point where we can move the needle. And our partnering with the school system is an example of doing that.”

Identifying programs for TFN is another process Andrew is involved with. “We look at the data, and then every couple of years, we do a larger community survey. We might have community listening sessions. We might talk to incarcerated parents at our local jail. We try to get to all sectors of the community, focusing on children and families to find out what the needs are. Based on those needs, we see if there are existing programs, and we continue to fund those. And then there are times where there isn’t a program, and we might put out a request for proposals to invite somebody to create a program.” There will also be times, Andrew says, where they may have to discontinue funding a program if the state’s priorities change; something she is aware will be hard to navigate.

There is much that excites Andrew about this new opportunity. One, in particular, involves exploring how different issues, i.e., childhood hunger, poverty, etc., impact people of different races. “We’ve been working to address issues of racial equity in our community for several years. One way has been by investing in some training opportunities,” says Andrew. 

In addition to creating workshops and having resources available, TFN also sponsors a facilitated monthly conversation on race, open to anyone in the community who wants to come in and dialogue with their neighbors and other community members about race. “That’s a significant space for us to keep going, keep open because certainly my experience growing up here is race has not been something that was easily talked about. It’s sort of like money. People aren’t sure: Is it polite? Who can I talk to about it, who can’t I? So that’s an important piece of what we’ve been doing.”

This focus on training is something that Andrew is keeping high on her list of priorities as she learns her job: “In preparation for our reallocation with the state, we do site visits with the programs that we fund. These were done virtually, but also a little more extensively this year, since I was new. Because we have some training money, we’re also looking around for additional training partners. There are many resources out there for racial equity training, but it’s a very busy space. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to make sure that we’re not just reoffering the same thing. Some workshops you want to keep offering because there are still people in the community who haven’t had the opportunity to go through them. But as more and more people go through the introduction programs, you need that second or third tier to keep them going in the process.”

Even as she gets comfortable with her new job, Andrew is finishing up a short-term contract–through March, with Talbot County coordinating some of the county’s response to COVID-19. She is also currently attending grad school, getting her Masters in Social Work—not because she aspires to be a clinician, but because she hopes it will help her better understand how to change public policy.  

With little free time, Andrew has had to cut back on some of the things she enjoys. This includes being part of an improv group she joined three years ago, something which she acknowledges as important even on her LinkedIn page, describing herself as an “ardent storyteller …with a passion for public speaking. Yes, and I love improv.” 

Daniel Brown, who heads up Reflex Improv, where Andrew is part of a troupe, says, “From the start, she completely embodied the two most important elements for improv to work well: ‘Yes-And,’ which to me means ‘I’ve heard you and I’m going to honor what you’ve contributed by adding my own piece’ as well as ‘Got Your Back,’ which means ‘I’m going to make you look great!’ I think both of these improv skills came naturally for her because those two qualities were already a part of who she is as a person.”

Which circles back to her upbringing and her parents, who lived by the sayings that Andrew now embraces, one of which she quoted: ‘For those to whom much is given, much is required.’  Andrew explains, “I’ve never wanted for food. I never felt unsafe, and I’m fortunate that I’ve had people around me who supported and encouraged me, especially as a young person. I’m aware that not everyone has that same experience. It really means a lot to me to be part of my community. I feel a real responsibility that I can make a difference in people’s individual lives.”

For more information about the Talbot Family Network, visit HealthyTalbot.org or call 410-770-6870.

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.