Political Disagreements Between Candidates Mar Bowie Election Day

Bowie’s normally placid, polite style of political campaigning was interrupted by election-day disagreements among the candidates in two district city council races. One involved a campaign flier said to be unethical and misleading, the other a dispute about how close to the polls one candidate was campaigning.

In District 2, a flier was passed out to voters endorsing Mayor G. Frederick Robinson and council member Diane Polangin for re-election. Robinson is running unopposed; Polangin is running against Piero “Pete” Mellits, a popular member of the Prince George’s County volunteer firefighting force.

The headline of the flier states: “The Prince George’s County Firefighters and Paramedics Association endorses the re-election” of Robinson and Polangin.

Small type at the bottom of the flier states it was funded by the Prince George’s County Professional Firefighters’ PAC and not authorized by any candidate.

While the county’s firefighting force consists of volunteers and professionals, the problem with the flier, according to Mellits, is that it implies all firefighters—including volunteers—support Polangin.

Mellits, a volunteer firefighter, said the flier implies that his fellow volunteer firefighters are endorsing his opponent.

“It's dirty politics,” Mellits said late this afternoon while campaigning at the Kenhill Center. “It’s unethical to imply that the volunteers have endorsed Diane Polangin when that hasn’t happened. The mayor asked the professional firefighters to do this. He’s running unopposed. Why is he even getting involved in this council race?”

Robinson, also at the Kenhill Center, said the professional firefighter’s PAC was just doing what it has done a number of times, endorsing him. He said he wasn’t aware of how the flier was laid out. Robinson has endorsed Polangin.

Polangin said the flier was produced without her involvement. She pointed out that the other side of the flier clearly incidates that the professional firefighters were involved.

Representatives of the professional firefighters PAC were not at the Kenhill Center for comment.

Meanwhile, in District 3, candidate Babtunde Alegbeleye accused opponent Henri Gardner of campaigning too close to a polling place.

“I’ve never seen what I see today. Rules were violated, I’ve had to call the board of elections many, many times to come out,” Alegbeleye said. “Signs were placed illegally, people were told to put them down, they were not put down.”

City Clerk Pam Fleming said that she and an election judge on site talked to Gardner about staying 100 feet away from the entrance to the polling location. She said that Gardner complied, and that no further action was necessary.

Gardner said the accusations by Alegbeleye stemmed from a simple misunderstanding and chalked them up to a child wearing a Gardner T-shirt near the polling place.  

“So you have a 10-year-old that’s wearing my election T-shirt, so he’s running around not realizing the rules, so I have to continue to—as with any 10-year-old—repeat myself to him,” said Gardner. “So that’s basically it from my understanding of it."