Political Notes: a Sugarloaf meeting and a Rickroll | Election Coverage

The meeting came roughly one week after members of the Stronghold Board of Trustees said during a County Council meeting on Aug. 23 that they would close the mountain to the public if the council approves a version of the plan that Stronghold opposes.

“The purpose of the meeting was to hear Stronghold’s concerns about the Sugarloaf Plan; to develop or gain a common understanding of what was being proposed in the plan and what was not being proposed in the plan; and, to ascertain what changes Stronghold would like to see to gain their support for the plan,” Gardner wrote.

Gardner wrote that Stronghold representatives indicated they would respond to the county at a later date.

In the days before the meeting, John Webster, president of the Stronghold Board of Trustees, appeared skeptical about meeting with Gardner and her staff.

“If it has anything to do with the [Sugarloaf plan], it’s nothing we’re interested in,” Webster said.

Webster could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Keeping the receiptsCounty Councilman Steve McKay, R, enjoyed an “I told you so” moment with former Councilman Kirby Delauter on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the council voted 5-2 in favor of a bill McKay sponsored that allows a development project at Rosehaven Manor in Frederick to continue after being stalled since November 2021.

Restarting the project will benefit the developer and permit a couple who invested their life savings in restoring Rosehaven Manor to finish what they started. Area residents and county officials hope it also will solve speeding along Md. 144 near the intersection of Linganore and Bartonsville roads.

Delauter, a Republican, was openly skeptical about how the council would handle the situation.

“No one on the council has the balls or brains to do what is right here,” Delauter wrote on Facebook at the time.

“He made this comment a while back about this issue, and I took a screenshot because I knew we’d get it done,” McKay wrote.

“Glad you got it right,” Delauter wrote in reply. “Just shoulda never been an issue to begin with.”

McKay wrote that he agreed.

The RickrollIn early August, state Sen. Michael Hough accused County Councilwoman Jessica Fitzwater of creating a website, michaelhoughforfrederick.com, to dupe his supporters into donating to her campaign.

Hough, R, and Fitzwater, D, are running for Frederick County executive.

Hough’s campaign treasurer, Robert Friscia, sent an email to supporters to make them aware of the website, which resembles the URL for Hough’s official website, mikeforfrederick.com.

Friscia wrote that Fitzwater’s campaign “clearly” created michaelhoughforfrederick.com to mislead Hough’s supporters into donating to her as part of “cheap campaign tactics.”

“The whole thing is just juvenile,” Hough said in a phone interview. “Normally, people don’t stoop that low in local races.”

Fitzwater, though, said she did not create the site.

“This outlandish accusation of fraud is an outright lie that sounds like something an elementary kid would do rather than a state senator like Hough,” Fitzwater, an elementary school music teacher, said in a phone interview. “Although, my students are better than this.”

At 7:31 a.m. on Aug. 5, a Facebook user posted the contents of Friscia’s email, including a link to www.michaelhoughforfrederick.com, to the Frederick Regional Politics and Issues group page.

At 7:43 a.m, other Facebook users in the group began posting that they’d been deceived in an entirely different way. After clicking the link, users weren’t taken to a misleading campaign page. Rather, they were Rickrolled.

The video, posted in 2009, has more than 1.2 billion views.

Hough later posted what he wrote were screenshots of the web page before it became a Rickroll link.

“Clearly, [Fitzwater’s campaign] put this video up after we sent this email,” Hough wrote.

“He’s so wrapped up in extreme GOP politics that he would accuse me of something I would never do,” Fitzwater later wrote in a text message.