Rushern Baker Robo Call

Today must be the day for robo calls by 2010 Prince George's County Executive candidates. After receiving a Gerron Levi robo call this morning, I received two recorded calls from Rushern Baker this afternoon (I assume one was for me and one was for my wife). Here are some of the differences between the phone calls:

• The caller ID displayed "UNAVAILABLE" on the first call and "RUSHERN BAKER" for the second call.
• The area code for the Levi call was 202, and the area code for the Baker call was 301.
• The first recorded caller did not identify herself. The second call featured the voice of Rushern Baker.
• The Levi message was an attack on Michael Jackson's performance, and the Baker call described some of Baker's ideas for making "a good county great."
  

Rushern Baker included the following in his call.

• Baker said that he has "real solutions," and he mentions that you might be hearing negative calls from others. I wonder who he has in mind.
  
• Baker invited me to attend a small business owners forum on June 23 at 8:30 at the FOP lodge in Upper Marlboro. I missed whether that was 8:30am or 8:30pm, and there is no mention of it on his Web site or his Facebook page that I could find.
• Baker said that he is the only candidate with a plan to protect our tax dollars from corruption.
  
• Baker said something about creating duty free zones. I found the following when I searched the Internet. I wonder if he already ran this by the Annapolis crowd.
  

Seek legislation at the state level to create duty-free zones within targeted neighborhoods. This legislation would seek a sales tax exemption as well as local tax exemption for a 36- to 48-month period for companies located and willing to locate in communities facing the greatest difficulty attracting quality jobs and vendors. The goal would be to give these companies within communities a 3- to 5-year waiver on sales taxes, which would give them a competitive edge, encourage consumers to shop in these communities. Larger companies would have to achieve certain goals on hiring and use of local vendors to apply. This will help Prince George’s County. Additional incentives would be added for companies that have a certain percentage of their employees become homeowners in Prince George’s County or pay income taxes in Prince George's.