Aaron Davis

D.C. Council Considering a New ObamaCare Tax; WashPost Buries Story on B4
By Ken Shepherd | May 6, 2014 | 12:52 PM EDT

Claiming that the District of Columbia's ObamaCare exchange is just too darn small in size to pay for itself, Mayor Vince Gray (D) is proposing the city council "approve legislation granting the District's exchange board broad new power to tax any health-related insurance product sold in the city -- regardless of whether it's offered on the exchange," Washington Post staffer Aaron Davis reported this morning.

"If Gray and exchange officials get their way," Davis noted, a new "1 percent tax on more than $250 million in insurance premiums paid annually" by D.C. resident. Of course, Davis's story was buried on page four of the Metro section and slapped with a snoozer of a headline, "Council to vote on new tax power for health exchange,"* rather than something which would arrest the readers attention like say, "Mayor calls for new tax on health plans."

WashPost Buries D.C. Mayor's Scandalous Fundraiser At Home of Jailed Mogul on Page C5
By Ken Shepherd | March 2, 2014 | 6:28 PM EST

Washington Post Metro reporter Aaron Davis has an excellent story in today's paper about ethically-deficient D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D) attending a reelection campaign fundraiser at the home of an "incarcerated real estate mogul" who is guilty of having "prey[ed] on homeowners facing foreclosure." Said home, by the way, is $36,000 in arrears on D.C. property taxes.  Last year some of Davis's colleagues reported on how the Gray administration had moved to evict elderly residents from their houses for paltry sums of backpaid taxes, many times in cases where they had not been properly notified that they owed the District any money.

Unfortunately for Davis, and more importantly, for Post readers, his editors decided to shuffle his story off to page C5 in the Sunday paper. By contrast, they plastered the front page of Metro with an above-the-fold headline scolding the Virginia state legislature -- the lower house of which is dominated by Republicans -- for not going far enough in its ethics reforms: "Va. moves to tighten ethics rules -- but not too much."

WashPost Smoothes All the Edginess of Muslim Radical Leftist Running for Mayor of D.C.
By Tim Graham | February 4, 2014 | 8:05 AM EST

In Tuesday’s Washington Post, political reporter Aaron C. Davis promoted radical Iraqi-American Muslim restaurant owner Anas “Andy” Shallal in his dark-horse campaign for mayor of Washington. The headline on the front page of Metro for this “scientist turned poet, painter, activist, and multi-millionaire restaurateur” was simply “Novice making unconventional bid.”

Shallal wasn’t a radical, apparently, but is “pushing a resolutely populist agenda, promising to close the gap between the District’s rich and poor in terms that echo the winning pitch of recently elected New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.” They barely put the word “liberal” into the story.

WashPost Rewards Gov. O'Malley's 'Personal Push' for Gun Ban, Licensing Law with Puffy 62-Paragraph Article
By Ken Shepherd | April 8, 2013 | 7:22 PM EDT

As if it weren't enough for the Washington Post to cheerlead for Maryland's new stringent gun control law in the editorial pages and in biased news accounts, staff writers Aaron Davis and Paul Schwartzman today rewarded liberal governor and potential 2016 presidential contender Martin O'Malley with a 62-paragraph front-page victory lap headlined "Behind Md.'s tough gun law, a personal push."

"Md. governor driven by one fear: Could Newtown happen here?" insisted the headline on the the jump page. Left virtually unexamined, of course, would be how O'Malley's push for stringent gun control would help him campaign among liberal base voters in the 2016 primaries. No, Davis and Schwartzman painted O'Malley as driven by a purely altruistic desire to spare Maryland parents the pain of burying their children thanks to a mad gunman's rage:

WashPost's Aaron Davis Grouses About Amendments That Would 'Gut' Md. Legislature's Gun Ban
By Ken Shepherd | March 20, 2013 | 6:53 PM EDT

A funny thing happened on the way to banning assault weapons in the deep blue state of Maryland. Some Democrats in the overwhelmingly-Democratic House of Delegates are considering amendments to reform the bill to carve out some exemptions. Given the composition of the state government, it may be the best bet that gun rights advocates in Maryland can realistically hope for in the short term, but to the Washington Post, it's a "gut[ting]" of Gov. O'Malley's proposal, even as House Democrats pushing changes say they are seeking to avoid banning guns merely on the basis of cosmetic features.

In his page B1 March 20 story, "Proposals would allow some semiautomatic rifles in Md.," staff writer Aaron C. Davis opened by lumping in "veterans and sportsmen" unfavorably with the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooter and the Beltway snipers by noting that "[s]ome semiautomatic rifles" that were "popular" with the former were used by the latter and could be legal under a revised gun ban in the Old Line State.

Name That Party: WaPo Leaves Out the D In Maryland Scandal
By Tim Graham | September 24, 2011 | 10:04 AM EDT

"Gay marriage" advocates are probably delighted, but The Washington Post once again can't find any place to put a troublesome "D" next to the name of a Maryland state delegate charged with theft. Aaron Davis reported:

A young Prince George's [County] politician who seemed to embody Maryland's crisis of conscience over approving same-sex marriage was charged Friday with stealing campaign funds, in part to pay for her wedding.

Democrat Lawyer, Alleging Fraud, Sues Md. to Overturn DREAM Act Referendum, But He's Opposed Voter ID Laws
By Ken Shepherd | August 2, 2011 | 11:45 AM EDT

The illegal immigrant advocates at CASA de Maryland have really called in the big guns with their lawsuit in Maryland aimed at thwarting a popular voter referendum on the so-called Maryland DREAM Act, which provides for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.

The law firm for which former Democratic National Committee (DNC) general counsel Joseph Sandler works has taken up the case, the Washington Post's Aaron Davis reported this morning.

Davis quoted Sandler's concerns about fraud in the petition-gathering process whereby a large number of petitions were generated from a website linked to a database of registered voters: