Group Protests McDonough, Calls Him 'Racist Bigot'

A group of about 16 people brought their against Del. Pat McDonough right to the doorstep of the Pikesville radio station where the Middle River Republican hosts a Saturday night talk show.

The group held their protest Saturday night along Reisterstown Road near the . They held signs calling McDonough a "racist bigot," and some in Spanish, called for the passage of a bill that would grant in-state tuition rates to some illegal immigrants, and chanted "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Pat McDonough has got to go."

The event was designed to bring negative attention to McDonough's recent comments about violence near the Inner Harbor, which he attributed to "" and the delegate's opposition to the illegal immigrant tuition bill.

Andrew Castro, a local organizer with the Baltimore Chapter of the ANSWER Coalition, called the delegate's "Speak English" campaign "completely xenophobic."

"We feel Pat McDonough is a racist bigot that manipulates facts to demonize, criminalize black and Latino youth, and he's had a very long history of demonizing undocumented Latinos here in Maryland," Castro said.

The ANSWER Coalition supports the tuition bill and has criticized McDonough for his involvement in an effort to place the issue on the ballot in November.

The group set up outside on Reisterstown Road near the studio hoping that McDonough would see them as he arrived for his 8 p.m. show. One protestor said she thought she saw him pull into the parking lot and run right into the station.

But the sighting didn't happen.

McDonough was finishing up a week of vacation in South Carolina. His radio program was a repeat from earlier in the year.

Reached by phone, McDonough said his opponents were the ones using "hate speech."

"They're nothing but a left-wing group that likes to throw around hate speech to demonize people who are doing their jobs," McDonough said during the phone interview Saturday night.

McDonough shrugged off accustions that he's a racist.

"The idea of me being a racist is ridiculous," McDonough said. "The things I am doing would not even qualify me for membership in the Klan."