It’s official. I’m not an elected official. Heartiest congratulations to Vicky Taplin who was sworn in on Tuesday night after winning election to the seat I left vacant on the Town Council. I know she’ll do a terrific job.
All posts by David Lublin
D18 Democratic Delegate Forum
Al Carr, Ana Sol Gutiérrez, Jeff Waldstreicher, Emily Shetty, Natali Fani-Gonzalez, Elizabeth Matory, and Rick Kessler
I live tweeted last night’s delegate debate hosted by the D18 Democratic Caucus. Not all went through as the Bushey Theater, formerly Roundhouse Theater, has no wifi and is almost a cell phone dead zone. Heaven for a theater but the enemy of the twitterati.
These events are great not because they change minds but because they give people a chance to know the candidates as real people and better understand what motivates them and where their real political passion lies.
DEBATE MOMENTS
Oblivious Conservatism on Education: Amazing to hear vocal criticism of basing education funding on a county’s wealth and support for directing it based on the number of students from candidates trying to outdo one another as the most progressive. So two counties with the same number of students should receive the same funds from the State even if one is twice as wealthy?
This populist railing against overcrowded schools will likely fly well with the voters. But conservatives will quite rightly roll their eyes at the incoherent pairing of this call for “fairness” with simultaneous demands for more taxes on the wealthy to pay for services for people striving their way up the ladder.
Smackdown! Moderator Charles Duffy saying to Jeff Waldstreicher “I guess we can move on if you’re not going to answer the question” after Jeff’s answer on school construction. Natali Fani-Gonzalez also took Jeff to task for expressing pride helping to bring an insufficient $40 million back to MoCo for school construction.
Boom. Liz Matory stated “our delegation in the House of Delegates is considered the weakest in the State of Maryland” in arguing her case for a new, more effective delegation. Direct contrast with Ana’s highlighting her seniority on the Appropriations Committee and Jeff doing the same on the Judiciary Committee.
New D18 Drinking Game: Drink when Rick Kessler says “ATM” or anyone says “bringing people together.” Seriously, I was getting worried that someone was going to break out singing “People. People who need people.”
Taxes and Economic Justice: Repeated calls for more taxes on high-income earners and big corporations in this district with some of the wealthiest precincts in the State, though also areas that need a hand. Much support for combined reported and closing the achievement gap. Liz Matory provided a contrast with her concern that current tax rates are making it more difficult to attract business to Montgomery.
No Discussion. Environment. Health Care.
CHALLENGERS
Natali Fani-Gonzalez Strengths: Unquestionably in command when she had the mike, Natali articulated a strong passion for economic justice backed by business and lobbying experience along with an inspiring personal story. Clear winner of the first half of the debate.
Elizabeth Matory Strengths: Forceful and willing to call it as she sees it and aware of the need to attract business to Maryland. Many with business experience sound arrogant and windy as they talk about how they’ll bring it to bear on government. Not Liz. She communicated well how she’d marry her business smarts to politics.
Rick Kessler Strengths: On message as any presidential candidate, Rick drilled into my head that Montgomery County should not be the State of Maryland’s ATM. Rick clearly gets that candidates must repeat, repeat, repeat to get their message across.
Emily Shetty Strengths: Harnessed her personal history effectively to help show the grounding for her agenda. Drove home her support for more money for schools in Montgomery. @AbeSaffer is her not-so-secret Twitter weapon.
INCUMBENTS
Al Carr Strengths: Calm and relaxed, Al sounds like a real person doing his best to work pragmatically on problems rather than a pol. He highlighted concrete achievements in making our state government more genuinely transparent despite opposition.
Ana Sol Gutiérrez Strengths: Still passionate after twenty years in elected office. No one gets to the left of Ana in a debate–not a bad place to be in the Democratic primary. A very American immigrant story that paved the way for others on the stage.
Jeff Waldstreicher Strengths: No constituent problem is too small. Proud to be Delegate Pothole, Jeff’s opening statement highlighted his success in getting the A/C turned on in a county facility so a Bar Mitzvah could move ahead even though his child was sick. Gave out his cell number.
Kagan v. Simmons
Braveboy’s Planned Parenthood Rating Puzzle
Aisha Braveboy
Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington (PPMW) is issuing candidate ratings based on questionnaires. PPMW has given two attorney general candidates, Aisha Braveboy and Brian Frosh, ratings of 100%. Jon Cardin is not listed.
One of PPMW’s questions involved support for marriage equality and Question 6, the 2012 referendum. But Del. Braveboy voted against marriage equality in the House and was not a supporter during the referendum.
Did PPMW ignore the marriage equality question in tallying its candidate ratings? Was Del. Braveboy forthcoming in response to this question? Or did PPMW just make a mistake?
At-Large MoCo Council Race, Pt. III
Hans Riemer
Along with George Leventhal, Hans Riemer is viewed by many as among the more vulnerable at-large incumbents this season. This conclusion may puzzle as newcomer Hans catapulted over three incumbents to win second place in 2010. Moreover, incumbents are usually seen as safer bets.
Hans’s problems come in several varietals. First, he has disappointed some more ardent progressives who expected him to champion their issues. Most notably, he was more hesitant to hike the minimum wage as high or as fast as they wanted.
At the same time, developers don’t seem him as their best buddy either. His support for protecting Ten Mile Creek over their strong opposition didn’t give them the warm fuzzies. In short, he’s too progressive for business and too conservative for the lefties.
Finally, some argue that he just doesn’t fit the profile of a councilmember because he is too young and doesn’t have the typical background in business or politics. However, this “problem” strikes me as a strength rather than a weakeness. Not fitting a stereotype is a welcome breath of fresh air for many voters.
So the bloom is off the rose for Hans. And like the other incumbents, the government employee unions just aren’t showing the love. He also lost support from the Sierra Club and Progressive Maryland. Still, Hans is not friendless with endorsements from SEIU, CASA, and the volunteer firefighters. Also, he’s an affable, pleasant guy who many people just seem to like–not a bad quality in politics.
So, like George Leventhal, but for very different reasons, Hans has some tricky waters to navigate this primary season.
At-Large MoCo Council Race, Pt. II
George Leventhal
In a post a little over two weeks ago, I gave an overview of the race for the four at-large Montgomery County Council seats with a focus on the two safer incumbents, Marc Elrich and Nancy Floreen. Today, I take a look at one of the two other incumbents: George Leventhal.
George’s problems remain similar to four years ago when he came in fourth. They are not particularly issue related. Yes, he’s in the soup with the government employee unions but that places him in good company with the entire Council.
In general, George has married successfully popular progressive positions on many issues, such as an increase in the minimum wage, with unflinching support for developers, viewing strong economic growth as benefiting the County’s tax base and working people more generally.
George is a smart and active councilmember. However, he just doesn’t brook disagreement well, and is perceived as quick to anger and express disdain. Most recently, he publicly berated CASA after it did not endorse him. He is also perceived as not especially sympathetic to the western half of the County.
But I don’t know that this is a critical problem. First, George is also rumored to be funny and charming at times in a way that is as genuine as his less pleasant moments. His amusing Facebook posts about why you should get one of his yard signs attest to that.
Second, any resentment generated within the echo chamber of Montgomery’s political chattering classes only matters if it costs him too many supporters. While it weakens George, I don’t think he has become as politically toxic as Duchy Trachtenberg four years ago. Even if George creates unnecessary enemies and makes it harder to repair disagreement, he also unquestionably has strong advocates.
In short, while George may be vulnerable, he is also in good shape in many ways, including well-funded.
Next up: Hans Riemer.
D18 Delegate Debate
Wednesday, May 14th
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Bushey Center
(formerly the Roundhouse Theater)
4010 Randolph Road
Silver Spring, MD
Sponsored by the District 18 Democratic Caucus
The three incumbent delegates running for reelection are Al Carr, Ana Sol Gutiérrez, and Jeff Waldstreicher. The four challengers are Natali Fani-Gonzalez, Rick Kessler, Liz Matory and Emily Shetty. This is an intelligent, well-spoken group, so it should be a good discussion.
Effects Bargaining and Endorsements
MCGEO is the Municipal and County Government Employee Organization. FOP is the Fraternal Order of Police. AFL is the MD-DC AFL-CIO. IAFF is the International Association of Fire Fighters. There might be additional endorsements than those recorded here, particularly for the IAFF.
The government employee unions are placing heavy bets behind candidates who favor effects bargaining despite its repudiation by the voters, especially Duchy Trachtenberg and Tom Hucker. In a recent debate, Duchy speculated that the decline in police morale resulting from the removal of effects bargaining had caused crime to increase. Except that crime has declined–as Ike Leggett loves to remind us–which renders the theory untenable.
Ryan Spiegel has positioned himself as extremely pro-labor despite his unwillingness to revisit effects bargaining. And the unions don’t have a pro-effects bargaining choice in District 3. Ryan is clearly their candidate for the Rockville-Gaithersburg district.
In ultra-liberal District 5, Evan Glass has staked out a position as the only candidate opposed to overturning the will of the voters unless it proves to cause problems for voters. Not a bad idea since he was never going to outbid Hucker for union support.
Marc Elrich is the only incumbent councilmember to receive an endorsement from any of these four unions. At-Large Candidate Vivian Malloy is pro-effects bargaining but is not perceived as a viable challenger by these unions.
Supporter Writes Song about Doug Gansler
Was Jolene Ivey was trying to stop Mike Miller from singing?
Listen to it here. The main lyric is “Doug Gansler.” Probably because not a lot rhymes with Gansler.
Clearly, O’Malley’s March should record one for Anthony Brown and Melissa Etheridge must perform a fresh song in concert for her longtime friend, Heather Mizeur.
Perhaps instead we could just ask all the candidates to sing “Maryland, My Maryland.” Or not.
