Garrett Park
Three of the five seats on the Town Council were up for election.
Stephen Paczkowski, 214
Phil Schulp (incumbent), 190
Joanna Welch (incumbent), 173
Mike Grieb, 144
Bill Elwood, 112
All posts by David Lublin
Planning Board Candidate Dan Reed Doesn’t Like Bethesdans Much
Dan Reed has applied for the Montgomery County Planning Board. Besides being a trained architect (B.S. from UMD), planner (Masters in City Planning from Penn), and former employee of Councilmember George Leventhal, he is also a prolific writer and very active in development and transportation issues. All of this is great. What is not great are his views towards a large bloc of people whom he’d like to govern.
Specifically, he sure doesn’t think much of people who live or hang out in Bethesda. Even though Dan stated “I don’t go to Bethesda Row often,” that did not prevent him from expressing very strong opinions about people who live in the area. Here is his pitch to B-CC students that Silver Spring is a better place for them to hang out than Bethesda:
You and I both know [your parents have] been taught to fear everything east of Rock Creek Park, so you’ll earn major street cred by hanging out in a place where the kids don’t all wear private or Catholic school hoodies with Timbs. (This is also an effective way to avoid your date’s ex from the Landon School who lurks outside the Barnes and Noble in Bethesda Row.)…
Once you get a little older, you’ll discover that there aren’t many bars here, and those we do have cater to an older demographic than what you’ll want on a Friday night out. Of course, by then you’ll probably be going to a prestigious liberal arts college in some leafy New England town that those of us who came from lesser public high schools could only dream of…
So, while you’re still in Bethesda, why not take a walk on the wild side and make some pubescent memories this weekend in Silver Spring. You can tell your incredulous friends on Monday how you went slummin’…
This screed was not a one-off for Dan and his contemptuous view of those who live in Bethesda. In a response on his blog to a piece published by Bethesda Magazine, he wrote:
How many fine [Bethesda] individuals think of Silver Spring primarily as an exporter of black kids? How many Bethesda youth are unaware of the glorious Friday nights to be had in Silver Spring?…
Alas, Bethesda Magazine must feel some kind of inferiority complex about their town’s parking garages, where each weekend so many midlife-crisis Mercedes coupés and tricked-out swagger wagons are trapped that the streets ring with the screams of Montgomery County’s frustrated suburban élite…
Sometimes, I wonder why their staff of Bethesda Magazine doesn’t just pour all of their money and effort into something constructive, like battling illiteracy in DC, rather than giving a two-hundred-page-long pat on the back to people with the money and taste to live west of Rock Creek Park…
And, on yet another occasion, Dan wrote:
… I claim all of Bethesda as ours, so long as they stay on their own side of Rock Creek Park so we can remember “normal people” still live in Montgomery County.
Apparently, in Dan’s eyes, Bethesdans are elitist racists who think that Silver Spring is, to paraphrase Neville Chamberlain, a far-off land of which we know nothing. As someone whose parents moved to Silver Spring before he was born and has since spent many a day and night there (I guess we are brave enough to sometimes leave the land of “shitty Irish bars and middle-aged-trendy clothing stores”), I think the tone and underlying animosity toward the people who live in Bethesda as expressed in Dan’s blog posts are disturbing.
Yes, there are major differences between Silver Spring and Bethesda, just as there are between many other areas of the County. But, as a planning board member, Dan will make major decisions that will have an influence on the future of all of Montgomery County. The County’s future should not be entrusted to someone with such blatant animosity towards a major portion of the community he will supposedly serve.
New Estimates of Turnout Changes by Race
In an piece for The Monkey Cage, Bernard Fraga, present new estimates from Catalist of changes in turnout by race from 2012 to 2016.
Nationally, African-American turnout declined by 4.7%. In contrast, white turnout was up 2.4%, Asian-American turnout increased by 3.0%, and Latino turnout rose by 3.8%. In Maryland, white turnout rates increased by 1.8%, while black turnout fell by 3.3%. Data for other groups were unavailable.
The blog post suggests that Clinton might have won if she had been able to keep black turnout as high as 2012 by taking Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, albeit the latter two by razor thin margins. Of course, it was never likely that she would inspire as high an African-American turnout as the first black president.
Town of Chevy Chase Election Results
All was quiet for a change in the Town of Chevy Chase this year, as two candidates filed for the two seats:
Cecily Baskir (appointed incumbent), 260
Joel Rubin, 233
Cecily Baskir was appointed to fill the vacancy created by John Bickerman’s resignation last year. Bickerman was best known for his involvement in an unethical stealth write-in campaign to get himself Fred Cecere elected as well as his antics on the Council. He has sold his house in order to move out of town.
Fred Cecere had vowed to step down after one term, though was rumored to be hoping for calls for his reelection that did not materialize. In short, everyone is more than ready to move on from the extremely divisive 2015 election.
Cecily Baskir, an active attorney, is well known for her leadership in organizing people in Bethesda and Chevy Chase to get actively involved in the sector plan. Specifically, she has fought to maintain the graduation in heights between residential neighborhoods and downtown Bethesda, even as the latter continues to grow.
Joel Rubin served previously as the citizen chair of the Public Services Committee and is a former State Department official. He sought election to the open Eighth Congressional District last year. Though he ran a vigorous and positive campaign, Joel won just 1.1% of the Democratic primary vote in his underdog effort against much better known and financed candidates.
Congratulations to both candidates.
Glenarden Election Results
Glenarden
Mayor
Edward Estes, 323
Dennis Smith (incumbent), 283
Councilmembers (Seven At-Large)
Deborah Eason (incumbent), 351
Carolyn Smallwood (incumbent), 327
James Herring (incumbent), 317
Robin Jones, 317
Celestine Wilson, 305
Angela Ferguson, 294
Donjuan Williams, 273
George W. Reid, 272
Judy Diggs (incumbent), 268
Mark Coulter, 264
Jennifer Jenkins (incumbent), 256
Maxine Phifer (incumbent), 237
Glenarden experienced major turnover as it unseated its mayor and turfed out three councilmembers. However, three other incumbent councilmembers came in first, second and third for the seven available at-large seats, despite controversy reported in the Washington Post:
The election in Glenarden, in central Prince George’s County, was marred by controversy after three council members were censured over allegations that they used city money to promote a petition campaign. The council retained an attorney and has requested an investigation by the state prosecutor.
All three of the council members — Carolyn Smallwood, James Herring and Deborah Eason — retained their seats Monday, according to early returns.
Mt. Rainier, Hyattsville and Cheverly Election Results
Mount Rainier
Mayor
Malinda Miles (incumbent), 486
Jesse Christopherson, 416
Ward 1 – Two Years
Celina Benitez, 331
Charnette Robinson, 155
Ward 1 – Four Years
Luke Chesek, 339
Tyrese Robinson, 143
Ward 2
Bryan Knedler (incumbent), 353
The election was hard fought and exhibited tensions related to issues of change, class, and gentrification. In recent years, the African-American share of the population has fallen while many Latino immigrants and Whites have moved to the town.
Essentially, two slates competed. Mayor Malinda Miles along with Charnette Robinson and Tyrese Robinson represented the views of longer term residents. All are African-American women. Councilmember Jesse Christopherson was allied with Celina Benitez and Luke Chesek. Christopherson and Chesek are white while Benitez is a Salvadoran immigrant.
Though Mayor Miles eked out a win in the marquee race, she will now have to grapple with two newcomers she opposed on the Council, as Benitez and Chesek easily won their races. White incumbent Bryan Knedler was also reelected.
The mayoral campaign was clearly hard fought and not always pretty. After the election, one resident bizarrely wrote losing Mayoral Candidate Jesse Christopherson’s wife what can best be described as an intentionally hurtful nastygram.
UPDATE: Luke Chesek explained via email that he did not run on a slate or endorse either mayoral candidate. Thanks for the much appreciated feedback.
Hyattsville
Ward 1
Bart Lawrence (incumbent), 467
Talib Karim, 165
Ian Herron, 50
Ward 2
Robert Croslin (incumbent), 356
Write-Ins, 20
Ward 3
Carrianna Suiter, 136
Ayanna D. Shivers, 85
Vinni Anandham, 19
Write-In, 1
Ward 4
Edouard Haba (incumbent), 106
Shirley Ann Bender, 18
Ward 5
Erica Spell, 75
Ben Zeitler, 51
Derrika Durant, 4
A group of Catholic Hyattsville residents who have formed a tight community were recently featured in a profile of Ron Dreher in the New Yorker. Councilmember Shani Warner reports on Facebook that the election was at least somewhat bitter:
Amusing excerpt from a “concession” email to the neighborhood listserv: “Also, I extend my gratitude to all the people who made false and hurtful statements about me and my supporters, as I am told that every act of wrong that one experiences wipes away sin.”
The concession email was authored by Talib Karim, who lost an appeal against a Civil Protection Order requested by his wife. The basis for Karim’s appeal was that the judge denied his request for a continuance to seek counsel in the middle of the trial–Karim is a lawyer and decided to go pro se.
Controversies also included campaign finance. Herron and Karim filed their reports after the deadline. Karim failed to submit required receipts for campaign expenditures and may have accepted illegal donations from businesses. Others also had problems with their reports.
You may wonder why such reports are required in such a small town but candidates have raised thousands of dollars. Karim, for example, raised over $12,000 in 2015, and had raised over $8000 in 2017. Mayor Hollingsworth also raised over $11,000 in 2015.
Cheverly
Ward 1
Laila Riazi, 71
Ward 2
Robert Julian Ivey, 220
Nicholas D’Angelo, 133
Ward 3
Roswell Eldridge, 59
Ward 4
Maurielle Stewart, 127
Fred Price, Jr., 36
Ward 5
Jenny Garcia, 6
Lucille Gaither, 3
Melissa Turner, 1
Ward 6
Elizabeth MacKenzie, 56
Monica Megan Daly, 34
Julian Ivey is the son of former Del. and Lt. Gov. Candidate Jolene Ivey and former State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey. They must be very proud of his election. I have no idea what happened in Ward 5, which only had ten voters.
UPDATE: A reader explained why the turnout is so abysmal in Ward 5:
Ward 5 turnout is a perennial issue. Ward 5 encompasses a large complex of apartments on the edge of Town with predominately minority renters. When District maps were drawn, the apartments were all put in Ward 5 to help assure that an African American would be represented on Council. But the apartments have never been really fully integrated into the Town. Consequently, few candidates run for Council and only a handful vote in Town elections (turnout in presidential elections is relatively good.) The good intentions have never materialized.
Thanks for the information and local perspective.
Worst Reason Not to Run
In the Washington Post, Arelis Hernández reports that Rep. Donna Edwards is receiving encouragement from progressive Prince George’s activists to run for County Executive. However, the possible entry of Sen. C. Anthony Muse is giving her pause:
Longtime state Sen. C. Anthony Muse, who is close to Edwards and has his own deep base of political support, has also been considering a run — one factor that could dissuade Edwards from getting into the race.
Like Edwards, Muse is touting his outsider credentials:
Although Muse has been in Annapolis since 2007, he is known for his independence from the Democratic leadership there and would also likely try to claim the outsider label.
“Muse is the only one who has built his career on standing up to the establishment,” said Wayne Clarke, a veteran political operative who is close to the senator.
Except that Muse has stood up to the Democratic establishment by opposing it from the right, not the left. In contrast to State’s Attorney Alsobrooks, a leading candidate for County Executive, Muse was a leader in the effort to fight bail reform this year:
Alsobrooks was the only state’s attorney in Maryland to publicly oppose a bill sponsored by Muse to revive the state’s cash-bail program. The legislation was denounced by progressives who had worked for years to eliminate bail for poor defendants. It passed in the Senate but died in the House.
Muse also opposed marriage equality. According to political science estimates, Muse has been the seventh most conservative Democrat in the Maryland Senate. Unlike other more conservative Democrats, Muse does not represent a swing district. Other Prince George’s Democrats are among the most liberal in the Senate.
Muse’s financial past also raises eyebrows. He led two Prince George’s churches into bankruptcy. Muse’s own financial situation looks much happier. At the time of the second bankruptcy, he owned four properties–his own home, a vacation home, a rental property in Silver Spring, and a vacant lot in Fort Washington.
Todd Eberly sees an Edwards bid as a good way to wreck revenge on the Democratic establishment, which doesn’t support her:
[t]he former congresswoman might consider it “wonderful revenge” against party leaders who embraced then-Rep. Chris Van Hollen instead of her during the Senate primary.
But Sen. Chris Van Hollen has been a progressive leader. A big part of the reason Edwards lost was that there was just not enough daylight on issues between the two candidates.
For someone who is a progressive champion, the idea that Anthony Muse could become county executive should be seen as a reason to run–not to hit the pause button.
Hogan Smears Federal Judge to Hide State’s Lack of Transparency
Spreading Lies
Larry Hogan joined in the attacks of the most extreme Purple Line supporters in accusing U.S. District Court Judge Robert Leon of being conflicted in the case. As Bethesda Beat reported:
Hogan, who discussed the project with U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao during a meeting last month, said the $900 million can’t be “shaken loose” because of Leon’s alleged conflicts.
“Secretary Chao can’t do anything about a judge whose wife happens to be involved in an opponent group and who has a conflict of interest who’s making a decision to hold this up,” Hogan said.
However, there is no real evidence of the claim that Judge Leon’s wife is involved beyond her membership in a citizens association that has opposed the project:
Christine Leon, the judge’s wife, has been a block captain for Andover Road for the Brookdale Citizens Association since at least 2005, according to documents posted on the associations’ website. The association is part of the Citizens Coordinating Committee on Friendship Heights, which testified against the Purple Line in 2008 during a public hearing hosted by the state and submitted written testimony on stationery that noted the group was “representing the Citizens Associations of Brookdale, Chevy Chase Village” and other nearby communities. There’s no evidence that Christine Leon personally lobbied against the project.
One can only imagine the cries of sexism that would have emerged from Purple Line Now if the judge had ruled the other way and Purple Line opponents accused him of a conflict. Hogan went to spread a bizarre outright lie:
“But even with federal funding, we can’t move forward because of a judge who lives at a Chevy Chase country club,” Hogan noted.
Leon’s house is actually about 3 miles from Columbia Country Club in the Brookdale neighborhood of Chevy Chase.
Of course, Greater Greater Washington joined in the smear.
Lack of Transparency or Responsiveness
If the State thought there was a real conflict, they would have brought it up before the case was heard. As it stands, these sour grapes look designed to cover up the State’s total lack of transparency or responsiveness regarding the question of ridership raised in the judge’s decision.
Specifically, the judge wanted to know how the steady decline in Metro’s ridership will impact estimated ridership on the Purple Line. As is well known, Metro ridership has been affected by its chronic problems along with the rise of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft as well as telecommuting.
The State’s response to the judge’s concern was not to present any analysis but instead to thumb its nose at the court and declare such an analysis unnecessary. The claim of the unimportance of transfers directly contradicts the State’s own website, which highlights as a major benefit that the light rail “Connects to Metrorail Green and Orange lines and both branches of the Red Line.” Oops.
The State’s failure to respond to Judge Leon is a continuation of its total lack of transparency on how the ridership figures were calculated. MTA has consistently refused to divulge critical information about how the ridership numbers were calculated by Parsons Brinckerhoff. Call it a faith-based initiative.
Frankly, I have little expertise as to the legal or substantive merits of judge’s decision. I’m not a lawyer let alone an expert in environmental law. Nor do I know Judge Leon or anything about his record. But leaving legal questions entirely aside, why is the State so desperate that it must demean the court? Why has the State stonewalled and hidden the critical ridership analysis? If the Purple Line is so great, why not reveal all?
Why the secrecy?
House of Delegates Ratings, Part IV: Likely GOP Seats
After a long hiatus, 7S is resuming its rating of legislative races for the 2018 election. Previous posts covered Safe Democratic, Safe Republican, and Lean Republican seats.
All four Likely Republican seats are outside shots for the Democrats. But if the anti-Trump whirlwind hits Maryland in 2018 and sweeps away Republicans, here is where it is likely to strike. Democrats need strong candidates here in order to be prepared to take advantage and to put the Republican on defense.
William Folden
Del. Folden won election in 2014 from District 3B, a singleton subdistrict of fiercely contested Frederick County D3. More Republican than 3A, Hogan carried 3B by 28 points in 2014 and Trump beat Clinton by 6 in 2016.
However, Folden’s 56% victory margin lagged far behind the more popular Hogan. While Hogan will undoubtedly carry this area again, the question remains of by how much. Frederick continues to trend Democratic, which doesn’t help Folden either.
Democrats were demoralized and did badly in the 2014 midterm election but the reverse situation could be Folden’s undoing. One can well imagine a scenario in which Trump continues to perform below expectations, weakening Republican support and turnout in contrast to angry Democrats.
Notice that the same swing needed for Clinton to have won the district in 2016 would also ejected Folden in 2014.
Joe Cluster and Christian Miele
Del. Joe Cluster was appointed in 2016 to fill the seat won by his father, John Cluster. Del. Christian Miele was newly elected to the House in 2014. Miele and John Cluster won that election in Baltimore County’s District 8 with the equivalent of around 58% of the vote.
Unusually, they share their three delegate district with a Democrat, Del. Eric Bromwell, who is also the son of a former legislator. Bromwell trailed his Republican seatmates with the equivalent of just 50.1%–about 5% ahead of the third Republican–in an area of Baltimore County that has been seen as moving Republican.
Bromwell’s shaky hold despite his long experience in the House combined with Hogan’s 36 point victory ought to indicate that the Republicans should be fine. But Trump lost the district by 1% to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and notice that the Republicans significantly underperformed compared to Hogan.
While Hogan is on the ballot, Trump is now President. Instead of riding an anti-Democratic wave, Cluster and Miele will have to contend with anti-Trump sentiment. Candidates in both parties always have to run hard here. Though well positioned, Cluster and Miele will likely have to run harder in 2018, as this is the sort of territory in which Trump’s unpopularity upset the increasing comfort felt by Republicans.
Glen Glass
Like Cluster and Miele, second-term Harford Del. Glen Glass holds one of the rare multimember districts split between the two parties. In 2014, he won with 57%, ahead of the 53% won by newcomer Democratic Del. Mary Ann Lisanti and the 48% gained by his losing Republican ticket mate.
Harford County has been a growing Republican suburb but Democrats have nonetheless managed to retain a foothold in two-member District 34A. Before Lisanti, Mary Dulany James did well in delegate elections despite losing the senatorial election in larger D34 in 2014.
Like Baltimore County’s D8, D34A went for Hogan in 2014 but then narrowly for Clinton in 2016. But this subdistrict is less strongly Republican. Hogan won by 28 and Clinton won by 2. The anti-Democratic winds blowing in 2014 that undermined Del. James’ senate bid won’t be blowing in 2018.
Glass remains the favorite but, like D8, this is one of those districts that candidates from neither party can take for granted. If voters in Maryland’s outer suburbs turn on Republicans in a backlash against Trump, his reelection fight could be much tougher than anticipated, particularly if the Democrats find a good candidate.
GOP Fails to Stop Dem Push for Internet Privacy Protection
Vote to Allow Late Introduction of Internet Privacy Bill
Yesterday, Adam Pagnucco reported how Republicans in the House of Delegates voted narrowly to prevent the late introduction of a bill by Del. Bill Frick (D-16) designed to protect companies from selling your internet records to anybody, including scammers. Frick introduced this bill in the wake of action by the Republicans in the U.S. Congress to do away with these protections.
Good news today from the Maryland Senate.
On a party line vote, or at least what looks like one based on my eyeballing of the above vote, Senate Democrats pushed successfully to allow the late introduction to the bill and to send it immediately to the Senate Finance Committee for review.
The bill was introduced by Sen. James Rosapepe (D-21) and cosponsored by Sens. Lee, Astle, Benson, Conway, Currie, Feldman, Ferguson, Guzzone, Kagan, Kasemeyer, Kelley, King, Madaleno, Manno, Mathias, McFadden, Middleton, Muse, Nathan-Pulliam, Oaks, Peters, Pinsky, Ramirez, Robinson, Smith, Young, and Zucker.
This list of cosponsors includes the entire Montgomery delegation. Indeed, it includes all Senate Democrats, except, Sens. Brochin, Ferguson, Klausmeier, Miller, and Zirkin. All five voted to move forward with the bill.