{"id":10067,"date":"2018-04-06T09:40:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T13:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=10067"},"modified":"2018-04-06T09:54:48","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T13:54:48","slug":"luest-asks-d18-candidates-to-sign-anti-waldstreicher-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=10067","title":{"rendered":"Luest Asks D18 Candidates to Sign Anti-Waldstreicher Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

District 18 Delegate candidate Helga Luest, who has accused Delegate Jeff Waldstreicher of asking her to switch races to benefit his Senate candidacy, has circulated a statement against him to other candidates in the district requesting that they sign it.\u00a0 The deadline she set passed and after the statement leaked to the press, the effort collapsed.<\/p>\n

Luest has previously accused Waldstreicher of asking her to run in the Senate race to reduce the chances of rival Dana Beyer of winning.\u00a0 Waldstreicher replied in Bethesda Magazine<\/a>, \u201cThese claims are false, defamatory, and born of actual malice\u2026 When they go low, I go high\u2014standing up for our community\u2019s progressive values, leading the fight for $15 minimum wage, investing in our schools and resisting the Trump administration at every turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luest then circulated the statement below to the other candidates for Senate and House in District 18, including the two running against Waldstreicher, and asked them to sign it.\u00a0 We reprint Luest\u2019s proposed statement and her transmittal email below (with the private email addresses of recipients redacted).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fellow House candidate Joel Rubin pushed back, writing this email to Luest and the other candidates.<\/p>\n

Dear Helga – After careful consideration, I\u2019ve decided to neither provide edits to nor sign on to this letter.<\/p>\n

I have spent my entire life as a son, brother, grandson, husband, father, nephew, and son-in-law to powerful, smart, amazing women. Professionally, I have dedicated years of my public sector service to programs that advance women\u2019s rights as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Latin America and to women\u2019s economic advancement in the Middle East as a State Department officer. And politically, I have supported women candidates for office both financially and with advice and support. In fact, I was recently endorsed for State Delegate by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky – the co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus for Women\u2019s Issues.<\/p>\n

This is why I\u2019m not signing the letter. Because what I have learned from all these women in my life \u2013 not to be bullied – empowers me to say no. Yet that is precisely how you are approaching this letter.<\/p>\n

This letter is about an issue that you have with another candidate. You have made your concerns about his behavior clear publicly. And you have gotten significant press coverage about this issue. It is not hidden from public scrutiny. In addition, I have privately spoken with you to express my admiration for your willingness to stand up for yourself on an issue that you find of ethical importance.<\/p>\n

Yet instead of making this your own fight, you\u2019re now attempting to re-frame this issue as one about women versus men. And you made it clear in your outreach to me that if I didn\u2019t sign the letter, I would be portrayed as anti-woman. This type of approach undermines your claims of principled behavior. Not only are you using bullying tactics, but you are also engaging in guilt by association and the potential smearing of my reputation because I may not support your personal position expressed in this letter.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s wrong that someone whom I barely know and met just a couple of months ago on the campaign trail believes that they have the right to define for me what it means to be a supporter of women. My personal and professional track record speaks for itself and runs counter to these claims.<\/p>\n

It therefore seems that this letter is more about politics than about principle. It appears to be an attempt to leverage the #MeToo movement for personal political benefit. And that is a real shame.<\/p>\n

I prefer to stick to principle when it comes to advancing women\u2019s rights. It is time to build alliances between women and the men who are already on their side.<\/p>\n

All the best,<\/p>\n

Joel<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After Rubin\u2019s email was sent, the statement leaked to the press and Luest\u2019s deadline on Wednesday at 5 PM passed with no consensus.\u00a0 Then the discussion ended.<\/p>\n

We make no judgment on whether Luest\u2019s account or Waldstreicher\u2019s is closer to the truth.\u00a0 But we understand why Luest\u2019s statement failed to get traction.\u00a0 In District 18, the House and Senate contests are fundamentally different.\u00a0 The House race is a popularity contest.\u00a0 Whichever three candidates have the most appeal for voters will win.\u00a0 Controversy does not facilitate victory.\u00a0 The Senate race is going to be a war.\u00a0 At some point, Beyer and Waldstreicher \u2013 neither of whom are the other\u2019s devoted fan \u2013 will start launching live fire.\u00a0 Only the strongest will survive.\u00a0 Why would the House candidates want to be in the middle of that?<\/p>\n

Here is a prediction: this is not the last time we will hear of this.\u00a0 As Waldstreicher is a three-term House incumbent, he has the advantages of name recognition, constituent service, community relationships and endorsements<\/a> over Beyer.\u00a0 Since the two have virtually identical positions on issues, Beyer will seek an edge to make the case that she is a better choice than Waldstreicher despite his twelve years of service.\u00a0 Luest\u2019s story will therefore live on \u2013 in Dana Beyer\u2019s mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. District 18 Delegate candidate Helga Luest, who has accused Delegate Jeff Waldstreicher of asking her to switch races to benefit his Senate candidacy, has circulated a statement against him to other candidates in the district requesting that they sign it.\u00a0 The deadline she set passed and after the statement leaked to the … Continue reading Luest Asks D18 Candidates to Sign Anti-Waldstreicher Statement<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,264,57,56],"tags":[1545,1588,1489,2103,1488],"class_list":["post-10067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-dana-beyer","category-district-18","category-jeff-waldstreicher","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-dana-beyer","tag-district-18","tag-helga-luest","tag-jeff-waldstreicher"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2Cn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10067"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10080,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067\/revisions\/10080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}