{"id":10257,"date":"2018-05-07T14:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T18:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=10257"},"modified":"2018-05-06T18:35:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-06T22:35:31","slug":"the-progressives-big-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=10257","title":{"rendered":"The Progressives\u2019 Big Gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

One of the more remarkable things occurring in MoCo this cycle is the snowballing of progressive groups around District 3 County Council challenger Ben Shnider.\u00a0 Just look at our latest endorsement chart<\/a>.\u00a0 Shnider, who was virtually unknown a year ago, has collected about as many progressive endorsements as much better known politicians like Council Members Hans Riemer and Nancy Navarro, Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez (running for Council District 1) and Council At-Large candidate Will Jawando.\u00a0 That\u2019s a challenge for Shnider\u2019s opponent, incumbent Council Member Sidney Katz, but it\u2019s a challenge for the progressive groups too.<\/p>\n

Sidney Katz is an odd target for progressives \u2013 and basically anyone else.\u00a0 Consider this: he has been an elected official at the municipal or county levels for forty years and no one dislikes him.\u00a0 Generations of Gaithersburg residents think of him as Dad, an uncle or Grandpa.\u00a0 No one would paint him as a conservative \u2013 for Heaven\u2019s sake, he voted for a nine percent property tax hike along with the rest of the council two years ago.\u00a0 He has also voted for nearly every other progressive initiative passed by the council, including more school funding, more non-profit support, bills establishing sick leave and parental leave and almost everything else.<\/p>\n

But there is one glaring exception: Katz was one of four Council Members who voted against the 2016 minimum wage bill which was then vetoed by County Executive Ike Leggett.\u00a0 That bill had incredible symbolic importance for many of MoCo\u2019s liberal groups, who viewed it as a litmus test for determining which elected officials were true progressives.\u00a0 Katz\u2019s efforts to forge a compromise and get a different version of the bill passed later did not mollify the left.\u00a0 For them, the damage was done.\u00a0 And someone\u2019s head had to roll.\u00a0 But whose?<\/p>\n

Four Council Members \u2013 Katz, Roger Berliner, Nancy Floreen and Craig Rice \u2013 voted against the first bill and Leggett vetoed it.\u00a0 Leggett and Floreen are term-limited and retiring.\u00a0 Rice has only token opposition in his Democratic primary.\u00a0 Berliner is running for Executive, an election in which progressive groups would be aligned with minimum wage lead-sponsor Marc Elrich regardless of the bill vote.\u00a0 That left Katz, the only opponent of the original bill against whom the left had a clear shot.\u00a0 And in Ben Shnider, the left has a challenger who is appealing, smart, hard-working, experienced in campaigns and an unquestioned progressive.<\/p>\n

SEIU Local 500, a lead player in advocating for minimum wage hikes at the state and county levels, was the first major progressive group to endorse Shnider<\/a>.\u00a0 Many more followed<\/a>, including SEIU Locals 32BJ (janitors) and 1199 (health care), Progressive Maryland, the Laborers, Casa in Action, the teachers and more.\u00a0 The Sierra Club\u2019s endorsement of Shnider was probably connected to another vote of Katz\u2019s, this time against a bill banning pesticides<\/a>.\u00a0 Katz is supported by the police and fire fighters unions, the volunteer fire fighters and the apartment and office building owners.\u00a0 MCGEO is the largest progressive group to not yet weigh in.<\/p>\n

Shnider pressures Katz on the minimum wage bill.<\/em><\/p>\n