{"id":12844,"date":"2020-05-19T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12844"},"modified":"2020-05-19T00:30:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T04:30:46","slug":"three-vie-for-two-seats-on-kensington-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12844","title":{"rendered":"Three Vie for Two Seats on Kensington Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by a correspondent in Kensington<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local politics in Kensington typically is a sedate pursuit and contested elections tend to be the exception. This year, not only has the mayor\u2019s race<\/a> attracted competition but three candidates are seeking to fill two seats on the nonpartisan Town Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incumbent Duane Rollins, mayoral candidate Peter Fosselman’s husband, is stepping down but Bridget Hill-Zayat is seeking reelection to a second term. She won a seat on the Council in 2018, after having lived in town just three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councilmember Hill-Zayat and Mayor Tracey Furman clashed in 2018 over the Knowles Manor Senior Housing project. In letters to planning staff, Hill-Zayat noted inadequate parking and \u201cour town\u2019s intense dislike of this project\u201d while Furman expressed support on behalf of the Town Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of Kensington residents appealed the Planning Board\u2019s approval but settled after improvements made regarding parking and the traffic pattern. Nate Engle, a senior climate change specialist for the World Bank<\/a> who has lived in Kensington since 2011 and active in that group, is now seeking election to the Town Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also running is Jon A. Gerson<\/a>, a former director of economic development in Montgomery County and longtime town resident. Gerson regularly attends town meetings and helped support the creation of a town dog park. He served on the Town Council in the early 1980s but remains best known as the former political director for the county\u2019s teachers union (MCEA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Washington Post<\/em> editorial board was then a fierce critic, accusing Gerson of demanding that endorsed<\/a> candidates donate to MCEA\u2019s campaign<\/a> and that he \u201cthreatened to withhold the group\u2019s political support<\/a>\u201d from anyone backing an MCEA-opposed school board candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others might simply place Gerson\u2019s actions under the rubric of \u201cpolitics\u201d and point out that he was an effective advocate. Locally, he played a significant role in trying to clear a path for now Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher when he first ran for delegate in District 18 in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last contested Council race in Kensington was in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voting this year will be conducted by mail, but ballots also may be deposited at a drop-box at Town Hall, 3710 Mitchell Street. This represents a marked shift from the Town\u2019s normal practice of voting in person during the evening on election day. The impact on turnout is unknown, especially among the town\u2019s apartment residents who usually vote at low rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by a correspondent in Kensington Local politics in Kensington typically is a sedate pursuit and contested elections tend to be the exception. This year, not only has the mayor\u2019s race attracted competition but three candidates are seeking to fill two seats on the nonpartisan Town Council. Incumbent Duane Rollins, mayoral candidate Peter Fosselman’s husband, is … Continue reading Three Vie for Two Seats on Kensington Council<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[125],"tags":[2347,2352,1488,2346,2351,2348,1410,924],"class_list":["post-12844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kensington","tag-bridget-hill-zayat","tag-duane-rollins","tag-jeff-waldstreicher","tag-jon-gerson","tag-local-elections","tag-nate-engle","tag-town-of-kensington","tag-tracey-furman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3la","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12844","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12844"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12861,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12844\/revisions\/12861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}