{"id":12988,"date":"2020-06-02T11:02:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T15:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12988"},"modified":"2020-06-02T11:05:49","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T15:05:49","slug":"incumbent-turns-aside-former-allys-challenge-in-kensington-mayoral-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12988","title":{"rendered":"Incumbent turns aside former ally\u2019s challenge in Kensington mayoral race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from a correspondent:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracey C. Furman<\/a> won a third term as Kensington mayor on Monday, easily turning back a vigorous challenge from her immediate predecessor and onetime ally, Peter Fosselman<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the town\u2019s first contested mayoral election<\/a> in eight years, Furman won 420 votes to Fosselman\u2019s 368 – a six percent margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The race scrambled Kensington\u2019s recent tradition of mostly sedate local politics. Campaign-related advocacy became intense enough on Kensington\u2019s private listserv that Furman posted a call to participants to \u201cfind a way to stick to the more mundane topics like bears, plumbers and give aways on the listserv at least until\u201d the election was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running for local office, Furman added, \u201cshould not be a blood sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the restrictions imposed to counter the Covid-19 pandemic, residents voted by mail with the option to deposit ballots at a drop-box at Town Hall. Participation soared by 42 percent over the contested mayoral election in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most remarkable in this year\u2019s voting was the electoral clout<\/a> demonstrated by the winning candidates for Kensington\u2019s part-time Town Council. Bridget Hill-Zayat, a first-term incumbent, rolled up 549 votes and her campaign ally, Nate Engle, a newcomer to Town politics, won 511 votes. They easily outdistanced the third candidate, Jon A. Gerson, a longtime Kensington resident and former Council member who received 356 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hill-Zayat and Engle were allied against the controversial Knowles Manor Senior Housing project, which was the subject of a neighbors\u2019 lawsuit<\/a> challenging parking plans and traffic patterns. The litigation has been settled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furman\u2019s relatively easy victory came as a mild surprise, given Fosselman\u2019s local prominence. He previously served 10 years as mayor before stepping down in 2016 \u2014 and encouraging Furman to seek the position. She ran, and won without opposition. She was unopposed for reelection in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furman has lived in Kensington 40 years and her supporters include many townspeople who attend the local Methodist church, where she works as facilities manager. She also is popular with members of the K\u2019town Ladies Guild<\/a>, a social club for women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furman ran an aggressive campaign, sharply challenging Fosselman in their lone debate<\/a> nine days before the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point during the debate, which was conducted on the Zoom video conferencing platform, Furman accused Fosselman of \u201cmaking this stuff up\u201d \u2014 a testy response to his criticism that incivility and disrespect had intruded into Kensington\u2019s official life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also during the debate, Furman took issue with Fosselman\u2019s call for close enforcement of regulations on graffiti, signage, and parking, saying he preferred \u201cto live more in a gated-type community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Fosselman, defeat may mark the close of a once-promising career in electoral politics. The loss was his second in row: In 2018, Fosselman sought the Democratic party nomination for the District One seat on the Montgomery County Council, finishing a distant fifth<\/a> to Andrew Friedson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before the mayoral election, unflattering material about Fosselman, a master plan ombudsman<\/a> for the county, was circulated anonymously through the mail. Fosselman said in an email to supporters that he had been called a liar, anti-Semitic, racist, and unfit to run. He also said the County Attorney \u201cwas contacted by someone making the case I have too many conflicts of interest to run \u2026 If anyone believes this is coming from some crazy person outside of Town, as has been suggested, think again. I know who some of these people are and you would be shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He did not go into specific detail, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furman\u2019s call for restraint was posted at the listserv three days before the election. She said she was not intending \u201cto infringe on anyones [sic] right to free speech\u201d but added, \u201ccould we possibly find a way to stick to the more mundane topics like bears, plumbers and give aways on the listserv at least until Monday June 1 at 9 p.m.,\u201d when voting closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furman, who likes to be called \u201cMayor Tracey,\u201d claimed during her campaign to have brought nearly 20 businesses to Kensington. She also noted that her terms in office coincided with movement on development projects, including two senior-living complexes, one of them Knowles Manor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She characterized herself in campaign literature as an active and engaged mayor, which is a part-time position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnder my leadership,\u201d she declared, \u201cthe Town has stepped up fast and furious providing information both on our website and through bi-weekly eblasts. The Town created a COVID-19 webpage with links to important resources, virtual classes, shopping and take-out dining guides. The Town also sponsored a webinar for our small businesses to help them in applying for SBA loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKeeping the [town\u2019s] Farmers Market open every Saturday has been a priority,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cI\u2019ve worked with the county to ensure our market met the requirements of the health department in order to remain operating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mail voting was a departure from Kensington\u2019s practice in local elections of voting at Town Hall during three hours in the evening on Election Day \u2014 and this year participation surged. In all, 790 votes were cast, not counting 27 ballots that were disqualified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the contested mayoral election in 2012, 556 ballots were submitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winners begin their terms next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from a correspondent: Tracey C. Furman won a third term as Kensington mayor on Monday, easily turning back a vigorous challenge from her immediate predecessor and onetime ally, Peter Fosselman. In the town\u2019s first contested mayoral election in eight years, Furman won 420 votes to Fosselman\u2019s 368 – a six percent margin. The race scrambled … Continue reading Incumbent turns aside former ally\u2019s challenge in Kensington mayoral race<\/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":[2347,2346,2348,1492,924],"class_list":["post-12988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kensington","tag-bridget-hill-zayat","tag-jon-gerson","tag-nate-engle","tag-pete-fosselman","tag-tracey-furman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3nu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12988","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=12988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12991,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12988\/revisions\/12991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}