{"id":13823,"date":"2020-09-30T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13823"},"modified":"2020-10-31T13:16:29","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T17:16:29","slug":"developers-help-save-maryland-director-contribute-to-nine-districts-for-moco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13823","title":{"rendered":"Developers, Help Save Maryland Director Contribute to Nine Districts for MoCo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On August 5, I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13545\">reported<\/a> that a combination of developers and county employee unions had accounted for most of the Nine Districts for MoCo group\u2019s financial support. At that time, the leading contributors were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Charles Nulsen, Washington Property Company: $50,000<br>UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO: $10,000 (in-kind)<br>Bob Buchanan, Buchanan Partners: $5,000<br>Fraternal Order of Police: $5,000 (in-kind)<br>Montgomery County Career Fire Fighters Association PAC: $5,000 (in-kind)<br>Gingery Development Group: $5,000<br>Arlene Hillerson (listed as being in real estate): $2,000<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nulsen, Buchanan, Gingery and Hillerson are all in the real estate industry. As of August 5, the four comprised 94% of Nine Districts\u2019 cash receipts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On August 13, I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13555\">reported<\/a> that a number of prominent county Republicans, including seven members of the county party\u2019s central committee, had supported Nine Districts with cash or in-kind contributions. Republicans support a nine district council structure because they believe it might lead to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?tag=red-district\">Republican council seat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"336\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MoCo-GOP-Nine-Districts-1024x336.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13824\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MoCo-GOP-Nine-Districts-1024x336.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MoCo-GOP-Nine-Districts-300x98.png 300w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MoCo-GOP-Nine-Districts-768x252.png 768w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MoCo-GOP-Nine-Districts-1536x504.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MoCo-GOP-Nine-Districts.png 1554w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The county Republican Party is asking voters to vote for Question D, which would create nine council districts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On August 24, Nine Districts amended its financial reports and new information about its contributors is now available. Of notable interest is that Gingery Development Group contributed another $25,000 on August 3 and Willco, a Potomac developer, directed a $15,000 contribution to the group\u2019s campaign consultant, Rowland Strategies of Baltimore, on August 5. If Willco\u2019s contribution, listed as in-kind but relieving the group\u2019s obligation to Rowland, is counted as a cash contribution, that means that 96% of Nine Districts\u2019 cash support has come from developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One more interesting fact emerges from the group\u2019s amended financial report: a nine dollar contribution from Brad Botwin. The contribution is probably a response to the county Republican Party\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcgop.com\/9_for_9d\">\u201c$9D for 9D\u201d solicitation for Nine Districts<\/a>. Botwin is the county GOP\u2019s contact for volunteer opportunities. But he is a lot more than that. Botwin is the director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.helpsavemaryland.org\/\">Help Save Maryland<\/a>, a group opposing illegal immigration. Help Save Maryland has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.splcenter.org\/fighting-hate\/intelligence-report\/2017\/once-again-number-nativist-extremist-groups-falls\">designated as a \u201cnativist extremist group\u201d by the Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a>, provoking a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.helpsavemaryland.org\/2017\/07\/28\/a-demagogic-bully-splc\/\">counter-attack describing the center as \u201ca demagogic bully.\u201d<\/a> Help Save Maryland\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.helpsavemaryland.org\/2020\/08\/01\/help-save-maryland-community-justice-ice-arrests-illegal-alien-child-rapist-freed-by-moco-county-executive-elrich\/\">denunciation of an \u201cillegal alien child rapist freed by MoCo County Executive Elrich\u201d<\/a> is standard fare for the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"616\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Botwin-MoCo-GOP-1024x616.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Botwin-MoCo-GOP-1024x616.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Botwin-MoCo-GOP-300x180.png 300w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Botwin-MoCo-GOP-768x462.png 768w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Botwin-MoCo-GOP-1536x924.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Botwin-MoCo-GOP.png 1671w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Botwin\u2019s contact info on the MoCo GOP\u2019s website. His phone number has been redacted.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The line between Botwin and Nine Districts is already drawn through the MoCo Republican Party, which supports Nine Districts and lists Botwin as its volunteer contact. If Botwin is more directly involved in Nine Districts than that, that would be big news in MoCo politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adam Pagnucco. On August 5, I reported that a combination of developers and county employee unions had accounted for most of the Nine Districts for MoCo group\u2019s financial support. At that time, the leading contributors were: Charles Nulsen, Washington Property Company: $50,000UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO: $10,000 (in-kind)Bob Buchanan, Buchanan Partners: $5,000Fraternal Order of Police: &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13823\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Developers, Help Save Maryland Director Contribute to Nine Districts for MoCo<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[151,15,36],"tags":[1545,1032,1334,1463,1864,2393,1477],"class_list":["post-13823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-montgomery-county-council","category-republicans","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-ballot-questions","tag-help-save-maryland","tag-montgomery-county-council","tag-montgomery-county-republicans","tag-nine-districts-for-moco","tag-republicans"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3AX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13823","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=13823"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13830,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13823\/revisions\/13830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}