{"id":14204,"date":"2020-11-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=14204"},"modified":"2020-11-08T21:35:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T02:35:14","slug":"winners-and-losers-of-the-ballot-question-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=14204","title":{"rendered":"Winners and Losers of the Ballot Question War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This year, MoCo saw its biggest battle over ballot questions in sixteen years<\/a>. Most county players lined up on one side or the other and victory has been declared<\/a>. Who won and who lost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winners<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council Member Andrew \u201cReal Deal\u201d Friedson<\/span>
Friedson authored Question A, which liberalized the county\u2019s property tax system to allow receipts to increase with assessments. Wall Street applauded its passage<\/a>. Even progressives, who don\u2019t love Friedson but owe him big-time for opening up the county\u2019s revenue stream, have to admit that his Question A was the real deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council Member Evan Glass<\/span>
Glass authored Question C, which added two district council seats and defeated the nine district Question D. Lots of wannabe politicians are going to look at running for the new seats. Every single one of them should kiss Glass\u2019s ring and write a max-out check to his campaign account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

County Democratic Party<\/span>
It\u2019s not a coincidence that MoCo voters adopted the positions of the county Democratic Party<\/a> on all four ballot questions. With partisan sentiments running high and information on the questions running low, MoCo Democrats went along with their party and dominated the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Blair<\/span>
Blair was the number one contributor to the four ballot issue committees that passed Questions A and C and defeated Questions B and D. By himself, Blair accounted for nearly half the money they raised<\/a>. Whatever Blair decides to do heading into the next election, he can claim to have done as much to pass the county Democrats\u2019 positions on the ballot questions as anyone. (Disclosure: I have done work for Blair\u2019s non-profit<\/a> but I was not involved in his ballot question activities.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ike Leggett<\/span>
The former county executive was key in leading the fight against Robin Ficker\u2019s anti-tax Question B and the nine county council district Question D. Thousands of MoCo voters still like, respect and trust Ike Leggett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jews United for Justice<\/span>
While not having the money and manpower of many other groups who played on the questions, Jews United for Justice played a key role in convening the coalition that ultimately won. They have gained a lot of respect from many influencers in MoCo politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facebook<\/span>
Lord knows how much money they made from all the ballot question ads!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Losers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robin Ficker<\/span>
At the beginning of 2020, MoCo had one of the most restrictive property tax charter limits of any county in Maryland. For many years, Ficker was looking to make it even tighter and petitioned Question B to the ballot to convert it into a near-lock on revenues. But his charter amendment provoked Friedson to write Question A, which ultimately passed while Question B failed and will raise much more money than the current system over time<\/a>. Instead of tightening the current system, the result is a more liberal system that will achieve the opposite of what Ficker wanted \u2013 more revenue for the county. This was one of the biggest backfires in all of MoCo political history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans<\/span>
The county\u2019s Republican Party did everything they could to pass Ficker\u2019s anti-tax Question B and the nine county council district Question D. In particular, they gave both cash and in-kind contributions to Nine Districts<\/a> and even raised money for the group on their website<\/a>. In doing so, the GOP provoked a fierce partisan backlash as the county Democrats rose up to take the opposite positions on the ballot questions and most Democratic-leaning groups combined forces to support them. With President Donald Trump apparently defeated, Governor Larry Hogan leaving office in two years and little prospect of success in MoCo awaiting them, where does the county\u2019s Republican Party go from here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This tweet by MoCo for Question C from a voting location explains all you need to know about why Question D failed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political Outsiders<\/span>
It wasn\u2019t just Republicans who supported the failed Questions B and D; a range of political outsiders supported them too. What they witnessed was a mammoth effort by the Democratic Party, Democratic elected officials and (mostly) progressive interest groups to thwart them. Even the county chamber of commerce and the realtors lined up against them. Whether or not it\u2019s true, this is bound to provoke more talk of a \u201cMoCo Machine.\u201d Machine or not, outsiders have to be wondering how to win when establishment forces combine against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Push<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MCGEO, Fire Fighters and Police Unions<\/span>
These three unions are frustrated. They have not been treated the way they expected by the administration of County Executive Marc Elrich and they are also upset with the county council for abrogating their contracts (among other things). They wanted to show that they could impose consequences for messing with them and that was one reason why all three made thousands of dollars of in-kind contributions to Nine Districts<\/a>. On the negative side, the nine districts Question D failed. On the positive side, the passage of Friedson\u2019s Question A will result in a flow of more dollars into the county budget over time, a win for their members. So it\u2019s a push. On to the next election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. This year, MoCo saw its biggest battle over ballot questions in sixteen years. Most county players lined up on one side or the other and victory has been declared. Who won and who lost? Winners Council Member Andrew \u201cReal Deal\u201d FriedsonFriedson authored Question A, which liberalized the county\u2019s property tax system to … Continue reading Winners and Losers of the Ballot Question War<\/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":[151,2319,2402,2417,295,167,18,22,15,2362,36,286,134],"tags":[1545,806,1032,1938,469,420,430,1549,2416,1466,1469,1463,1864,2393,2324,1477,1596,1539],"class_list":["post-14204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-andrew-friedson","category-david-blair","category-evan-glass","category-fire-fighters","category-ike-leggett","category-mcdcc","category-mcgeo","category-montgomery-county-council","category-police","category-republicans","category-robin-ficker","category-taxes","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-andrew-friedson","tag-ballot-questions","tag-david-blair","tag-evan-glass","tag-fop","tag-iaff-local-1664","tag-ike-leggett","tag-jews-united-for-justice","tag-mcdcc","tag-mcgeo","tag-montgomery-county-council","tag-montgomery-county-republicans","tag-nine-districts-for-moco","tag-property-taxes","tag-republicans","tag-robin-ficker","tag-taxes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3H6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14204","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=14204"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14208,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14204\/revisions\/14208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}