{"id":15085,"date":"2021-12-13T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=15085"},"modified":"2021-12-13T14:27:53","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T19:27:53","slug":"first-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=15085","title":{"rendered":"First Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Doug Gansler, Wes Moore, Tom Perez and Rushern Baker<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Committee for Montgomery\u2019<\/a>s annual legislative breakfast at the Bethesda Marriott Conference Center is one of those annual events that brings together the political class of Montgomery County for a good schmooze. This year, CfM also held a forum moderated by Washington Post <\/em>Reporter Ovetta Wiggins that was open to all gubernatorial candidates. For me, it was either the first time seeing the candidate or the first time in a long while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wes Moore<\/strong><\/a> is the candidate that stood out as a comer. By far the best speaker in the group, he came across as authentic rather than simply silver tongued. Getting former Del. Aruna Miller to be his running mate adds legislative experience. I still don\u2019t know much about him but he\u2019s one to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After getting shellacked by Anthony Brown in 2014, former Attorney General Doug Gansler<\/strong><\/a> is back for another go. He\u2019s running as a practical liberal\u2014moderate by Maryland standards\u2014who has the experience to get things done. The subtext is that he\u2019s also matured and grown since his time out from politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Perez <\/strong><\/a>would be the first Latino governor but is also running as the insider, establishment candidate who knows just everyone. As well he should. Since he finished his one term on the Montgomery County Council in 2006, he\u2019s served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Secretary of Labor and DNC Chair. That gives him a lot of chits and fundraising ability but also means that he\u2019s little known by voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Prince George\u2019s County Executive Rushern Baker<\/strong><\/a>, one of the most decent people in Maryland politics, lost the primary for governor in 2018 but left many thinking he would’ve been the better nominee. The forum left me wondering exactly why he wants to be governor. He highlighted his Montgomery running mate, Nancy Navarro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashwani Jain<\/a><\/strong> is campaigning as young, smart and passionate progressive, but I just don\u2019t get it. He ran for one of four at-large county council seats in 2018 and came in eighth in the primary. Not a signal to run for governor. Likes to consult his diary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former New York Education Commissioner and Secretary of Education John King<\/a><\/strong> seems like another smart guy who nobody knows and who failed to stand out, even on education, in a crowd of candidates who are better known and more experienced on the Maryland scene. Left me wondering why he\u2019s running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Baron<\/strong><\/a> struck me as yet another earnest, perfectly likeable candidate with primarily Washington experience who won’t gain traction. This year’s Alec Ross?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comptroller Peter Franchot<\/strong><\/a> is from Montgomery County yet didn\u2019t show. Not especially popular with the political class, he returned the compliment. They aren\u2019t the base of this former hard progressive, now moderate, so I doubt it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robin Ficker<\/a><\/strong> showed up with his hackneyed anti-tax message. He promised to cut the sales tax by 2%, which he oddly labelled a rebate, but per usual didn\u2019t mention one spending item he\u2019d cut. He attacked teachers \u201cWhere were they?\u201d for not teaching and went after mask mandates for school kids, though he\u2019s vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither Del. Dan Cox<\/strong>, (R-QAnon<\/a>) nor former Del. and Maryland Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz<\/a><\/strong> showed. Perhaps a missed opportunity for Schulz. Though a Democratic heartland, Montgomery still casts a lot of Republican primary votes and she\u2019ll need to make inroads here like Larry Hogan to win in the general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libertarian Larry Lashar<\/a><\/strong> came across as what Republicans used to be\u2014a bit dull but with a coherent viewpoint and some innovative ideas, like school choice. If the Republicans nominate a wackadoodle, he could get more votes than your usual third-party candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ovetta Wiggins did an excellent job as moderator by asking straightforward policy-oriented questions and letting the forum be about the candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doug Gansler, Wes Moore, Tom Perez and Rushern Baker The Committee for Montgomery\u2019s annual legislative breakfast at the Bethesda Marriott Conference Center is one of those annual events that brings together the political class of Montgomery County for a good schmooze. This year, CfM also held a forum moderated by Washington Post Reporter Ovetta Wiggins … Continue reading First Impressions<\/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":[2289],"tags":[1144],"class_list":["post-15085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-governors-race","tag-committee-for-montgomery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3Vj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15085","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=15085"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15111,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15085\/revisions\/15111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}