{"id":8464,"date":"2017-09-08T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8464"},"modified":"2017-09-06T22:58:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T02:58:52","slug":"first-impressions-part-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8464","title":{"rendered":"First Impressions, Part Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Seth Grimes, Takoma Park<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Takoma Park City Council Member Seth Grimes\u2019s edge is his experience.\u00a0 Other than incumbent Hans Riemer and Delegate Charles Barkley (D-39), Grimes is the only candidate in the field who has served in elected office so far.\u00a0 During his two terms in office (2011-2015), Grimes passed legislation allowing 16-year-olds to vote in municipal elections as well as banning environmentally harmful pesticides and polystyrene containers.\u00a0 The latter two bills were models for similar county legislation. \u00a0He also pushed for better management practices in the city both before and after he started serving on the council.<\/p>\n

In person, Grimes comes across as studious and tremendously substantive.\u00a0 Those qualities are present in such abundance that he can struggle to convey ideas in layman\u2019s terms.\u00a0 He can go into significant detail on his favorite subjects, including affordable housing, food security, reducing poverty and municipal tax duplication.\u00a0 On many other subjects, Grimes can relate them to his work in the city.\u00a0 As a provider of many more services than a lot of Maryland municipalities (including a full service police department), the city provides a good laboratory for understanding the functions and problems of county government.<\/p>\n

One major plus for your author is that Grimes is a blogger.\u00a0 (Folks, we bloggers are sorely misunderstood and must stick together in the face of a sometimes unforgiving world!)\u00a0 His blog<\/a> shows a person who is fact-oriented, careful, versed in policy and extremely well informed.\u00a0 It\u2019s obvious that he would be ready to serve on the County Council from day one.\u00a0 That fact alone makes him worthy of consideration for your vote.<\/p>\n

Ashwani Jain, Potomac<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Obama administration official Ashwani Jain has an inspiring story.\u00a0 He is a first generation American whose father came here from India years ago with no connections and built a thriving family jewelry business.\u00a0 He is also a cancer survivor, having contracted the disease at age 13 and undergone chemotherapy.\u00a0 Jain understands the American dream as well as personal tragedy.\u00a0 Lots of people will relate to him.<\/p>\n

Jain\u2019s claim to fame is his association with President Obama, dating from his volunteering for him ten years ago and ultimately culminating in positions at the White House and the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development<\/a>.\u00a0 He is part of the local Obama network that also includes Council Member Hans Riemer, Delegate Marc Korman, former Maryland Obama Director Jason Waskey, former Delegate candidate Kyle Lierman, former MCDCC Member Oscar Ramirez and fellow at-large council candidate Will Jawando.\u00a0 But Jain is not just a national-level person \u2013 he is also a native of the county and has lived in several parts of it, both east and west.\u00a0 That gives him a gut-level knowledge of the county that most transplants don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

Jain\u2019s policy views on land use and budgetary issues are not well developed, though he does favor transit projects like the Purple Line and the BRT system, he supports a $15 minimum wage, he believes the county should be a sanctuary jurisdiction<\/a> and he emphasizes the need for affordable housing.\u00a0 He also thinks the county should consider ending its liquor monopoly.\u00a0 But perhaps the biggest reason why voters will like him in addition to his Obama experience is his appealing personality.\u00a0 Simply put, it is virtually impossible to dislike him.\u00a0 That\u2019s a major asset for any politician.\u00a0 Local activists don\u2019t know him yet, but he could really surprise people before this race is over.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it for now, folks.\u00a0 As we meet more candidates, we may renew this series in the future!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. Seth Grimes, Takoma Park Former Takoma Park City Council Member Seth Grimes\u2019s edge is his experience.\u00a0 Other than incumbent Hans Riemer and Delegate Charles Barkley (D-39), Grimes is the only candidate in the field who has served in elected office so far.\u00a0 During his two terms in office (2011-2015), Grimes passed legislation … Continue reading First Impressions, Part Four<\/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":[151,209],"tags":[1545,2002,1933,2016],"class_list":["post-8464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-council-at-large","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-ashwani-jain","tag-council-at-large","tag-seth-grimes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2cw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8464","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=8464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8465,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8464\/revisions\/8465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}