You can register to watch tonight’s forum being held at 6pm by going to bit.ly/d18-04-18.
via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15566
You can register to watch tonight’s forum being held at 6pm by going to bit.ly/d18-04-18. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15566
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It has been a busy weekend in Legislative District 18, where Del. Al Carr’s surprise last minute decision not to seek reelection has left open a vacant nomination. Maryland Matters reported the drama as two candidates tried unsuccessfully to register for the vacancy at the last minute. Ardy Kamali, the Legislative Director for Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher’s office, arrived in time to file but lacked the required Treasurer. Town of Chevy Chase Councilmember Joel Rubin, also a Waldstreicher supporter, arrived moments too late. No one else interested in the seat heard about the vacancy in time. Waldstreicher would certainly benefit if an ally rather than a potential challenger took the seat. MM Editor-in-Chief Danielle Gaines captured an incredible photo of Kamali fruitlessly trying to register as Rubin stood just outside of the locked door. If Kamali or Rubin want to run in what is effectively the oddest race for a full delegate term being held this year, they’ll now have to apply to the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC), which can fill the vacant nomination. MCDCC has to make the appointment on Tuesday night. The District 18 Democratic Caucus has organized a candidate forum for Monday night that will be moderated by Danielle Gaines. You can register to watch by going to bit.ly/d18-04-18. Kudos to the Caucus for organizing the forum. So who is running? Or rumored to be running? Candidates have until 11:59pm on Monday to submit a cover letter and resume to MCDCC, so we won’t even necessarily know all the candidates in advance of the forum. But here are some of the names being floated: Shruti Bhatnagar. She is an appointed member of MCDCC and a member of the Maryland Democratic Party Executive Committee. Bhatnagar ran for an at-large county council seat in 2018 and came in fifteenth in the Democratic primary with 2.1% of the vote (equivalent to 8.4% if you assume that everyone voted for four candidates). She is a past chair of the Montgomery County Group of the Sierra Club and the D18 Democratic Caucus. Aaron Kaufman was elected to MCDCC in 2018 and chairs its Issues Committee. He is a Senior Legislative Associate at the Jewish Federations of North America. Long active in District 18, he is best known as an advocate for disability rights and inclusion. Way back in 2007, when this blog was called Maryland Politics Watch, I published his testimony on a bill on health insurance before the General Assembly. Then Sen. Richard Madaleno said “you could have heard a pin drop while he spoke” and that “he really had an impact.” Michael Tardif was appointed relatively recently to MCDCC but has been organizing and greatly improving their communications over the past two years. An architect, Tardif is the managing partner of Building Informatics Group. Tardif was named Democrat of the Year at the Montgomery County Democratic Party Gala in 2021. He has served on the Host Committee of a fundraiser for Max Socol, Waldstreicher’s challenger. Active in the LGBTQ Caucus, he joined Socol in calling for stronger police reforms. Leslie Milano ran for the House of Delegates four years ago and came in fourth in the Democratic primary with 14.2% of the vote, 1,557 behind now Del. Jared Solomon. Currently, she is President of the Montgomery County Women’s Democratic Club. She is the Chief Executive Officer at APIC Consulting Services, which specializes in “infection prevention and control solutions.” Joel Rubin is a Town of Chevy Chase councilmember, an office he won unopposed three times. He ran for the House of Delegates in 2018 and placed fifth with 11.2% or 2,011 votes out of the money. In 2016, he ran for the open Eighth CD and won only 1.1% or 1,426 votes. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and frequent media commentator, Rubin has also worked at J-Street, as Bernie Sanders’s Jewish liaison in 2020, and is now Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress. Other people mentioned include Max Socol and Natali Fani-Gonzalez, though I expect both candidates to stick with their current races. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15560 In the wake of Del. Al Carr’s decision to seek election to the county council rather than reelection, the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee is moving to fill the vacant nomination: NOTICE OF VACANCY IN CANDIDACY FOR The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) will meet at 7:30 pm, Tuesday, April 19, 2022, via Zoom Meeting to interview candidates to fill the vacancy in candidacy for the Maryland House of Delegates created by the withdrawal of Delegate Al Carr as a candidate for re-election from Legislative District 18. Delegate Carr has instead filed to run for election to the Montgomery County Council, District 4. The MCDCC derives its authority to fill this vacancy in candidacy from the Maryland Elections Code, § 5-901 [2002] and from the Rules of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee as last amended May 12, 2021. By order of the Maryland Court of Appeals dated March 15, 2022, the MCDCC must fill the vacancy in candidacy no later than Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Candidates should submit a cover letter and resume by email to [email protected] no later than 11:59 pm, Monday, April 18, 2022, with the subject line Application for Vacancy in Candidacy, District 18 Delegate. Candidates should also provide their current home address or legal residence. An applicant must be a registered Democratic voter in the State of Maryland, a resident of Legislative District 18, and have attained the age of 21 years. Candidates who meet the above qualifications will be invited to make introductory statements at the April 19 meeting, to be followed by questions posed to the candidates by members of the Central Committee The Central Committee will vote publicly to fill the vacancy immediately after concluding the interviews. The April 19 meeting will be conducted via Zoom Meeting and will be open to the public. Any person wishing to attend must register in advance at bit.ly/mcdcc-04-19. Registrants will receive an auto-reply email with the Zoom Meeting link. Please email any questions to [email protected]. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15553 Even as Tom Hucker (D-5) was abandoning his quixotic county executive bid, Del. Al Carr (D-18) jumped from a safe, unopposed re-election to one of the three delegate seats in his district to the District 4 Council race. He joins Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart and Friends of White Flint Executive Director Amy Ginsburg among others in that contest for this seat extending from White Flint through Kensington to Takoma Park. Carr is a former Kensington Town Councilmember. Does this mean District 18 will have a Republican delegate? One Republican did file. However, party central committees can fill vacant nominations. Unhappily, this means that the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee will choose D18’s next delegate. The big winners from this are Dels. Jared Solomon and Emily Shetty, who will not face a contested primary. The big losers are other potential candidates and the voters. Instead of an open contest with many candidates who would likely try to fill a vacancy, D18 voters will see MCDCC members from all over the county choose their next delegate. Among others, Max Socol, Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher’s challenger could seek the seat. I doubt that will happen for several reasons. While Sen. Waldstreicher would likely love to dispense with a tough challenger, he’s hardly likely to set him up to dog him in the General Assembly for four years and would oppose it from behind the scenes. Socol also seems very focused on unseating Waldstreicher, though an easy seat in the House of Delegates is appealing. Finally, the extremely identity conscious MCDCC is likely to think hard before replacing an African American delegate with a white male. Natali Fani-Gonzalez, who served on the Planning Board and ran a respectable race for delegate four years ago would be a strong candidate. But she seems all in on her own race for County Council in District 6. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15550 Councilmember Tom Hucker (D-5) has withdrawn from the county executive race. It’s a sensible decision as it would’ve almost certainly been a losing battle. He’s filed for the county council. But not for his old seat. Instead, as I speculated this morning, he has filed for an at-large seat. The next question is whether or how soon MCEA, the influential teachers’ union, will flip its endorsement from Brandy Brooks’s flailing campaign to Hucker—or possibly to Council President Gabe Albornoz, who seems a lock for reelection. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15547 County Councilmember Tom Hucker (D-5) has filed to run for county executive. Today he has to decide whether to stick with that chancy race or file for reelection. Positioning himself as a strong progressive, Hucker was first elected to the Council in 2014 after narrowly defeating now-at large Councilmember Evan Glass in the Democratic primary. The campaign’s January campaign finance report showed that he had $252,533.09 in bank. To my surprise, googling “Tom Hucker County Executive” did not produce a campaign website, so here is his twitter account. On the plus side, he represents the one-fifth of the county that with the most Democratic primary voters. Hucker’s run for county executive has nevertheless always struck me as quixotic because I don’t really see a lane for him. His core argument is essentially that he’d be a more effective leader than Elrich, which is unclear and exactly what the other candidates claim. Two two candidates are competing for the same base. The major policy difference I see is that Hucker is ardently pro-Thrive, the proposed general plan for the next 30 years, which alienates a good section of Elrich’s supporters. I imagine Hucker would contend that this makes him more progressive while others would say it aligns him with big business against ordinary residents of the county. Elrich’s supporters may also not appreciate his efforts to set himself up for the run by taking potshots on the administration while serving for a year as Council President. Meanwhile, Hans Riemer seems to have the ardent urbanist vote, such as it is, nailed down. Hucker doesn’t have pots of money like David Blair and is not going to win business support. Hucker also lacks the identity constituency around which so many Democrats align. While not a bad politician, he also doesn’t have the sort of charisma that is getting Wes Moore a lot of positive attention in the gubernatorial race. Unlike Councilmember Riemer, Hucker can still run for one more term on the county council before he runs up against term limits. At that point, the county executive’s race would be open. It’d still be a tough race but at least he’d have more of an open lane. Labor is sticking with Elrich, who has already been endorsed by MCEA and three SEIU locals. Progressive Maryland and Progressive Neighbors have too. Several candidates have filed for Hucker’s redrawn district, including Takoma Park Mayor Kate Porter and Friends of White Flint Executive Director Amy Ginsburg. Hucker would still be the strong favorite. On the other hand, Hucker could also file for one of the at-large seats. Brandy Brooks’s campaign is tanking, so there is a real opening for a progressive candidate for the open seat. Hucker has until 9:00pm to decide. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15539 Metro DC DSA issued a statement after meeting with embattled at-large Montgomery County Council Candidate Brandy Brooks. Their claims are damning: “At no point did she deny the allegations against her” and “we’re disappointed to see twist the language of abolition and restorative justice to try to deflect from her actions.” The DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) are a left-wing organization that has been closely aligned with and highly supportive of Brooks. Here is their complete statement: via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15522 Yesterday, at-large County Council Candidate Brandy Brooks announced that she is “taking a period of two weeks to care for myself and reflecting” in the wake of a “report of a hostile workplace environment caused by me.” Brooks says that “a mediated agreement was developed and the terms of that agreement executed.” While stating that she seeks “to be as transparent as possible” and decrying “increasingly inaccurate and malicious reports,” Brooks’s campaign has not disclosed more information about the matter. Campaign Manager Michelle Whittaker let me know via email that she disagreed with my post stating that Brooks “has suspended her campaign.” I guess Whittaker can say that taking two weeks off is “taking a brief break” rather than “suspending her campaign.” In Dave, a comedy from back in 1993, the White House claimed that the president had “suffered what doctors describe as a minor circulatory problem of the head” after a major stroke. But engaging in self-care and reflecting doesn’t sound like an active campaign. It’s hard to imagine others will be working hard on it when the candidate and campaign manager aren’t. When asked about the hostile work environment claim, Whittaker explained that: “I cannot add further comment about that at this time. If you have a question about the campaign operations, I may be able to provide more information.” Funding ProblemsThe campaign has been plagued by rumors regarding its high burn rate—campaign argot for spending money fast—and that it doesn’t have enough left for printing and sending campaign mailers and other forms of voter contact as the primary approaches. Brooks’s most recent campaign finance filing, filed on February 15, reported $55,227.76 in the bank—significantly below what is normally needed for a viable countywide campaign. Nothing in the media, printing or postage sections of either the January or February filings indicate that the Brooks campaign has prepaid for mailers or much other media. She reported spending a total of $1,803.21 on Facebook ads. According to these two most recent filings, 61% of $47,178.07 in expenditures were on salaries and other compensation. Payments to MCW Creative, Michelle Whittaker’s company accounted for $7,550.00, or 16%, of the total spent on salaries and other compensation. Besides being Brooks’s campaign manager and a communications professional, Whittaker is also her sister. Here are the screenshots from the reports: Whittaker did not respond last night to questions on the total amount paid to her or the cash-on-hand available to the campaign. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15514 In shocking news, at-large Democratic candidate Brandy Brooks has suspended her campaign due to an internal claim that she has created “a hostile workplace environment.” Here is a copy of Brooks’s post explaining why from her Twitter feed: Jews United for Justice has already suspended its support in response: I imagine that Brooks suspended rather than ended her campaign for the same reason as presidential campaigns: money. If she ends her campaign, it has implications for the public funds that she has received or will receive under Montgomery County’s public financing law. Brooks could reenter the campaign after her “two weeks to care for myself and reflect” but political campaigns aren’t monasteries that provide time for introspective contemplation. Taking two hours off is a luxury. Announcing that there was a an accusation, let alone an executed “mediated agreement”, means it is very serious. Supporters will go elsewhere. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15505 They do work at it. Louis Wilen filed a complaint on January 31 that the Olney Town Center Advisory Committee (OTCAC), “a public body chartered by the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission” is not adhering to the requirements of the Open Meetings Act. Notwithstanding Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson’s claim that “Whenever anyone points out gaps in our procedures, we never hesitate to make improvements”, it remains business as usual over at Planning and they fought the claim. In its response to the Open Meetings Compliance Board, it stated that:
The Open Meetings Compliance Board did not agree, stating “we conclude that the Committee here is a public body subject to the Act” in its opinion explaining how its previous decisions along with the history of OTCAC make this clear. I’ve posted the full opinion below and you can also read it by clicking on this link. via http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=15500 |
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