2018 Primary Endorsements: Part Three -- General Assembly, County Council, Democratic Party Central Committee, etc.

I have recently posted my recommendations and thoughts on the  Gubernatorial & County Executive and Board of Education campaigns.  This is my last recommendations blog post on the primary election.

Eric Luedtke

Most of what I am writing here is about the At-Large County Council primary, in which 33 candidates are vying for 4 seats.  As for other positions on the ballot, I have pasted below a thoughtful Facebook post from Delegate Eric Luedtke (D- 14).  I live in District 14, and strongly endorse Eric's reelection (as well as the other D-14 incumbents, State Senator Craig Zucker and Delegates Anne Kaiser and Pamela Queen.  Eric is an amazingly knowledgeable and dedicated public servant for whom I have enormous respect. While my At-Large endorsements do not entirely line up with his, I agree with all of his other conclusions.  I am going to follow them, and suggest others do, as well.

Lily Qi

But before discussing the At-Large Council candidates, I want to say a few things about one of the other House of Delegates candidates.  Lily Qi , is someone very special.  I first heard about her when she testified before the Board of Education in favor of naming a new elementary school after civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.  She spoke with passion and caring about her son (a recent graduate of Richard Montgomery High School), who is gay, and how choosing to name the school after Rustin would send such a positive signal to LGBTQ students. See here and here.  This statement cost her support in the Asian-American community, but she strongly stood by it.  I subsequently had a long conversation with her, and learned more about her life story and work in the Leggett Administration as Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for Economic and Workforce Development. I could not have been more impressed. Lily's experience as an immigrant, her understanding of the impact of our community's changing population, and long history in Montgomery County would be valuable in Annapolis.  To get a sense of the breadth of her knowledge and wisdom, you can check out this presentation she made last December to the Lifelong Learning Institute.  See here.  After listening to it, I was not at all surprised at Ike's endorsement.

On to the At-Large seats now.  It is impressive that so many people are running.  But it has created a challenge for voters who want to make informed choices.  I have had conversations with many of the candidates, attended one of the large campaign forums this spring, looked over the various organizational and individual endorsements, and read over many of their websites. There are many more really good candidates than there are At-Large seats, so the choices -- which include figuring out the best mix of skills and backgrounds for the Council -- are not easy.  Here is who I am voting for:

Gabe Alboronoz has been Ike Leggett's Recreation Department Director for 11 years, and has been endorsed by Ike.  From my brief conversations and an examination of his record of service, I believe he would be an excellent addition to the Council.  I have been pleased with how Ike has navigated the County through trying times, and having one of his chief aides and administrators on the Council, particularly one with ties to the County's growing Hispanic community, would be very useful.

Bill Conway, a longtime County resident, is an attorney, a former Senate staffer who developed important energy policies, and in more recent years has worked to bring wind and solar facilities on to the electrical grid.  I had a very long discussion with him at the beginning of the campaign and was very impressed not just with his resume, but with how he thinks.  How a person approaches difficult issues is, I believe, one of the most important factors in deciding whether to hire them for a policy-making position.  Talking with Bill, I was reminded about how I reacted to Barack Obama's book, the Audacity of Hope, in which the future President took much space trying to show us how his mind worked.  That effort impressed me greatly.  Bill really passed that test for me with flying colors.

Evan Glass, a former CNN journalist, has been an effective community activist in the County for a decade and a half, focusing on infrastructure issues that impact every-day people and, more recently, serving as Executive Director of the Gandhi Youth Brigade Media, working to empower minority and immigrant youth.  As with Bill Conway, I had a long discussion with him, and am convinced that he would be a major, useful force on the Council.

Jill Ortman-Fouse was elected to an At-Large Board of Education seat in 2014.  During that campaign, I heard her answers to tough questions about educational policy and diversity in our public schools, and was very impressed with her background, knowledge, and wisdom.  Her performance on the Board has been as advertised during that campaign. In every subsequent discussion I have had with her, her commitment and intelligence has shown through. She, too, would be a major, useful force on the Council. 

(I do want to note that there are many candidates who would serve us well on the Council, including  Hoan Dang, Ashwani Jain, Will Jawando, and incumbent Council President Hans Riemer.   I wish we could elect them all.)

Here, as promised earlier, are Delegate Eric Luedtke's thoughts on the primaries, as well as his wise concluding admonition at the end:

As always, I've gotten a few questions about who I'm supporting in the primaries. So here's a long post about my endorsements if you're interested - if not, I won't be insulted if you keep scrolling down to the cat videos in your feed! And important to note: none of my endorsements imply criticism of other candidates. We have an unprecedented number of talented, dedicated, hard-working people running for office this year, and every single one of them deserves credit for putting their names out there. Also, I've skipped a number of races, sometimes because they are uncontested, sometimes because I don't feel strongly, and sometimes because I frankly haven't decided myself who to vote for. Here we go:

First and foremost, if you live in District 14, I hope you'll support the entire district 14 team, which is Senator Craig Zucker, Delegate Anne Kaiser, Delegate Pam Queen, and yours truly. I count myself as deeply blessed not only to serve, but to serve alongside three of the most amazing public servants I've ever known.

For Governor, we have a number of good candidates running to take on Larry Hogan, but I'm supporting Rich Madaleno. I've known and worked with Rich for many years, and I can tell you honestly he is one of the smartest people I've ever met. Our state faces complex challenges around school construction and education funding, protecting our environment, and ensuring everyone has economic opportunity. Rich has the experience and talent to find solutions to these issues and more.

For Congress in District 3, John Sarbanes has been doing incredible work, particularly on campaign finance issues, and in District 8 the irrepressible Jamie Raskin has been a champion pushing back against the worst policies of the Trump administration.

We have an incredible range of candidates running for the 4 County Council at-large seats. So many of them would be great that I've had trouble narrowing down my own choices. But I know for sure that for 2 of the 4 seats I'm supporting Hans Riemer, the only incumbent, who I think has done a good job and deserves to be sent back, and Jill Ortman-Fouse for Montgomery County Council, who I've worked with since she's been on the Board of Education and who is a fantastic advocate for kids.

In the Council District 5 race, I'm a big fan of Tom Hucker. He has been a stalwart supporter of east county and an effective partner at the county level. I also think Nancy Navarro and Craig Rice deserve re-election.

For Clerk of the Circuit Court, I'm supporting the incumbent, Barbara Meiklejohn. She's been doing a good job at the courthouse, and I see no reason to replace her. [NOTE from David:  I do not see why this position, in the 21st Century, should still be an elected position.]

For Democratic Central Committee, I have to tell you I think they've been doing a fantastic job reinvigorating the local party. Again, there are a number of great candidates running, but I'm voting for the following candidates: for District 14's female seat: Mimi Hassanein, for District 14's male seat: Arthur Edmunds, for the at large female seats: Marie Mapes, Michelle Ngwafon, Marjorie Goldman, and I'm undecided right now on the 4th seat, and for the male at large seats: Dave Kunes, Chris Bradbury, Scott Goldberg, and Justin W. Chappell.

I'll just finish by saying this: things often get heated in the final days of a campaign. Passions are inflamed. But after June 26th we need to come together to fight the wrong-headed right-wing policies of Donald Trump and his clones at the state and local level. I'm proud to be a member of a party that has so many extraordinary people running for office to take on that work.