Follow up to "Fomenting Fear and Division in Montgomery County" (May 2020)

The power of the press combined with the power of the truth is still potent, at least in our community.

Follow up to https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2020/05/fomenting-fear-and-division-in.html, which contained the May 1 Maryland Matters guest commentary I coauthored with Karen Chenowith:

In the weeks after the publication, a number of elected office holders in Montgomery County took the unprecedented step of specifically urging their constituents to NOT vote for a particular candidate (Stephen Austin).  See https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020/05/25/montgomery-co-elected-officials-warn-voters-about-school-board-candidate/

Stephen Austin only received 13% of the vote in the primary, coming in a distant third, so he was not on the general election ballot.  My preferred candidate, Sunil Dasgupta, came in second -- and again came in second to the eventual winner, Lynne Harris (who I likely would have voted for in the primary had Sunil not been running.)

In January 2021, Maryland Matters listed our May 1 piece as its sixth-most read article of 2021, and the follow-up piece from the MoCo electeds as the eighth-most read.  https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/01/04/one-last-look-back-our-most-read-stories-of-2020/