As someone who has been involved with Montgomery County Public Schools matters since 1984, I
find that friends (and sometimes my friends’ children) ask me my opinion in Board of Education elections. In this blogpost, I say who I am voting for
and why. (Remember, District candidates must live in their District, but all
County voters can vote in all the contests.)
At the end of the blogpost, I have a few observations on other
State and County contests.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
AT-LARGE AND DISTRICT 5
Karla Silvestre Brenda Wolff
I plan to vote for Karla Silvestre for re-election to the
At-Large seat and Brenda Wolff for reelection to the Fifth District seat. The last few years have presented
unprecedented challenges, and while I suspect that no one has been in agreement
100% of the time with the decisions made by the Board and MCPS, I think they
have done a good job under very trying circumstances. And the fact
that Ms. Silvestre and Ms. Wolff have chosen to run for re-election is a credit to their commitment to
our community. From my perspective as
Co-Chair for Maryland Advocacy for Metro DC PFLAG, their commitment and
performance on LGBTQ+ matters have been exemplary. See my previous posts here and here.
Ms. Silvestre’s opponent in the November 8 election, Mike
Erickson, has been reluctant to say anything substantive about where he stands
until a few days ago. Indeed, as I
discussed in a September 22 blog post, he completely ignored the Metro DC PFLAG questionnaire. That certainly made me suspicious of what his
views might be. Finally, on October 17,
Bethesda Beat finally got him to respond to substantive questions, and many of
his answers were disturbing to say the least.
So supporting Ms. Silvestre for reelection is
an easy call.
Ms. Wolff, who currently serves as Board President, has been a steady leader in these turbulent times. Her opponent, Valerie Coll, also gave
excellent answers to the Metro DC PFLAG questionnaire, recently retired after
decades as a classroom teacher, was impressive in the League of Women Voters
Candidate Forum, and is well-respected by people I respect. I suspect she would
make a good member of the Board. But Ms.
Wolff’s experience will be very important going forward, particularly given the
passing of long-time Board member Patricia O’Neill last year. So I am supporting Ms. Wolff.
DISTRICT 1
Grace Rivera Oven
The District 1 contest is the only one that does not have an
incumbent. I plan to vote for Grace
Rivera Oven, who has a long history of positive community activism in
Montgomery County, and gave full-throated support to the great progress made regarding
LGBTQ+ matters in recent years. See my previous post here. Her opponent, Esther Wells, on the other hand,
gave vague answers. I had hoped that the
League of Women Voters Forum would include a question that would challenge some
disturbing matters regarding Ms. Wells’ views, but time did not permit the
asking of a probing question. I paste
below the question that I hoped would have been asked.
For the last 15 years, MCPS has successfully
implemented health education and other policies, supported by every mainstream
American medical and mental health professional association, that support
and embrace students whose sexual orientation is not “straight” or whose gender
identity is not “cisgender." Legal challenges to such policies
were rejected by the courts in January 2008 and August 2022 .
This progress was summarized in the Metro DC PFLAG questionnaire
sent to you last spring, to which all of you responded. (Mr. Erickson,
who is not here this evening, did not respond.)
Four of you made clear your full-throated support of this
progress. One candidate gave answers that, for the most part, were not
responsive and notes on her campaign website that she serves “as the
Chairman & President Trustee of the Board of a multi-million dollar
non-profit in Gaithersburg, MD.” The website of that organization states that the non-profit "opposes
all forms of sexual immorality, including . . . homosexuality."
Here is our question: Would you continue on the course
taken by MCPS with respect to LGBTQ+ matters? Or do you believe that
homosexuality is immoral and, if elected, would you seek to reverse or weaken
MCPS's affirming policies or urge inclusion of doctrines regarding
"reparative" or "conversion" therapy, which have been
rejected by every mainstream American medical and mental health professional
association with respect to sexual orientation and gender identity?
A recent piece published
by Progressive Maryland further shows why Ms. Wells would not be a useful
addition to the Board.
DISTRICT 3
Scott Joftus Julie Yang
Scott Joftus, a former
teacher and education consultant, was elected last year by the other Board members to
fill out Pat O’Neill’s term, and he is running to keep the seat. His challenger, Julie Yang, is a former
teacher and counselor in MCPS. Both gave
very good answers to the LGBTQ+ questionnaire.
Each would bring strengths to the Board.
Mr. Joftus appears to have very good ideas and experience in administering
school systems, background which certainly would be valuable. Ms. Yang’s work in the MCPS system and her
obvious enthusiasm would bring new energy to the Board. I still have not decided who to vote
for. Both are good choices, but for
different reasons.
OTHER CONTESTS
No one who knows me will
be surprised that I intend to vote for everyone on the Democratic ticket. I do have comments on two of the
contests.
The Republican candidate
for Montgomery County Executive, Reardon Sullivan, seeks to make the case that
Marc Elrich has been an ineffectual Executive, and that he (Sullivan) would do
a better job. I think Mr. Elrich has
done a good, if not perfect, job in these extremely difficult times. I had no problem at all voting for him in the
primary, and will enthusiastically support vote for him on November 8. Mr. Sullivan has urged Democrats who voted
for David Blair in the primary to vote for him.
Decades ago, when Republican leaders in Montgomery County were moderate
liberals (Jim Gleason, Gilbert Gude, Connie Morella), this might be an
attractive argument for many Democrats. Mr. Blair (himself a former Republican), however, has endorsed Mr.Elrich. This is not at all surprising, since Mr.
Sullivan is not out of the old Gleason/Gude/Morella mold. Instead, he appears to be rooted in the
extreme right-wing, having launched his Facebook advertising campaign with
citations to analyses from a Family Research Council propaganda arm. See my previous post here.
The Washington Post,
having endorsed Democratic Gubernatorial and Attorney General nominees Wes Moore
and Anthony Brown over their very right-wing (a charitable characterization)
Republican opponents. But the Post
also endorsed for State Comptroller the Republican candidate, former State
Senator and current Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, over the extremely
well-qualified Democratic candidate, Delegate Brooke Lierman. The Post’s principal rationale was that Mr.
Glassman, unlike the Republican candidates for Governor and Attorney General,
is not an extreme election-denier, and that “one-party government” is never a
good idea. There are several reasons for why this endorsement lacks merit. For example, while in the State Senate, Mr. Glassman voted
against the Civil Marriage Protection Act, codifying marriage equality; against the Fairness for All Marylanders Act, which
protects transgender people; and against a fairer minimum wage. So he is not
what I would consider a moderate Republican – a species which, sadly, is close
to extinct. Brooke Lierman is a quality
choice. To elect a Republican for the
sake of bi-partisanship because he is not crazy like other Republican nominees
is too low a bar. We should and can do
better. So I am voting for Brooke
Lierman for Comptroller, along with the rest of the Democratic ticket.
(Note:
Since 2018, it has been unlawful in Maryland for licensed health care
practitioners to "practice" reparative or conversion therapy on
minors. One of the issues raised years ago regarding the
health education curriculum was that it should have included the doctrine that,
through conversion therapy, "gays could become ex-gays." MCPS
rejected this argument, for the reasons that led Maryland and many other
jurisdictions to ban licensed health care practitioners from practicing the
discredited notion on minors.)