On January 18, 2018, I sat down with Evan Glass who covered:

Montgomery County is HUGE

• 1.1 million people
• 5.5 billion budget
• Yet - education received, varies (need to close the achievement gap)
• Metro needs to work and safety is in question
• How do we pay for this stuff?
• • Expand tax base by bringing more economic development to the county
  • • More businesses means more tax revenue
• On dedicated funding for metro / and how to get revenue for that
• Expanding the tax base
• • Science gateway in White Oak
  • • Anchors: FDA and hospital
    • Should attract new businesses
• Benefits of bringing jobs to East County
• On the need for holistic solutions
• On residential growth / development
• • Need better planning among:
  • • MCPS
    • Planning Department
    • Other Departments
• How can we make change?
• • Creative conversations / thinking with a new county council and county executive
• On small businesses
• • 96% of jobs in Montgomery County are from Small Businesses
  • Therefore, we need to support them
  • • Residents should patronize our establishments
  • County procurement should prioritize small business
• How to improve education
• • Modernize our schools
  • Resolve overcrowding
  • Build more schools
  • Teachers should have support to serve various populations
  • Address food / housing / economic insecurities at home
• On Transparency
• • The county needs to be transparent
• On the Purple Line
• • Ensure tax dollars are used efficiently
  • Mitigate disruption in neighborhoods
  • Don’t start construction before community is aware
• On Legislative Body Functions
• • Write laws
  • Oversight
  • • There is not enough internal oversight being done
• Family resources to improve student performance
• • On non-profits providing these services
  • • After-school activities
    • Affordable housing
• On Citizens Stepping Up to Make a Difference
• On Evan’s Local Civic Association Activism
• • Fixing sidewalks
  • Installing Crosswalks
  • Getting greenspace
  • Working with the county
• Public Financing of Campaigns
• • Testified in support
  • Taking Public Financing
  • Is complicated for candidates / treasurers
  • A better system than making promises to do something once in office in exchange for a big check
  • Only MoCo Resident Donations Get Matched
  • Requires that a candidate connect with more people
• On Previous Campaign
• • 80% of donations were from MoCo residents
  • Accepted real estate / other donations before; glad to not be accepting these contributions this election
• Park & Planning
• • If we want to reform it; it has to be done through the state legislature
• Cell Phone Towers
• • Lots of communities concerned about it in N. Potomac
• On Jon’s Transparency:
• • Donated to various council candidates (see http://activist.xyz/about)
  • How to be fair to candidates
• On leaving journalism and starting to advocate for issues

Democratic candidate for county council District 1 Interview

You’ll hear Jim’s thoughts on:

• How to organize the county to be more livable, navigable, etc..
• Building infrastructure and then developing
• Citizen input in the zoning / land-use planning process
• Public Financing of Campaigns
• Pedestrian and bicyclist safety focus
• Shortening trips - co-locating commercial / residential
• Montgomery County’s Climate Emergency Declaration - the number one issue facing all of us - Jim says
• • Translating it to action; will take thought and serious dialog
  • Re-prioritize the planning process to make the climate emergency a number one priority
  • Divestment doesn’t help the county get to zero emissions, but it is a great symbolic gesture
• On Working Families
• • People should be able to work a 40 hour job and have a life
  • Jobs should pay a living wage
• On Elections
• • Open primary system - where the two candidates that win the most votes, regardless of party, make it to the final election in November
• Education
• • Expand preschool / early childhood care / education is important (funds permitted)
  • Early childhood educators get paid the least
• On Minimum Standard of Living
• Tackling the Budget Gap
• On Power Centers in Montgomery County
• On Community Input into the Decision Making Process
• • Bring more stakeholders into the planning process
• On a Regional Approach to Metro

Here candidates for Montgomery County Executive describe their stances on immigrant rights and racial equity.

Candidates:

George Leventhal

Rose Krasnow

Bill Frick

Marc Elrich

David Blair

Rober Berliner

Bio

• Democratic Party Involvement / Central Committee Work
• Immigrant Parents
• Attorney / Health Care Expert
• Pedestrian Safety Experience

Governor Hogan

• Negatives of expanding  / privatizing 495 and 270 (and the executive’s rush to do this)
• The Hogan administration is proceeding, quickly
• Community, health impacts
• Playing politics with education money

Maryland Budget / Revenue Picture

• Mid - long term situation is tough
• Must increase revenue base
• • Small business support
  • Legalize Marijuana
  • Consider equal real estate taxes for country clubs
  • When developers get tax breaks it shifts the burden to families

State Highways / Pedestrians

• Moving toward more consideration for pedestrians from the state highway administration
• Accommodate Bicyclists

Health Care

• Prescription Drug Affordability
• Should have a disclosure requirement
• • Pharmacist will share all the cost options - so you can have the choice for cheaper options
• Moving to a Single Payer System
• Getting Community Buy-In

Education

• We are falling behind in school revenue from the state (especially for construction)
• Schools in D18 need physical work (E. Brook Lee in particular)
• Overcrowding
• We should look at the Kirwin Commission’s findings (final recommendations come after the election)
• We should include a measure for school funding from state based on how fast school districts are growing

Climate Emergency

• Every bill introduced should be considered for environmental impact
• Support for a special session to address climate issues

You'll learn about:

• Inspired by Thurgood Marshall
• Running to achieve more diversity on the bench - outside the current appointment system
• Need for More Attention to Juvenile Law in Montgomery County
• Judgeships in Montgomery County
• • 8 people running for 7 positions
  • Marylin the only one who wasn’t appointed
  • 7 judges are running to retain their appointed seats
  • These judges are appointed by the Governor
  • Judges must run during the first election after appointment to retain their seats
  • Their seats are rarely challenged

• On the process of appointing judges and incumbent judge advantages in the election
• • Judge candidates must fill out applications for bar associations
  • Bar associations make recommendations to the Governor’s Commission that recommends judge candidates to the Governor (the Governor appoints the members of the commission)
  • Governor appoints attorneys to become judges
  • Lots of politics involved in the process - the bar associations evaluate judge applicants, submit recommendations to the Governor’s commission and the Governor’s Commission sends a couple of recommendations for each vacancy
• Is the judge selection system just? Should we have a different system?
• • Perhaps not completely fair in Montgomery County
  • Each county bar association is powerful
  • Other Maryland counties do not charge a fee for judge candidates to apply for a judgeship candidate review - MoCo private bar associations charge $100
  • The MoCo bar association has 4 representatives out of the 13 total on the Governor’s Commission
  • The MoCo Commission reveals to other candidates before the commission how they voted on all the other candidates. The other bar associations don’t do this.
  • Yet - there is an ability to run for judge without an appointment.
• On Judges and Understanding People Coming Before the Court
• • Lack of Understanding / Empathy Persists in Courts
• Circuit Courts in Montgomery County
• • Appeals Function (From State Agency Administrative Process Findings)
  • Family Law Cases are the bulk of the cases
• Office of Administrative Hearings
• • Administrative Law Judges
• On the Occasional Inhumanity / Humanity of the Justice System
• • Depending on if the court identifies with the person being judged
• After 18 months in Montgomery County, Judges rotate into different dockets (juvenile law to another type of law)

County Executive candidates, George Leventhal, Rose Krasnow, Robin Ficker, Marc Elrich and Roger Berliner share their views on the environment at a green forum organized by Conservation Montgomery.

In this interview with Democratic Party Candidate for State Delegate in  Maryland's District 18 you'll learn about Mila's views on:

• Health Care in Maryland
• Medicare for All
• Death with Dignity

• Expungement

• A Multitude of Candidates

  • D 18 - 2 incumbents not running for reelection for delegate race

  • Many at-large candidates

  • 8 State Legislative Districts in Montgomery County

• Districts in Montgomery County

  • Redistricting by state legislature to reward / punish incumbents based on behavior in legislature

  • Roughly 125,000 / district

  • Some districts are compact geographically / others not so much

• District 18

  • Manageable district - can do retail politics here - can meet the neighbors - walk through and knock on doors

  • Lots of federal government workers or supporting workers

  • Several Sections of D18:

    • Upscale Chevy Chase

    • Kensington / Garrett Park / Silver Spring - Mid zone middle to upper middle class

    • Norther part:

      • Wheaton / Viers mill road

        • Working class

        • Lower middle class

        • Aspiring middle class

        • Immigrant community in many cases

        • Burgeoning urbanization of Wheaton

• Local Elections

  • Elections are highly competitive this year for a variety of reasons:

    • Public Financing

    • Term Limits

    • The overall political environment

• Health Insurance

  • Need to ensure affordable health insurance in Maryland

• Immigrant fear in Montgomery County

  • Citizens and non-citizens are scared of being swept up in the net

    • We need to address this

    • MD Attorney General is addressing this and other matters to battle federal government action

• State politics matter more than ever due to the federal regime
• Bio

  • Practiced surgery in Mississippi

  • Served the under-served

  • Worked in Kenya and Nepal

  • Raised children here

  • 2003 completed gender transition

  • Became an LGBTQ activist in 2003

  • Board of Equality Maryland

  • Co-Founded Gender Rights Maryland

  • Promoted marriage equality / laws that led up to that

  • Passing gender identity rights in various counties

  • Passing 2014 bill on gender identity rights in Annapolis

  • Fought bathroom bills - endured death threats

  • Executive Vice Pres. of Maryland NOW

  • NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland Board Member - protecting women’s reproductive rights

  • Helped create the Family Justice Center in Rockville

    • Haven for abused women to have a safe place with their children and pursue judicial justice / protective orders

  • Senior Staffer to a Council Member

    • Worked on BRT plans

  • Public health / environmental health work

    • 2007 County Council banned artificial trans fats - most toxic type of fats

    • First county to pass this kind of law; spread to other jurisdictions and eventually use phased out; many lives were saved

• Why Beyer is running:

  • To be on the inside and make change     

  • Leverage successful lobbying experience in Annapolis

• Where change is made

  • Working with civic lobbyists and activists at the beginning to marshal support for a cause - months before the legislative session begins

    • Craft legislation

    • Find a lead sponsor

    • Summon support / create relationships

    • Organize rallies

    • Next:

      • Committee Work

        • Invisible to Voters / Hard to pay attention

        • The best legislators do their best work when nobody is watching and they create legislation that can pass / or kill legislation that shouldn’t pass - and voters don’t know about this since final vote scorecards don’t tell the whole story

• Work with Progressive Neighbors

  • Supporting Jamie Raskin’s campaign

  • Doing the work to research candidates for local office

  • On running a productive meeting or forum

• On Part-Time State Legislature

  • Make it full-time to make it more effective

  • Make it a well-paid job

  • Part-time doesn’t work

• Democratizing the senate

  • Committee chairs are all powerful and kill any bill they want / promote any bill they want

    • Appointed by president of the senate

  • The membership at large should choose the committee chairs

• Commission in Annapolis on Sexual Harassment

  • Need to clear out members now because if they aren’t challenged and get ejected, a Republican can grab the seat.

• Priorities:

  • Hard to know what the next crisis will be due to instability at the federal level         

  • Priority 1: flexibility

  • Would like to work on Health Care

    • Retain coverage for Marylanders via affordable care act

  • Make Senate more Democratic

  • Making progressive solutions to our problems the default solution in our legislature - this hasn’t been the case

  • Transportation:

    • Safety

    • Public Transportation should be the priority   

    • Address climate change - we are in an existential planetary crisis

      • People are overwhelmed by the scale of the problem

      • Address it with a Manhattan style project

      • Global warming should be the #1 priority; but we need a vital movement to get solutions

• Protect our immigrant community

  • Serious uptake in hate crimes

  • People must be able to trust the authorities

  • Support of the TRUST act

• Health Care

  • The practice of medicine is a healing art - not a business

  • Treatment with as much compassion and empathy as possible

  • Medicare works well because there is no profit motive in it - 97 cents of every dollar is spent on patients

  • Provide choice for Americans - private care  / care via employees

  • We should offer medicare for everyone - this is a federal issue

  • Getting single payer in the state is far more complicated

    • It failed in Vermont

  • How the state can help if premiums in Obamacare go up

United for Maryland's 'Fireside Chat' from the Carderock Springs Swim and Tennis Club in Bethesda, Maryland.

The following Democratic party candidates make their case for why they should earn your vote in the Maryland, June 26th, Democratic party primary.

Participating candidates:

• Krish Vignarajah
• Ben Jealous
• Rich Madaleno
• Alec Ross
• Kevin Kamenetz

Go to the ACTIVIST and make a donation to support independent, thoughtful, civil, local, trans-partisan and solutions-based coverage of Montgomery County and Maryland elections and issues.

I need your support to keep this going!

Sincerely,

Jon Foreman

You'll learn about:

• Community activism, organizing and non-profit work
• Focus on food and land-us / development as a way to achieve social justice

Brandy’s Priorities:

• Affordable Housing
• Transportation
• The Economy
• Food Systems

Other Items:

• Affordable Housing Crisis
• Living Wage (and how $15 is not enough)
• Tipped workers and a living wage
• Reorganizing the economic system to be more fair for people and businesses.
• Cooperatives (Consumer, Business, Residential, Financial, etc.) and how they equalize economic power
• Affordable commercial space
• Effective enforcement of earned sick leave and equal pay ordinances
• On the convergence of many factors resulting in many candidates running for office in Montgomery County.
• How local elections have been ignored and why that is a bad idea.
• The solutions to local problems are in our communities.