Why I am Running for Central Committee on the HoCo4Us Slate

I am running for central committee with a slate of dedicated activists. Visit our website here.

Howard County has five councilmanic districts. Four out of the five seats are occupied by Democrats. The County Executive is also a Democrat.

Out of the four democratic Councilmembers, two - Councilmembers Opel Jones (District 2) and Christiana Rigby (District 3) vote in lock-step with the Democratic County Executive, while the other two - Councilmembers Liz Walsh (District 1) and Deb Jung (District 4) have not been reliable votes for the County Executive’s agenda.

Since he cannot advance his developer-driven agenda by just two votes, the County Executive’s third reliable vote has been the sole Republican in the county council - Councilmember David Yungmann (District 5).

In the past 3.5 years, I have tracked over 200 pieces of legislation on which the County Council has voted and based on the actual votes taken:

Councilmembers Opel Jones, Christiana Rigby, and David Yungmann have voted the same way 80% of the time. Councilmembers Liz Walsh, Deb Jung, and David Yungmann have voted the same way 60% of the time.

One of the major roles of the Democratic Central Committee is to help Democrats get elected. In practical terms, this means recruiting candidates for seats held by Republicans and helping lay the groundwork - campaign apparatus - to get them elected.

This is not what the Democratic Central Committee did. Instead, this central committee and its members helped recruit and lay the groundwork for Democratic challengers to the two Democratic Councilmembers in District 1 and District 4.

In addition to voting for the County Executive’s agenda 60% of the time, the Councilmembers from District 1 and D4 are also the only two candidates who have qualified for and received money from the Citizens Election Fund and who pledged to not accept developer contributions.

Meanwhile, a review of Councilmember Opel Jones’ campaign finance contributions shows that 85% of his close to $85,000 in campaign contributions comes from developers.

In light of these events, the central committee had four choices:

• Do nothing,

• Focus on recruiting a candidate in District 5,

• Recruit candidates to challenge the developer-friendly Councilmembers who voted 80% of the time with the sole Republican,

• Recruit candidates to challenge Councilmembers who stood in the way of the County Executive’s developer-driven agenda and voted with the Republican Councilmember 60% of the time.

They picked option four. For this central committee, a Republican who votes with the County Executive and his developer-driven agenda 80% of the time is much better than a Democrat who votes with the County Executive 60% of the time.

There are those who would interpret the above statement as a repudiation of bipartisanship. It is not. Bipartisan votes on reducing developer influence and eliminating developer-friendly zoning ordinances are good.

Targeting Democrats who vote to increase accountability, school quality, and reduce developer favors is unacceptable. Our slate, the HoCo4Us slate thinks this is unacceptable.

We launched our campaign because the Democratic Party in Howard County needs a new direction. We need a party that does not succumb to pressure from elected officials who are beholden to developers. Taking this one step further, we do not think the Democratic Party should give comfort to elected officials who are beholden to developers.

We want a party of ideas, not of group-think. We know there are many good Democrats who care about their communities, but are afraid to speak up. We cannot guess their reasons, but we want to create an environment where they feel safe to speak out and share their ideas, without the specter of being treated as outcasts.

We know there are many local community activists who have been in the trenches for years and feel like they are hostages to a corrupt system and power structure. These community activists rely on the crumbs thrown out to them by the elected officials who use them to burnish their credentials, while doing absolutely nothing of meaningful impact on the issues.

We have a vision for good government, affordable housing, quality schools, public transportation, and an accountable Democratic Party.

If you care about these issues and you want to reclaim the party of the people, if you are concerned about the erosion of trust in our government, if you are concerned about the decay in political discourse and the lack of good faith, this is also your slate.

We ask for your vote during early voting, between July 7th and 14th, and on election day on July 19th.