Moderates- Eleich or Blair

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

It confuses me that you were confused that a paid “voter guide” could have been from the BOE when it referenced candidate endorsements. That should have been a dead giveaway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

It confuses me that you were confused that a paid “voter guide” could have been from the BOE when it referenced candidate endorsements. That should have been a dead giveaway.

And my point is that it should have been IMMEDIATELY obvious that something billed as a “MONTGOMERY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTER GUIDE” was actually promotional material for one candidate. It took flipping the page to see the list of comparisons, and flipping it again to find and read the fine print. Also, I said nothing about the BOE. Multiple sources could print “Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guides” — major media outlets, the League of Women Voters and many other sources would be fine. It’s misleading coming from a candidate— particularly when you have to flip the page and read the fine print to see that, and even more so when you have to read the Very fine print to see that the “Facts” are using BlairForMontgmery,com as a cite.

So, we have different standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

Hucker and Riemer both spam my county government email address with their drivel and I “never” signed up for it.

They can and do purchase email lists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a voting guide for Maryland moderate democrats? I’m looking for both county and state level.

Moderately MoCo did a Q&A and has endorsements. I don't agree with all of them, but it's place to start.

https://moderatelymoco.com/moderately-moco-recommended-ballot-for-2022-primary-and-questionnaire-responses-post/

Yeah the school board recs are a bit wack!

A bit? Those are the three I would absolutely not vote for - nut jobs every one of them! And yes, I want to get rid of the incumbent BOE members, they are awful.

Can I ask who you are leaning towards? For some of the candidates I am just not finding a lot of information, plus I feel like one of the problems with this current board is unwillingness to push back at MCPS and ask tough questions. It’s hard to gauge who will do that! I like Valerie Coll (former teacher at our neighborhood school) but am struggling with some of the other ones (except to say that I am wary of the moderately MoCo endorsers ones too).

That is my post above. I am voting the following for BOE:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Moderately Moco here.

These people all seem like they are good people who care about the system but I think each would be the most likely to close schools (aka go virtual) for any reason in the next years among their competitors and to me that is a major issue.

I don't agree with the slate on some of their personal takes, but they won't close schools and I hope that their focus would be on improving MCPS not on other things.

I'm also aware of the mud slinging that goes on during elections here and know there will always be pushes against anyone from outside the machine trying to run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

It confuses me that you were confused that a paid “voter guide” could have been from the BOE when it referenced candidate endorsements. That should have been a dead giveaway.

And my point is that it should have been IMMEDIATELY obvious that something billed as a “MONTGOMERY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTER GUIDE” was actually promotional material for one candidate. It took flipping the page to see the list of comparisons, and flipping it again to find and read the fine print. Also, I said nothing about the BOE. Multiple sources could print “Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guides” — major media outlets, the League of Women Voters and many other sources would be fine. It’s misleading coming from a candidate— particularly when you have to flip the page and read the fine print to see that, and even more so when you have to read the Very fine print to see that the “Facts” are using BlairForMontgmery,com as a cite.

So, we have different standards.

Are you a visit time voter? Never lived in Maryland before? Serious questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

It confuses me that you were confused that a paid “voter guide” could have been from the BOE when it referenced candidate endorsements. That should have been a dead giveaway.

And my point is that it should have been IMMEDIATELY obvious that something billed as a “MONTGOMERY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTER GUIDE” was actually promotional material for one candidate. It took flipping the page to see the list of comparisons, and flipping it again to find and read the fine print. Also, I said nothing about the BOE. Multiple sources could print “Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guides” — major media outlets, the League of Women Voters and many other sources would be fine. It’s misleading coming from a candidate— particularly when you have to flip the page and read the fine print to see that, and even more so when you have to read the Very fine print to see that the “Facts” are using BlairForMontgmery,com as a cite.

So, we have different standards.

Are you a visit time voter? Never lived in Maryland before? Serious questions.

What’s a “visit time voter”? Did you misspeak? Make a typo? Stumble over your words while trying to disparage an anonymous stranger?
To coin a phrase: “Serious questions.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

Hucker and Riemer both spam my county government email address with their drivel and I “never” signed up for it.

They can and do purchase email lists.

Same! Actually I’ve started getting them from Elrich and Friedson too. Seems a bit random because I actually don’t get the Blair ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

It confuses me that you were confused that a paid “voter guide” could have been from the BOE when it referenced candidate endorsements. That should have been a dead giveaway.

And my point is that it should have been IMMEDIATELY obvious that something billed as a “MONTGOMERY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTER GUIDE” was actually promotional material for one candidate. It took flipping the page to see the list of comparisons, and flipping it again to find and read the fine print. Also, I said nothing about the BOE. Multiple sources could print “Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guides” — major media outlets, the League of Women Voters and many other sources would be fine. It’s misleading coming from a candidate— particularly when you have to flip the page and read the fine print to see that, and even more so when you have to read the Very fine print to see that the “Facts” are using BlairForMontgmery,com as a cite.

So, we have different standards.

Are you a visit time voter? Never lived in Maryland before? Serious questions.

What’s a “visit time voter”? Did you misspeak? Make a typo? Stumble over your words while trying to disparage an anonymous stranger?
To coin a phrase: “Serious questions.”

They probably meant first rather than visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a liberal Democrat, and Blair has my vote! I’m done with Elrich after the pandemic and his utter hypocrisy. Time for a new start.

Still wondering why so many people view lack of actual government experiences as a plus. Also wondering why so few Blair supporters on this site support their positions with actual specifics. I guess my takeaway should be to recognize how limited using a site like this can be when it comes to getting detailed information on even prominent local candidates. I’m planning to vote for Elrich — unless I can get information that goes beyond the level of the stuff that gets put on campaign flyers for Blair.

DP and for me it’s not that the lack of local government experience is a plus, I just don’t view it as a negative. You have to start somewhere and I think Blair’s ripe if experience would translate well to county executive. And while the other two candidates have years of local govt experience, neither are particularly good at their jobs.

I find flyers/texts pretty useless too but you can learn much more at the campaign websites.

Thanks! I find Blair’s flyers to be somewhat misleading. I will try again with his website, so thanks for the suggestion. One of my concerns about Blair is that knowing —I guess — that he planned to run again for CE, he seems to have done nothing that I’m aware of that addressed my concern re: his lack of government experience. I agree that you do have to start somewhere, though. I’m concerned both about experiences and about genuine civic mindedness, and an understanding of non-profit types of goals, but I do get that much of his experience might translate well to the CE role.

DP. Misleading in what way?

As an example: One was headlined with “The Washington Post Endorsed Democrat David Blair” in huge type, with columns contrasting Blair and Elrich. It takes a lot of squinting at the fine print to see where the out of context comments come from, and lacks adequate citations that would allow me to track down the sources of the quotes. Maybe The Wash and Montgomery County Media are great sources — maybe not. Maybe the visually catchy checklist (Blair - all good, Elrich —all bad) is actually based on something substantive. Or maybe not. It also wasn’t immediately clear that : 2022 Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guide — was in fact promotional material paid for by Blair.

tldr: It should be immediately clear that a mailing is paid for promotional material— and it’s not. I haven’t had this concern with materials from other candidates.

It also irritates me that I’ve received multiple self-serving emails from Blair. I never gave Blair’s office my email address, and other candidates haven’t done this. While I’m assuming his campaign office got my email in a legal way, it feels shady.

It confuses me that you were confused that a paid “voter guide” could have been from the BOE when it referenced candidate endorsements. That should have been a dead giveaway.

And my point is that it should have been IMMEDIATELY obvious that something billed as a “MONTGOMERY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTER GUIDE” was actually promotional material for one candidate. It took flipping the page to see the list of comparisons, and flipping it again to find and read the fine print. Also, I said nothing about the BOE. Multiple sources could print “Montgomery County Democratic Primary Voter Guides” — major media outlets, the League of Women Voters and many other sources would be fine. It’s misleading coming from a candidate— particularly when you have to flip the page and read the fine print to see that, and even more so when you have to read the Very fine print to see that the “Facts” are using BlairForMontgmery,com as a cite.

So, we have different standards.

Are you a visit time voter? Never lived in Maryland before? Serious questions.

What’s a “visit time voter”? Did you misspeak? Make a typo? Stumble over your words while trying to disparage an anonymous stranger?
To coin a phrase: “Serious questions.”

They probably meant first rather than visit.

Probably. But if you’re going to go out of your way to randomly fling trash talk at an anonymous stranger, one should get these things right, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a voting guide for Maryland moderate democrats? I’m looking for both county and state level.

Moderately MoCo did a Q&A and has endorsements. I don't agree with all of them, but it's place to start.

https://moderatelymoco.com/moderately-moco-recommended-ballot-for-2022-primary-and-questionnaire-responses-post/

Yeah the school board recs are a bit wack!

A bit? Those are the three I would absolutely not vote for - nut jobs every one of them! And yes, I want to get rid of the incumbent BOE members, they are awful.

Can I ask who you are leaning towards? For some of the candidates I am just not finding a lot of information, plus I feel like one of the problems with this current board is unwillingness to push back at MCPS and ask tough questions. It’s hard to gauge who will do that! I like Valerie Coll (former teacher at our neighborhood school) but am struggling with some of the other ones (except to say that I am wary of the moderately MoCo endorsers ones too).

That is my post above. I am voting the following for BOE:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Moderately Moco here.

These people all seem like they are good people who care about the system but I think each would be the most likely to close schools (aka go virtual) for any reason in the next years among their competitors and to me that is a major issue.

I don't agree with the slate on some of their personal takes, but they won't close schools and I hope that their focus would be on improving MCPS not on other things.

I'm also aware of the mud slinging that goes on during elections here and know there will always be pushes against anyone from outside the machine trying to run.

Thanks for your explanation. It is helpful.

I'm voting to get SROs back in the schools (and CEO 2.0 did not do that) -- public safety matters most to me -- although I don't want schools shut down either. Kids don't learn when they fear violence each day. And kids 12-18, particiular AA boys, are less safe in school than in the community at large.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a voting guide for Maryland moderate democrats? I’m looking for both county and state level.

Moderately MoCo did a Q&A and has endorsements. I don't agree with all of them, but it's place to start.

https://moderatelymoco.com/moderately-moco-recommended-ballot-for-2022-primary-and-questionnaire-responses-post/

Yeah the school board recs are a bit wack!

A bit? Those are the three I would absolutely not vote for - nut jobs every one of them! And yes, I want to get rid of the incumbent BOE members, they are awful.

Can I ask who you are leaning towards? For some of the candidates I am just not finding a lot of information, plus I feel like one of the problems with this current board is unwillingness to push back at MCPS and ask tough questions. It’s hard to gauge who will do that! I like Valerie Coll (former teacher at our neighborhood school) but am struggling with some of the other ones (except to say that I am wary of the moderately MoCo endorsers ones too).

That is my post above. I am voting the following for BOE:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Moderately Moco here.

These people all seem like they are good people who care about the system but I think each would be the most likely to close schools (aka go virtual) for any reason in the next years among their competitors and to me that is a major issue.

I don't agree with the slate on some of their personal takes, but they won't close schools and I hope that their focus would be on improving MCPS not on other things.

I'm also aware of the mud slinging that goes on during elections here and know there will always be pushes against anyone from outside the machine trying to run.

Thanks for your explanation. It is helpful.

I'm voting to get SROs back in the schools (and CEO 2.0 did not do that) -- public safety matters most to me -- although I don't want schools shut down either. Kids don't learn when they fear violence each day. And kids 12-18, particiular AA boys, are less safe in school than in the community at large.

But are students, particularly AA boys actually more safe when SROs are present in the schools? That has often not been the case, although it’s quite possible that the Montgomery County SROs would do a better job than many have in other school systems and communities.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/us/school-officers-impact-on-black-students/index.html

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2022/03/high-schoolers-organize-montgomery-co-vigil-to-keep-police-out-of-schools/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a voting guide for Maryland moderate democrats? I’m looking for both county and state level.

Moderately MoCo did a Q&A and has endorsements. I don't agree with all of them, but it's place to start.

https://moderatelymoco.com/moderately-moco-recommended-ballot-for-2022-primary-and-questionnaire-responses-post/

Yeah the school board recs are a bit wack!

A bit? Those are the three I would absolutely not vote for - nut jobs every one of them! And yes, I want to get rid of the incumbent BOE members, they are awful.

Can I ask who you are leaning towards? For some of the candidates I am just not finding a lot of information, plus I feel like one of the problems with this current board is unwillingness to push back at MCPS and ask tough questions. It’s hard to gauge who will do that! I like Valerie Coll (former teacher at our neighborhood school) but am struggling with some of the other ones (except to say that I am wary of the moderately MoCo endorsers ones too).

That is my post above. I am voting the following for BOE:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Moderately Moco here.

These people all seem like they are good people who care about the system but I think each would be the most likely to close schools (aka go virtual) for any reason in the next years among their competitors and to me that is a major issue.

I don't agree with the slate on some of their personal takes, but they won't close schools and I hope that their focus would be on improving MCPS not on other things.

I'm also aware of the mud slinging that goes on during elections here and know there will always be pushes against anyone from outside the machine trying to run.

Thanks for your explanation. It is helpful.

I'm voting to get SROs back in the schools (and CEO 2.0 did not do that) -- public safety matters most to me -- although I don't want schools shut down either. Kids don't learn when they fear violence each day. And kids 12-18, particiular AA boys, are less safe in school than in the community at large.

But are students, particularly AA boys actually more safe when SROs are present in the schools? That has often not been the case, although it’s quite possible that the Montgomery County SROs would do a better job than many have in other school systems and communities.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/us/school-officers-impact-on-black-students/index.html

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2022/03/high-schoolers-organize-montgomery-co-vigil-to-keep-police-out-of-schools/

Montgomery County Police published SRO data:
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/pol/Resources/Files/SRO/MCPD-SRO-FAQ.pdf

This report is from 2019-2020, before members of the county council decided to end the program. MCPD and MCPS had a strong program with well-trained and respected SROs. Part of the problem, as I see it, is that the council looked nation-wide instead of looking locally. The link above contains more details about the SROs’ role within a MCPS school, their training, and their arrest data. I wonder how the decision would have been different if the council did more research into data and experiences specific to Montgomery County. Why wasn’t there a system-wide survey, for example?

Riemer’s role in the lopsided SRO debate is why I can’t support his candidacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a voting guide for Maryland moderate democrats? I’m looking for both county and state level.

Moderately MoCo did a Q&A and has endorsements. I don't agree with all of them, but it's place to start.

https://moderatelymoco.com/moderately-moco-recommended-ballot-for-2022-primary-and-questionnaire-responses-post/

Yeah the school board recs are a bit wack!

A bit? Those are the three I would absolutely not vote for - nut jobs every one of them! And yes, I want to get rid of the incumbent BOE members, they are awful.

Can I ask who you are leaning towards? For some of the candidates I am just not finding a lot of information, plus I feel like one of the problems with this current board is unwillingness to push back at MCPS and ask tough questions. It’s hard to gauge who will do that! I like Valerie Coll (former teacher at our neighborhood school) but am struggling with some of the other ones (except to say that I am wary of the moderately MoCo endorsers ones too).

That is my post above. I am voting the following for BOE:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Moderately Moco here.

These people all seem like they are good people who care about the system but I think each would be the most likely to close schools (aka go virtual) for any reason in the next years among their competitors and to me that is a major issue.

I don't agree with the slate on some of their personal takes, but they won't close schools and I hope that their focus would be on improving MCPS not on other things.

I'm also aware of the mud slinging that goes on during elections here and know there will always be pushes against anyone from outside the machine trying to run.

Thanks for your explanation. It is helpful.

I'm voting to get SROs back in the schools (and CEO 2.0 did not do that) -- public safety matters most to me -- although I don't want schools shut down either. Kids don't learn when they fear violence each day. And kids 12-18, particiular AA boys, are less safe in school than in the community at large.

But are students, particularly AA boys actually more safe when SROs are present in the schools? That has often not been the case, although it’s quite possible that the Montgomery County SROs would do a better job than many have in other school systems and communities.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/us/school-officers-impact-on-black-students/index.html

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2022/03/high-schoolers-organize-montgomery-co-vigil-to-keep-police-out-of-schools/

Yes, when you look at a metaanalysis of SRO studies, they improve safety but increase arrests. When you apply national data to a local system, it is informative but not necessarily determinative. Montgomery County has one of the lowest student arrest rates in the state and by far one of the lowest in the nation. We are a smart enough community to take advantage of the good while minimizing the bad. The absense of police in schools this year did not do anything to reduce racial disparities in arrests or juvenile referrals. That's because there are many more factors that influence those disaparities than just police. But we do know there were more calls to schools for violence. And we had our first shooting at a school. A 15 year old Black boy suffered a horrific gun shot to the pelvis, has suffered through 13 surgeries, been on life support for three weeks, and has a colostomy bag. Ghost guns are a game changer and they aren't going away any time soon. Their presence will only get worse.

Put the SROs back in. Ensure that the guardrails provided by the MOU are solid, minimizing inappropriate police intervention in situations that are better handled by schools. Make sure you have an oversight mechanism in place to hold all stakeholders accountable to that MOU -- teachers, principals, and police alike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a voting guide for Maryland moderate democrats? I’m looking for both county and state level.

Moderately MoCo did a Q&A and has endorsements. I don't agree with all of them, but it's place to start.

https://moderatelymoco.com/moderately-moco-recommended-ballot-for-2022-primary-and-questionnaire-responses-post/

Yeah the school board recs are a bit wack!

A bit? Those are the three I would absolutely not vote for - nut jobs every one of them! And yes, I want to get rid of the incumbent BOE members, they are awful.

Can I ask who you are leaning towards? For some of the candidates I am just not finding a lot of information, plus I feel like one of the problems with this current board is unwillingness to push back at MCPS and ask tough questions. It’s hard to gauge who will do that! I like Valerie Coll (former teacher at our neighborhood school) but am struggling with some of the other ones (except to say that I am wary of the moderately MoCo endorsers ones too).

That is my post above. I am voting the following for BOE:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Moderately Moco here.

These people all seem like they are good people who care about the system but I think each would be the most likely to close schools (aka go virtual) for any reason in the next years among their competitors and to me that is a major issue.

I don't agree with the slate on some of their personal takes, but they won't close schools and I hope that their focus would be on improving MCPS not on other things.

I'm also aware of the mud slinging that goes on during elections here and know there will always be pushes against anyone from outside the machine trying to run.

Thanks for your explanation. It is helpful.

I'm voting to get SROs back in the schools (and CEO 2.0 did not do that) -- public safety matters most to me -- although I don't want schools shut down either. Kids don't learn when they fear violence each day. And kids 12-18, particiular AA boys, are less safe in school than in the community at large.

SRO's are already back in schools? That's settled.