February 24, 2025 • 63 mins
Finally after many calls, emails, texts and asks, Tamara provides her analysis of nine (9) of the 10 candidates that are running for Prince George's County Executive. Her analysis is based on several candidates forums, but primarily the one she co-moderated on President's Day, February 17th. She provides the pros and cons of each candidate before making her decision and providing her rationale.
Early voting begins Thursday, March 3 - March 27, 2025 with the Primary Special Election held on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. There are only 9 voting centers throughout the County, one in each councilmanic district. Check the County's Board of Election website for more information: elections.mypgc.us or https://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/departments-offices/board-elections
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, prince George's County, welcome to
another edition of All.
Politics is Local with me, yourhost, tamara Davis Brown.
So I have been getting phonecalls, texts, emails, you name
it.
There's a way to contact me.
Coming up to me personally,people are asking who are you
(00:25):
voting for?
For Prince George's Countyexecutive, the candidates forum
(00:49):
that I co-moderated with the D9Coalition for Civic Engagement
and the Greater SuburbanMaryland chapter of Jack and
Jill of America, I'm a member ofboth organizations.
Well, for Jack and Jill, I'm anassociate member, meaning my
children have graduated out.
They're young adults, thrivingand doing their adulting thing.
But I'm also a member of the D9Coalition for Civic Engagement
and working with them since itsinception.
(01:13):
And it was a great night.
It was a packed house.
We had a lot of people comingto not only support their
individual candidates, but therewere people actually there that
had not made up their mind, hadnot decided for whom they're
voting and wanted to hear fromthe candidates directly.
We did something a littledifferent.
There were no opening andclosing statements.
(01:34):
That was by design andintention.
We wanted to delve right intothe questions that people were
asking.
All of the questions camedirectly from the public.
When people registered for theevent, they had an opportunity
to write their questions downand so we categorized the
questions and topics and kind ofthe best and the highlight of
(01:58):
the candidates forum is weteamed with, like I said, jack
and Jill, greatest SuburbanChapter of Jack and Jill of
America, and the teens did anoutstanding job asking direct
questions to the candidates.
Those questions also came fromthe public directly public
(02:27):
directly.
With the exception of the lastthree, we were able to fit in
the three questions that theyactually decided to draft and
those questions went to all nineof the candidates that were
present, and so I thought thatwent over really well.
The teens did a phenomenal job.
And then the last thing that wedid that was unique is we asked
competency-based questions,questions about the office that
(02:50):
people, about the office ofcounty exec, that the candidates
should have known what theanswer is because they are
seeking this office.
They need to know how theoffice operates, how it relates
with other departments andagencies, and so we asked those
questions as well and we gavethe audience the actual answers
(03:12):
and the sources to those answers.
And we did the same thing withthe Facebook Live, because the
entire event was streamed onFacebook Live and it's still up
and available if you want to seeit.
But we provided the link whereanyone who wanted to access the
answers could do so.
(03:33):
So I thought it went reallywell and it helped solidify, you
know, who really knew what theywere running for, the position
that they were running for andhow it really operates.
And so let's dive into myanalysis for each of the
candidates from that night.
I also did tune in on theYouTube channel for ABC7 and
(03:56):
watched that debate.
It was only, I believe, fourcandidates on that one
candidates on that one, and Iwatched a portion of.
I didn't get to finish watchingthe NAACP's candidate forum at
Reed Temple.
I know they had two, one atEbenezer AME Church and the
other at Reed Temple AME Church,and I was only able to view a
(04:21):
portion of the Reed Temple oneview, a portion of the Reed
Temple one.
But I'm going to go inalphabetical order and kind of
give my analysis.
So the first candidate,obviously alphabetical order by
last name, of course, is RashernBaker.
As you know, mr Baker has beena county executive for this
county before he came in in atumultuous time, kind of like
(04:45):
this one a little bit, but verydifferent times on the heels of
Jack Johnson and his entireadministration and we know how
that ended, and so it was a verydifficult time, dark time for
the county, a shadow, if youwill, of that administration and
(05:07):
the publicity that it gotnationwide because of the
recordings and how they werereleased by the public.
It was just total embarrassmentfor us.
But he came in and he actuallydid very well as county
executive in terms of creatingand instituting county stat to
(05:29):
bring more accountability andtransparency in our government
and how the county government isable to look at the needs of
each of the departments and thenmake a decision of where funds
should go to to deal with thosedepartments.
(05:50):
It was also under County ExecBaker that we broke out
permitting an inspection fromDepartment of Public Works and
Transportation it used to be onebig department that had a
permitting, enforcement andinspection department and the
(06:11):
public works and transportation.
So he broke that out and, Ibelieve, also broke out
Department of Environment aswell, environment as well, and
so now you know the Departmentof Environment deals with our
trash pickup and snow removaland all of that and DPW&T
(06:32):
actually I take that back DPW&Tdeals with the snow removal, but
because they handle all of theroadways, but Department of
Transportation I mean, excuse me, department of Environment
deals with the snow removal andall of the environmental impacts
that the county has impact howgovernment is efficient in that
(07:04):
regard for Prince George'sCounty, because we were still
operating under a quiteantiquated system.
The other thing that he did Iactually really, really liked
and still do like the personthat was our planning board
chair at the time, mr SamuelParker, and the reason that I
(07:25):
like him is because Mr Parkeractually has a degree in
planning, in urban planning anddesign and development, and so
they were doing some reallyunique things.
That has led to what our parksand planning department is doing
now, some of the things thatthey have instituted, not just
in parks and planning but inzoning.
(07:48):
And one of the things that theywere really doing was the
project.
Back then it was 2025, whichseems like it was a long long
time ago, or 2030.
It was either 2025 or 2035.
But when County Executive Baker, when Sharon Baker was County
Executive, they had this project2025.
(08:09):
And it was actually it wascalled Vision 2025.
And it was a long term planningthat they were undertaking and
it was a lot of work went intoit.
There were a lot of publicmeetings and I thought that was
good and the reason that Imentioned having Mr Parker as a
(08:34):
planning director and head ofthe planning board.
It was someone that understoodwhat zoning and development is
all about, and you guys knowfrom hearing me talk about
zoning and development.
It's really what drives theeconomic engine here in the
county and it helps either makeour quality of life very
(08:57):
miserable or very excited, andright now we are on the misery
side only because we have somuch townhouse development, so
much overdevelopment incommunities.
You know, every time there's apiece of land that's being sold,
it's sold to a developer andthe reason is is that you know
the heirs of the property.
(09:18):
If it's especially not owned bythe county, they're going to go
with the highest bidder.
If it's especially not owned bythe county, they're going to go
with the highest bidder and thehighest bidder is going to be a
developer and the developer isgoing to develop housing and we
just.
There's no way around it.
But what we can do is smartlydevelop how that community is
(09:43):
with the infrastructure thatneeds to be done.
Again, another whole, anotherstory, but I did like under the
Baker administration at thattime that he had Mr Parker as
the planning board chair and theplanning board seemed to
operate a little bit moreeffectively and efficiently.
One thing this county has to dois get rid of the ability of
the county council to be thedistrict council on zoning
(10:06):
matters.
Our county council has nobusiness, in my personal opinion
, deciding any zoning case.
It's not a single person, andif I was on the council that
would include me as well.
I don't know anything aboutzoning and land use development
and we get ram, you know, shotand run over by developers in
(10:31):
not only understanding andknowing the development laws but
keeping it as antiquated aspossible.
Again, another long story thatdeserves its own podcast episode
.
But Mr Baker did do thosethings.
Unfortunately, mr Baker was alittle late for our candidates
forum so he missed the firstround of questions.
(10:54):
Basically, I think we, theco-moderator, gave him one
question to be able to answer intwo minutes instead of doing
the two questions for the firstround, and so not really
counting that against him.
Obviously he had something elseprior to our candidates form,
(11:18):
but you know it made the sessiona little little awkward because
he didn't pull the numbers andwhat have you the session a
little little awkward because hedidn't pull the numbers and
what.
Have you not counting thatagainst him?
But what I will say is I doappreciate the fact that he's
been county executive before andthis is to fill a unexpired
(11:41):
term of the county executivefrom Angela also Brooks
administration unexpired term ofthe county executive from
Angela also Brooksadministration.
And so the fact that histagline is that he's ready day
one actually really is appealingto me.
You know he's ready day one.
We need somebody to come in andstep in.
(12:08):
I did have an opportunity toattend a private event for him
and, you know, ask the questionabout whether or not he was
planning to keep all of theadministrative heads in the
position that they are andwhether or not that would.
Wouldn't that keep thecontinuity of the county running
, and his answer was kind of yesand no.
(12:29):
If you will, I truly understandthat you have to have people
that you trust and you want tobe able to work with, but I
don't think that we need awholesale change in any of the
department heads right now.
Maybe after 2026, but right nowI don't think.
So I think we need kind of asteady hand and I'm hoping that
(12:53):
if he does win that he wouldkeep you know, not, definitely
not his inner staff.
You know he can bring in hisown chief of staff, his own, you
know, personal inner officestaff.
I expect any candidate thatwins to bring in their own
personal staff.
But I'm talking aboutdepartment heads, like the fire
chief, the police chief, therecommendation that you know
(13:16):
they make for school boardsuperintendent, which is he
makes the recommendation but theschool board votes on that
person.
I said police chief, fire chief, all the department heads, so
those he would have theopportunity to do that.
He did mention that he may takea look at a couple of positions
(13:38):
and potentially make somechanges, potentially make some
changes.
I didn't particularly again, Ifeel differently about that,
since we're completing anunexpired term, but I do
understand that.
You know you want people thatyou have trust in and people
(13:59):
that trust you.
So kind of understand that.
But anyway, so kind ofunderstand that.
(14:23):
But anywayoshan talked aboutdoing away with trim.
We've actually raised taxesunder his administration, which
was not done the proper way, ifyou will.
When I say it was, you know, aloophole in our tax policy in
Prince George's County, becausenormally when you have.
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When you want to raise taxes,you actually have to put it to
the voters for a referendumunder TRIM, and that has not
been done I don't think ever.
Or if it has, it's definitelyfailed.
Nobody wants to pay more taxes.
We want you to use, be goodstewards of the money that we
give you and you do the best youcan with what we have and then
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figure out ways to.
You know ways to raise revenuein the county and generally.
That issue has been is that wehave not been able to attract
the type of commercial tax basethat we have, and so one thing
that I do fault Richard Bakerand I actually asked him this
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when I went to that personalevent was about Conterra, which
is, if any of you live in thenorthern part of the county, you
know exactly where I'm talkingabout in the Laurel area, right
off of that new toll road.
I guess it's not so new now.
I rarely use it, I'm rarely inthat portion of the county.
(15:58):
So Conterra was one of thefirst projects that he got
approved, and he told me that itwas the first project and it
came like six months within hisadministration and because he
was very new to the office.
He unfortunately bought HookLine and Sinker what they wanted
(16:20):
to propose and do, and they didnothing.
And unfortunately he proposedand got a TIF, which stands for
tax increment financing, whichmeans they bought the property,
bought the land and they're onlypaying.
They're paying property taxover extended period of time
incrementally and not the fulltech commercial tax that they
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should be paying incrementallyand not the full tech commercial
tax that they should be paying,which is quite unfortunate
because we as taxpayers,particularly property taxpayers,
those who are homeowners wedon't get that kind of incentive
right.
We have to pay our taxes whendue, every year, no matter what,
or you know, there's a tax lienon your property.
So I appreciate having someincentives to help bring
(17:09):
commercial businesses to theoffice I mean to the county but
I don't particularly like taxtips, tax increment financing
for development projects andwhen I say development projects
I mean I'm talking aboutsomething other than just
(17:29):
housing.
You know Conterra's Conterrapromised a lot of stuff and they
developed nothing except forapartments.
The last time I drove by thereI just saw a bunch of empty land
, all the trees had been cut andit's a bunch of apartments.
Now I have noticed on theplanning board's website that
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they are planning to make someprogress on their project, but
right now the only thing thatI've seen are apartments on the
property, our apartments on theproperty.
So I'm very disappointed andI'm very disappointed in the
fact that these developers getto pay their property tax over,
you know, 10, 20, 30 yearsincrementally.
(18:16):
And here we are sufferingbecause we have a budget deficit
, because we've got all theseTIF projects here in Prince
George's County that have notreally materialized.
The one that has materializedobviously has been National
Harbor.
So you know, we have theGaylord there, we have the
Gaylord Convention Center, wehave MGM, we have a lot that's
(18:40):
there.
That is one TIF project thatmade sense and that has
benefited the county as a greateconomic engine.
However, some of the otherprojects have not been on the
scale and scope of NationalHarbor and, in my opinion, do
not deserve a TIF.
So I kind of dinged Baker forthat because his administration
(19:06):
there were quite a few, conterowas just one and it happened to
be the first one.
Now he has told me he's learnedhis lesson from that, but that
remains to be seen.
So, moving on, because I'vespent way too much time on Baker
(19:31):
, and moving to Miss AishaBrayboy, who's our current
state's attorney.
Miss Brayboy, I will say she hassent out the most mail that I
have received so far from any ofthe other candidates.
Obviously, she has a biggertreasury to do so and, quite
frankly, I do think that shewill.
(19:52):
Because of that, she willprobably win this election.
You know, the adage is that youhave to touch voters seven
times.
So I've gotten at least sevenpieces of mail.
I think I've gotten a robocalland I've gotten some text
messages from her and, of course, she's participating in all of
(20:15):
the candidates' forum.
So you know she is campaigninglike you know you should if you
want to win, and so she's reallyspent a lot of money, put a lot
of money into to the campaign.
Now, it wasn't unexpected atleast not for me that she would
run for a county executive, notjust in the special election but
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for 2026, I knew that she wasgoing to be one of the
candidates.
It's just a quote, unquotenatural progression, at least in
this county.
If you may remember, jackJohnson was state's attorney and
then became county executive.
Angela also Brooks was state'sattorney and became county
executive, and so Aisha isfollowing that same progression
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in terms of moving up intohigher office, although she
started out as a delegate forthe 25th Legislative District
but nevertheless she steppedinto the current role that she's
in as state's attorney.
So let's talk about her role inthe state's attorney's office.
(21:29):
So I can only go and this isjust hearsay.
I can't validate anything abouthow she runs the office.
There have been some murmuringsand complaining by senior
prosecutors about how the officeis run and staffed and the
(21:51):
inexperience and theinefficiencies of the office,
and so that can kind of impactsome of the cases that you win
or lose, cases that you reallyprobably should have won, that
you didn't win, and so therehave been some rumblings about
that.
(22:11):
So I'll just kind of say thatbecause, again, that's just
hearsay.
I have not looked into any ofthat.
But what I have noticed is thatMiss Brave Boy kind of puts her
finger up to the political windto see how, where the populist
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attitude or persuasion is andkind of goes with the flow of
that.
And what I mean by that is.
So during the pandemic anddirectly after George Floyd,
there was this big push to doaway with cash, bail and the
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unfairness of it all, and I getthe arguments on both sides.
I get the arguments on bothsides, arguments on both sides.
And so there was this big pushto do away with cash bail.
Because you know if you, if youare, if you can't afford the
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bail, the cash bail, then youknow you have to spend a night
in jail and you miss work andthen you can get fired.
And you know our justice systemjust needs a total overhaul,
actually actually in the UnitedStates, but again that's for
another podcast.
But Ms Brave Boy fell into thatsame political wind, sticking
up your finger and saying, ohyeah, we're not going to do cash
(23:39):
bail in Prince George's County.
And what that did was, as wealso know, what happened during
the pandemic, and just acrossthe nation there was a spike in
crime and particularly juveniledelinquency and juvenile crime.
And so you had all these.
You know teens, you knowcarjacking, you know stealing,
(24:02):
you know just doing awful, awfulthings.
And then they were because ofthe cashless bail system and
even so they were underage.
So the juvenile delinquencypart also plays a part in that.
But they were let go and thenthey would do the same thing
over again.
It was a joke for the kids,no-transcript, and there was a
(24:47):
lot of repeat offenders.
And again, the kids justthought it was a joke.
They were stealing the Kias andstill are, in fact, stealing
the Kias, and they get theseTikTok challenges and they just
think it's a game.
Okay, well, I can steal five,you know, five kids in a week.
I can still, whatever you know,and boast about it.
(25:09):
And so some of those juveniledelinquents really needed, in my
personal opinion, needed tostay in jail and then feel what
it feels like to be isolated andcaged up like an animal.
Feels like to be isolated andcaged up like an animal and
maybe they think twice aboutdoing it again.
(25:29):
But because we didn't have thecash bail system that allowed
them to continue to be released.
And you know, back out on thestreets, and I even heard some
of the police officers say to usin some community meetings
either our coffee clubs meetingsor roundtable meetings that you
(25:50):
know, one teen told them likeI'll be out and back home before
you get off today.
Oversight, in the sense enoughand the knowledge to know that
they can, you know, get home, beout of jail and be back home
before the police officer is offtheir shift.
Then no, they needed to spendsome time.
(26:18):
They needed to spend some timein jail just to prove them
otherwise and maybe shake themup a little bit.
So I do ping her for that.
I also ping her.
She sided with thensuperintendent, school
superintendent Monica Golson, onremoving some of the resource
officers out of the schools.
And we know that parents sendtheir schools, children to
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school, with the expectation ofsafety, that their children
going to be safe, that they'regoing to go, come home and be
able to go back and it's,there's not going to be an issue
.
And we know that.
You know.
You know they're teens, theyoung kids, you know they can't
control their emotions sometimesand they, you know, fights
(27:00):
break out, this, that and theother.
And I would rather have theschool resources officers there,
not for necessarily arrestingpowers but for them to have and
learn to have a goodrelationship with a healthy
relationship, I should say, withthe police department and that
they know that the officers arereally there for them to protect
(27:22):
and serve, as all policeagencies are supposed to do.
But particularly in PrinceGeorge's County, you know a
predominantly African-Americancounty and you have probably a
predominantly African-Americanpolice force, although we do
have quite a few, even in thecommand and in some of the
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command staff we do have quite afew officers that are not
African-American, and so I thinkit's better to actually have
them there, to have thatpresence, to have them there as
seen as a protector and somebodywho's serving, as opposed to
somebody that is alwaysarresting but they can dis.
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You know, quiet any uproars orany whatever is willingness to
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remove officers from our schoolsystem.
And so and Angela also Brooks,when she was county press
(28:47):
conference dealing with this,the juvenile delinquency, and
then vice versa, and so thestate's attorney, aisha, had to
have her own press conference,and so there was this kind of
dueling back and forth aboutwhether or not the school
resources officers should remainin the school system, and Aisha
kind of sided with the or shesupported the idea that Monica
(29:11):
Golsan was saying at the time toremove some of the resource
officers, and again that wasthat kind of political shift
Again.
Remember, this is all duringthe Black Lives Matter, george
Floyd, all of that upheaval, andpeople were really looking at
how to do policing differently,and so it was more of again
(29:35):
sticking your finger in thepolitical wind.
And what is everybody saying?
And I'm going to go with whateverybody's saying, as opposed
to taking a real hard look atwhat's going on in Prince
George's County, prince George'sCounty schools and whether or
not our juvenile justice systemmay need to look a little
differently.
But right at that ship and hasbeen sailing fairly smoothly
(30:05):
since then.
But those were some misstepsthat I do ping her for on that.
The next person alphabeticallyis Marcellus Cruz.
I am not going to spend toomuch time on Mr Cruz because I
know nothing about him.
Unfortunately he left thecandidates forum a little early.
(30:26):
I think he went through thefirst round of questions and he
did answer the question from theteam, but what I picked up
immediately from him is that henever answered the questions.
(30:46):
He always talked about what thecounty needs, what we need,
what we need, what we need is henever gave us his plan, his
thought out, articulated plan ofwhat he would do as county
executive to address those needs, and so, because of that,
definitely ruling him out.
(31:08):
Anytime you hear a candidatethat ask a question or, excuse
me, answers a question withsaying, repeating what the
question is and saying what weneed, but not saying what he
individually or she individuallywill do what's your plan?
That is a clear, clear, clearanswer that that person has not
(31:33):
thought out a plan very well, atleast be able to articulate it
in you know, one or two minuteresponse and not just say you
know, go to my website, thatkind of stuff, although I don't
even.
He may have said go to hiswebsite, but he did not answer
any question with his own plan,as asked.
(31:55):
The question specifically askedwhat are your plans, what are
your initiatives, what are yougoing to do?
He never answered them,indicating what his plans were.
So that was Mr Cruz.
The next person is Mr CalvinHawkins, who currently serves as
our at-large on the countycouncil.
(32:17):
Now, before any of this, youknow the possibility of Angela
winning and before you know, Ithink Ben Cardin even knew that.
We knew that Ben Cardin wouldresign.
Again, you kind of heard somerumblings about who was going to
run for county executive.
Calvin's name has always beenin the conversation, as well as
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Aisha.
I think those definitely arethe two that have always been in
the conversation, as well asAisha.
I think those definitely arethe two that have always been in
the conversation and of thosetwo, if you would have asked me
way back then, I was actuallyleaning towards Calvin, and this
is one of the reasons whyCalvin reminds me of someone
almost like a Mary and Barry.
(33:02):
You know just a little bit.
He actually, you know, eventhough he was raised and grew up
in the Glass Manor area of OxonHill.
You know, his family roots aredefinitely DC, southeast DC, and
he actually, what I havelearned about him, he actually
(33:22):
worked in DC government and soin a particularly during that
Marion Barry administration, andI think he learned the craft of
, you know, being what he callshimself the people's champ.
I think he actually learned howto do that by the observation
(33:42):
of that administration and hewould be, and definitely has
been, a voice for the smallpeople, the least of these, as
we call them, people that areeither down on their luck or
what have you.
He's definitely been that voicefor the people.
In some of the initiatives thathe's done have been for people
(34:05):
that you know needed a secondchance, people that are again,
like I said, down on their luck,if you will, you know.
Just, you know always peoplethat need a hand up.
I think that's good.
What scares me about Calvin isthat not only did he get the
(34:26):
endorsement of Angela, but thepeople in the machinery behind
Angela are also the people inmachinery behind Calvin and if
you look really closely, that'sreally the development community
.
And if you look at his recordon the county council, he is
(34:52):
always sided with thedevelopment community and that's
what.
That's what scares me a littlebit, that basically his
administration would be acontinuation.
And he's actually.
He actually said this, you know, he proudly likes the fact that
he's been endorsed by Angelaand he proudly, you know, says
that.
You know he'll continue some ofthe things that she's done and
(35:19):
some of the things that Iactually like.
And I'll give a very goodexample.
I love, love, loved her ideaand program of.
Let's face it, the Washingtoncommanders are leaving Prince
George's County in 2028.
And what are we going to dowith that piece of land land?
(35:47):
Now, the good thing is is thatGovernor Westmore has already
endorsed allowing the commandersto move forward with returning
to DC in exchange for somethings, and one of the things
that Prince George's will getout of it is a redevelopment of
the FedEx field site.
And then county executive alsoBrooks had this whole big
redevelopment of the blue lineMorgan Boulevard station,
(36:10):
bringing an amphitheater,outdoor amphitheater there, some
other arts things as well asyou know, development in terms
of residential.
But her idea and keeping that,I would love to see that happen
for that area of Landover, ofFedEx Field, of Morgan Boulevard
(36:32):
Station.
So if he continues that, Iwould love, love, love that.
What scares me, as I said, isthat that development community
is going to support him and ofcourse he'll have to deliver
from the development communitythe same stuff that we've been
getting here in Prince George'sCounty, and so I don't like that
(36:54):
.
About Calvin is that thedevelopment community loves him
and they will expect him toendorse anything that they they
want, any projects that theywant to bring.
That includes mostlyresidential, either townhouses
or single family development,and usually what comes with that
(37:16):
is very little, if any,infrastructure improvements.
So I kind of ding him on that.
But that's just some of myanalysis.
Mr Ron Hunt.
Now you guys, I had not seen MrHunt in action because he
wasn't on the ABC7 televiseddebate and the little bit that I
(37:39):
saw of the NAACP forum.
I had not gotten to hisquestions and response.
Needless to say, he was acharacter.
He is the former owner ofseveral nightclubs in DC.
(38:01):
Is the former owner of severalnightclubs in DC.
For those of you who are oldenough and again, I usually do
this podcast for millennials andyounger, so you would not know
about Chapter 7, chapter 3, Idon't know Chapter 1, 2, 3.
I don't know how many chapterclubs he's had and some other
(38:23):
nightclubs he's had in DC, butapparently they were very
popular and he did very welluntil the baseball stadium came,
and basically's all I reallyknow.
So I, you know, I had to kindof judge him on the form that we
moderated and you just have togo back and watch it for
(38:55):
yourself.
I'll just I'll say that youhave to go back and watch it for
yourself.
But one of the questions, thespecific question on the
competency, it was very clearthat he knew more about how DC
government operates than PrinceGeorge's County government
operates and for that I was likenope, that's not the guy for us
(39:15):
.
Because if, if you only knowhow DC government operates and
you don't understand the officethat you're running for and how
that department and how thatgovernment operates, then maybe
this is not the position for you.
He did raise his hand at theend.
We did a couple of yes and noquestions at the end, just just
(39:36):
for a bonus, just to see howpeople would respond by show of
hands.
He did raise his hand to saythat when lose or draw he would
run again in 2026.
So we'll see what happens there.
But clearly he needs to do alittle bit more homework about
how Prince George's Countyoperates, how Prince George's
(39:58):
County government and what theroles of the county executive,
because clearly he was not ableto answer that question.
So moving on, mr McDermott.
Mr George McDermott was our onlyRepublican that actually showed
up.
We actually had all at the timeof the filing date.
(40:21):
All 11 candidates had agreed toattend.
So there was another Republicancandidate and his name is
escaping me right now, butGeorge McDermott was the one
that did show up.
He, I believe, said he was 83years old.
What was surprising to me thathe said was he likened county
(40:45):
government to a corporation.
He said the county executive isthe CEO, the county council is
the board of directors.
He didn't say this, but I'massuming that he assumes that
(41:05):
all the taxpayers areshareholders in the county.
But the fact that he wanted toequate how to run a county like
you run a business, I can seethe parallelism there.
There, however, I cannotnecessarily agree that you have
(41:28):
to exactly run it that way,because in a business the
shareholders mainly want areturn on investment, whereas in
a jurisdiction people are justtalking about quality of life
issues.
They want their tax dollarsspent wisely, they want
everything done accordingly andthere to be transparency and to
(41:52):
get the services that they payfor.
So that's the difference.
The parallel kind of breaksaway once you talk about who the
quote unquote shareholders areversus who the taxpayers and
homeowners and the people, theresidents who actually live
(42:13):
there.
Because the company which isthe county, if you will, has to,
you know, provide certainservices and there are services
that are expected, whether it'seducation, whether it's public
safety, whether it's roads,whether it's school construction
.
So you can't make that parallel.
But I didn't hear him per seExcuse me I didn't hear him,
(42:43):
like Mr Cruz, provide any realplans that he would do as county
executive.
So I'm not going to spend muchtime on him.
You know I'm a registeredDemocrat so he wouldn't even be
on my ballot.
So if you are a registeredRepublican, I think you have two
(43:05):
persons, you can two or threepersons you can choose from and
you can kind of do the researchon Mr McDermott.
But I do applaud him and thankhim for attending and coming and
sharing his viewpoints.
What I will say is what themillennials and everybody
younger would say, just as theysaid of Biden and said of Trump
(43:28):
I just think he might be alittle too old and it's time to
you know.
You know, I think he actuallysaid he's 83 years old it's time
for someone new, some new blood, some new direction.
So, anyway, that was MrMcDermott, mr Albert Slocum.
(43:52):
Mr Slocum is a fairly goodfriend of mine and he, when I
was running in the specialelection for county council, he
supported me and was helping meout and I actually thought that
he was going to run and he hadnot actually thought.
He told me and asked me tosupport him for District 5
(44:13):
county council to replace theseat that Jolene Ivey gave up to
run for the at-large position,gave up to run for the at-large
position, and so there wereseveral people that wanted me to
support them for the District 5race that's also going on right
now in terms of this specialelection, and I said I was going
(44:34):
to support him.
So I was really surprised whenhe texted me saying that he's
going to run for countyexecutive.
I said I thought you said youwere going to run for district
five county council, and he'slike no, the time is now and we
need some new direction, this,that and the other.
So I could not commit to him,just like I didn't commit to
(44:55):
really anyone until after I hadyou know.
I knew we were going to havethis candidate's form, so I
wasn't committing to anyone.
I would have committed to, as Ihad mentioned him, to run for
District 5 County Council.
But his performance was a littlelackluster in the sense that on
(45:21):
the competency question, thaton the competency question, he
didn't know what the county'sclimate action plan was, and so
people, it was clear that hedidn't know, and he was kind of
looking for me because I was theone that posed a question to
him, and so he was looking forme to kind of give him some
direction, and I basically justsaid I can't help you.
(45:42):
You either know what the countyclimate action plan is or you
don't.
And the question was for him todescribe it and how he would
implement it.
And so that spoke volumes to me.
To me again, the competencyquestions were really good
(46:02):
because they really said whetheryou know the office that you're
trying to to to run for theposition that you're trying to
run for, and so also hisresponses to the team questions,
(46:24):
to direct questions, some ofthe initial questions.
He was kind of like MarcellusCruz in the sense that he talked
about what the county needed,as opposed to some action plan
that he would have.
And so I was.
Again, I'm always weary ofcandidates that can identify the
problem.
Everybody that lives in PrinceGeorge's County can identify the
problems.
But can you do you have a plan,do you have actionable items
(46:48):
that you could try to implementin order to address those needs?
And I didn't see that hisanswers were responsive in that
regard.
So that was Mr Slocum, ms Sweat,ms Tonyanya Sweat.
She lives down in South County,in Ackieke down here, so I'm
(47:08):
very familiar with Ms Sweat.
She's an attorney.
She actually was an attorney inthe federal government in some
capacity, I don't know exactly.
You can go to a website and getthat information.
She has run for countyexecutive before, so hats off to
her.
She just didn't up and throwher name in.
(47:28):
She has run before.
She's never really gottentraction outside of the southern
part of county.
She's kind of like me Peopleknow her locally here, but
getting her name out in otherparts has been a little
difficult, with the exception ofher being a big advocate and
attorney for the volunteerfirefighters, I should say the
(47:52):
volunteer firefighters you knowhave been dealing with issues in
terms of how to continue tointegrate and use them.
I think we're the only countythat still heavily relies on the
volunteers, but we're movingmore and more away from
volunteers to have professionalfirefighters.
(48:15):
Now, with a county with almosta million people and I'm sure
we've probably reached a millionnow, the way we're growing like
gangbusters with all thesetownhomes, we really do need
professional firefighters tocover the entire county.
Yes, I love our volunteers,anybody that wants to do
anything for free.
You're not going to hear anyopposition from me on that, but
(48:42):
Tanya represents them legally,so I think she may have some
support in maybe the northernand central portions of the
volunteer corps that live inthat area, but unfortunately the
majority, especially in thesouthern part of Prince George's
County, the majority of them donot live in Prince George's
County and they do not vote andwould not be able to vote for
(49:05):
her.
They live in Charles County andother parts of outside of
Prince George's County, so I'mnot using that as an argument of
not supporting her her.
(49:30):
I think Tanya brings a differentperspective of how government
works and how government oughtto work in Prince George's
County.
That would be refreshing.
And she brings a knowledge basethat also will be refreshing.
Unfortunately, the knowledgebase and how government works
and I would even get pinged forthis now because it's heavily
(49:50):
reliant upon being a goodpartner with the federal
government and unfortunatelywe're not going to have a in
under this currentadministration the fact is is
we're not going to have a goodworking relationship with the
federal government under thisadministration.
The fact is is we're not goingto have a good working
relationship with the federalgovernment under this
administration.
So you know the things that Ieven said when I was on the
campaign trail for the at-largeposition, because I said one of
(50:13):
the things that I said about thebudget is that we don't do a
good job in the county ofaccessing federal tax dollars.
The county of accessing federaltax dollars.
Well, guess what, we're notgoing to have that in Prince
George's County just because ofthis administration.
So, while it's a good idea andI wholeheartedly agree with some
(50:35):
of that federal perspectiveit's just this is not the time.
This, this is not the time.
Under the current administrationfederal administration Prince
George's County is not going toget any help and so we're going
to have to do.
We're going to have to do whatwe can with the resources we
(50:56):
have and unfortunately thereweren't a lot of questions.
Um, unfortunately there weren'ta lot of questions to her, at
least about the budget and howshe would implement.
I have to kind of go back andlisten, but I know had some well
(51:28):
thought out plans about what todo specifically with public
safety and, again, thefirefighters and how to use our
volunteer corps, and I thoughtthat was very well answered.
There were some other thingsthat stood out, but if the
reliance is going to be on thefederal government, prince
George's County can hang it upbecause we're not going to,
we're not going to get it.
I don't even think the FBI willnow come to Prince George's
(51:52):
County as a result of who wehave in office and they'll try
to cancel the contracts andcancel the awards and all of
those other things.
So, yeah, I would like to seesomething a little bit more
local that she would like toimplement that could help us
(52:14):
outside of the public safety andthe firefighters.
I thought again.
She's spot on on that and Ithink she would continue to be a
good advocate for that.
But you know Prince George'sCounty, we've got a whole
plethora of issues, and so I'dlike to see her launch a
(52:38):
campaign in 2026 and see wherethings stand in 2026, and not
this little interim piece.
And not this little interimpiece.
She didn't raise her hand,though, when we asked whether or
not you win, lose or draw,would you run in 2026.
She didn't raise her hand.
So I think she thought thatthis would be a good opportunity
(53:00):
to get in and fill in.
The only problem with fillingin an uncompleted term is that
you kind of got to buy in withwhat you have there.
I don't know that she has a lotof contacts within the county
to really implement some of thethings that she wants in just
(53:22):
this remainder of what we haveleft in this county executive
term.
So you know, some of the thingsthat she would probably want to
implement would not.
She couldn't do it.
In other words, in the lessthan two years that are
remaining in the term, she wouldneed a full-fledged four years
(53:44):
in order to accomplish what sheproposes, and so I was a bit
surprised that she didn't raiseher hand.
I think she should run again in2026 and try to flush out and
implement her full vision forthe county, and it's just not
(54:07):
going to happen in two years andit's not going to happen with
the federal administration thatwe have right now.
So that was Ms Sweat.
And then the last person is alsoa breath of fresh air, mr
Alonzo Washington.
Now, when I found out, I was alittle surprised, because I
found out that he was possiblygoing to run for the at-large
(54:27):
seat, but he never did.
But he did put his hat in forthe county executive and I love
Alonzo Washington.
He's a state senator.
He was a delegate first andthen became state senator.
Loved him for the bills that hehas put forward, particularly
(54:48):
towards children, education andso forth.
I've actually gone to Annapolisand testified in support of
several of his bills on a coupleof occasions as a senator, and
so I think he has very goodcommon sense legislation.
I do think it's time for somenew leadership, even though he's
(55:10):
technically in leadership inthe sense that he's already in
office.
He's, you know, like I said, hewas a delegate and now he's a
state senator.
I think he does a very good jobthere.
He answered the questions youknow fairly well.
Unfortunately he also had toleave a little early, I think
he's well.
(55:30):
No, he stayed pretty muchthrough.
I take that back.
He pretty much stayed throughthe entire time.
There was, you know, a fewlittle questions at the end, the
yes or no questions, raisinghand kind of thing.
He was not there, for he has atwo-year-old and so he wanted to
make sure he's home to see thetwo-year-old to bed and I
(55:53):
thought that was so sweet.
But he answered the questionsvery well.
I thought his workforcedevelopment.
I remember asking a questionabout Prince George's Community
College and workforcedevelopment and I thought he had
a well thought out plan forthat.
He too was a person that hadwell thought out positions and I
(56:16):
think when someone first askedme about the county executive, I
said I'm taking a really closelook at Alonzo Washington and I
really I still really am and Ithought he had thought out plans
in terms of what to do with andhow to continue to give the
teens the support that theyneeded in terms of cultural,
(56:38):
recreational and educationalopportunities, and so that
question was answered reallywell by him.
I can't remember the firstquestion that was posed to him
in the first round, but the onesthat he did answer that I can
kind of the top candidates, ormaybe even three Well, I'm just
(57:16):
going to stick with two rightnow Would be Alonzo Washington
and Rashawn Baker.
I spent way more time onRashawn than I did Alonzo,
because Rashard has a trackrecord that you can kind of go
back and look and see.
But at the end of the day,because this is a special
election to complete anunfinished term, I do agree that
(57:44):
we need experience and we needsomebody to come in day one.
What I'm hoping is that bakerdoes not try to do this
wholesale, wholesale change.
I hope he's learned his lesson,because one of the questions
that the team asked was what washis biggest mistake?
(58:05):
And his biggest mistakes, hesaid, was working with the
council and the lack ofcommunications.
Now, that wasn't really hisbiggest mistakes.
His really biggest mistakes wasnot listening to the people
when we told you we didn't wantour taxes raised.
And his other biggest mistakewas, you know, giving out tax
(58:25):
increment financing.
You know, if you wanted toraise taxes, then maybe you
shouldn't have done taxincrement financing for a lot of
these projects that youapproved that never came to
fruition, versus putting it onthe backs of homeowners and
taxpayers.
So I'm hoping that he reallylearned from that.
(58:46):
He didn't.
I did not see him raise hishand, but I know that he said in
the personal event that I wentto that he probably is going to
run in 2026 as well.
I think he would be good to fillthis unfulfilled term, but then
(59:08):
that's about it.
I'm ready for somebody new.
I'm ready for somebody somefresh perspective, fresh ideas,
not a return to hisadministration Only because I'm
not sure that he has any freshideas.
I think he would kind ofcontinue where he left off, and
some of what he left off was notyou know all that.
(59:30):
That palatable People also kindof fault him for the golden
parachute, for the and I meanthe superintendent who ran, the
superintendent who left Maxwellthat's who it is.
His name was not coming to meand you know appointing him and
(01:00:03):
you know all of the things thatwent on with Superintendent
Maxwell.
So I kind of hold my nose.
Hold my nose if I guess, if Ihad, if I thought that Alonzo
was really, really ready.
I look at Alonzo a little bitlike Tonya I want him to run in
2026.
I'd like to see a full-fledgedcampaign.
You know one.
He's a senator, so he's insession right now.
(01:00:24):
He I don't even know how he hastime to even run and be in
Annapolis.
So I would like to see him runagain in 2026 because he was one
of my top favorites.
My top three would be Richard,would be Alonzo, and then
(01:00:47):
probably Calvin.
And some people say, well,tamara, why would you support
Calvin?
And Calvin, you know, supportedlegislation that gerrymandered
you out of, would havegerrymandered you out of the
district, but for a court case.
And you know I don't, I don'thold any grudges and I think
that's why I'm not in office now.
I don't play politics, I'm justkind of clean and dry.
(01:01:09):
You know, run, you win, youdon't.
You know I'm not trying to playpolitical favors and so you
know he did what he did, and notso much that I don't forgive
him or anything like that.
You know it's it's a littlestain in the back of my brain,
but you know, for me it's justpolitics.
(01:01:31):
It's like, okay, yeah, you didthat and I'm I'm not going to
necessarily hold that againstyou.
You.
You were, you know, playingpolitics.
What concerns me most aboutCalvin is is the relationship
with the developers, and that'swhat I'm concerned about.
But I like the fact that he isthat people's champ.
(01:01:54):
I think he will hear the peopleand will try to respond, but I
hope that he will also, you know, have a plan of his own.
So I kind of look for for thosepersons, um, to run again and
to see if we can lead the countyin a better direction.
(01:02:17):
But right now we just need kindof a steady hand, somebody
that's experienced, that knowswhat they're doing, to come in
day one and move forward, and sothat's why I have leaned
towards Baker.
So that's where I landed now.
(01:02:39):
This episode.
I apologize now for all theverbal litters, the ums, the
stops to start.
This is what I could give youright now, because early voting
starts this Wednesday February26th through Monday March 3rd
and special election day isTuesday March 4th 2025.
(01:03:02):
And so I wanted to get this out, as I promised people.
We love you, we thank you forlistening and tuning in and
happy special election voting.
Go out and vote.
Whoever you, whoever you votefor, whether you agree with me
or not, go out and vote.
It's important.
Thanks so much for listening to.
(01:03:22):
All Politics is Local with meyour host Tamara Davis-Brown.
Hello, prince George's County, welcome to
another edition of All.
Politics is Local with me, yourhost, tamara Davis Brown.
So I have been getting phonecalls, texts, emails, you name
it.
There's a way to contact me.
Coming up to me personally,people are asking who are you
(00:25):
voting for?
For Prince George's Countyexecutive, the candidates forum
(00:49):
that I co-moderated with the D9Coalition for Civic Engagement
and the Greater SuburbanMaryland chapter of Jack and
Jill of America, I'm a member ofboth organizations.
Well, for Jack and Jill, I'm anassociate member, meaning my
children have graduated out.
They're young adults, thrivingand doing their adulting thing.
But I'm also a member of the D9Coalition for Civic Engagement
and working with them since itsinception.
(01:13):
And it was a great night.
It was a packed house.
We had a lot of people comingto not only support their
individual candidates, but therewere people actually there that
had not made up their mind, hadnot decided for whom they're
voting and wanted to hear fromthe candidates directly.
We did something a littledifferent.
There were no opening andclosing statements.
(01:34):
That was by design andintention.
We wanted to delve right intothe questions that people were
asking.
All of the questions camedirectly from the public.
When people registered for theevent, they had an opportunity
to write their questions downand so we categorized the
questions and topics and kind ofthe best and the highlight of
(01:58):
the candidates forum is weteamed with, like I said, jack
and Jill, greatest SuburbanChapter of Jack and Jill of
America, and the teens did anoutstanding job asking direct
questions to the candidates.
Those questions also came fromthe public directly public
(02:27):
directly.
With the exception of the lastthree, we were able to fit in
the three questions that theyactually decided to draft and
those questions went to all nineof the candidates that were
present, and so I thought thatwent over really well.
The teens did a phenomenal job.
And then the last thing that wedid that was unique is we asked
competency-based questions,questions about the office that
(02:50):
people, about the office ofcounty exec, that the candidates
should have known what theanswer is because they are
seeking this office.
They need to know how theoffice operates, how it relates
with other departments andagencies, and so we asked those
questions as well and we gavethe audience the actual answers
(03:12):
and the sources to those answers.
And we did the same thing withthe Facebook Live, because the
entire event was streamed onFacebook Live and it's still up
and available if you want to seeit.
But we provided the link whereanyone who wanted to access the
answers could do so.
(03:33):
So I thought it went reallywell and it helped solidify, you
know, who really knew what theywere running for, the position
that they were running for andhow it really operates.
And so let's dive into myanalysis for each of the
candidates from that night.
I also did tune in on theYouTube channel for ABC7 and
(03:56):
watched that debate.
It was only, I believe, fourcandidates on that one
candidates on that one, and Iwatched a portion of.
I didn't get to finish watchingthe NAACP's candidate forum at
Reed Temple.
I know they had two, one atEbenezer AME Church and the
other at Reed Temple AME Church,and I was only able to view a
(04:21):
portion of the Reed Temple oneview, a portion of the Reed
Temple one.
But I'm going to go inalphabetical order and kind of
give my analysis.
So the first candidate,obviously alphabetical order by
last name, of course, is RashernBaker.
As you know, mr Baker has beena county executive for this
county before he came in in atumultuous time, kind of like
(04:45):
this one a little bit, but verydifferent times on the heels of
Jack Johnson and his entireadministration and we know how
that ended, and so it was a verydifficult time, dark time for
the county, a shadow, if youwill, of that administration and
(05:07):
the publicity that it gotnationwide because of the
recordings and how they werereleased by the public.
It was just total embarrassmentfor us.
But he came in and he actuallydid very well as county
executive in terms of creatingand instituting county stat to
(05:29):
bring more accountability andtransparency in our government
and how the county government isable to look at the needs of
each of the departments and thenmake a decision of where funds
should go to to deal with thosedepartments.
(05:50):
It was also under County ExecBaker that we broke out
permitting an inspection fromDepartment of Public Works and
Transportation it used to be onebig department that had a
permitting, enforcement andinspection department and the
(06:11):
public works and transportation.
So he broke that out and, Ibelieve, also broke out
Department of Environment aswell, environment as well, and
so now you know the Departmentof Environment deals with our
trash pickup and snow removaland all of that and DPW&T
(06:32):
actually I take that back DPW&Tdeals with the snow removal, but
because they handle all of theroadways, but Department of
Transportation I mean, excuse me, department of Environment
deals with the snow removal andall of the environmental impacts
that the county has impact howgovernment is efficient in that
(07:04):
regard for Prince George'sCounty, because we were still
operating under a quiteantiquated system.
The other thing that he did Iactually really, really liked
and still do like the personthat was our planning board
chair at the time, mr SamuelParker, and the reason that I
(07:25):
like him is because Mr Parkeractually has a degree in
planning, in urban planning anddesign and development, and so
they were doing some reallyunique things.
That has led to what our parksand planning department is doing
now, some of the things thatthey have instituted, not just
in parks and planning but inzoning.
(07:48):
And one of the things that theywere really doing was the
project.
Back then it was 2025, whichseems like it was a long long
time ago, or 2030.
It was either 2025 or 2035.
But when County Executive Baker, when Sharon Baker was County
Executive, they had this project2025.
(08:09):
And it was actually it wascalled Vision 2025.
And it was a long term planningthat they were undertaking and
it was a lot of work went intoit.
There were a lot of publicmeetings and I thought that was
good and the reason that Imentioned having Mr Parker as a
(08:34):
planning director and head ofthe planning board.
It was someone that understoodwhat zoning and development is
all about, and you guys knowfrom hearing me talk about
zoning and development.
It's really what drives theeconomic engine here in the
county and it helps either makeour quality of life very
(08:57):
miserable or very excited, andright now we are on the misery
side only because we have somuch townhouse development, so
much overdevelopment incommunities.
You know, every time there's apiece of land that's being sold,
it's sold to a developer andthe reason is is that you know
the heirs of the property.
(09:18):
If it's especially not owned bythe county, they're going to go
with the highest bidder.
If it's especially not owned bythe county, they're going to go
with the highest bidder and thehighest bidder is going to be a
developer and the developer isgoing to develop housing and we
just.
There's no way around it.
But what we can do is smartlydevelop how that community is
(09:43):
with the infrastructure thatneeds to be done.
Again, another whole, anotherstory, but I did like under the
Baker administration at thattime that he had Mr Parker as
the planning board chair and theplanning board seemed to
operate a little bit moreeffectively and efficiently.
One thing this county has to dois get rid of the ability of
the county council to be thedistrict council on zoning
(10:06):
matters.
Our county council has nobusiness, in my personal opinion
, deciding any zoning case.
It's not a single person, andif I was on the council that
would include me as well.
I don't know anything aboutzoning and land use development
and we get ram, you know, shotand run over by developers in
(10:31):
not only understanding andknowing the development laws but
keeping it as antiquated aspossible.
Again, another long story thatdeserves its own podcast episode
.
But Mr Baker did do thosethings.
Unfortunately, mr Baker was alittle late for our candidates
forum so he missed the firstround of questions.
(10:54):
Basically, I think we, theco-moderator, gave him one
question to be able to answer intwo minutes instead of doing
the two questions for the firstround, and so not really
counting that against him.
Obviously he had something elseprior to our candidates form,
(11:18):
but you know it made the sessiona little little awkward because
he didn't pull the numbers andwhat have you the session a
little little awkward because hedidn't pull the numbers and
what.
Have you not counting thatagainst him?
But what I will say is I doappreciate the fact that he's
been county executive before andthis is to fill a unexpired
(11:41):
term of the county executivefrom Angela also Brooks
administration unexpired term ofthe county executive from
Angela also Brooksadministration.
And so the fact that histagline is that he's ready day
one actually really is appealingto me.
You know he's ready day one.
We need somebody to come in andstep in.
(12:08):
I did have an opportunity toattend a private event for him
and, you know, ask the questionabout whether or not he was
planning to keep all of theadministrative heads in the
position that they are andwhether or not that would.
Wouldn't that keep thecontinuity of the county running
, and his answer was kind of yesand no.
(12:29):
If you will, I truly understandthat you have to have people
that you trust and you want tobe able to work with, but I
don't think that we need awholesale change in any of the
department heads right now.
Maybe after 2026, but right nowI don't think.
So I think we need kind of asteady hand and I'm hoping that
(12:53):
if he does win that he wouldkeep you know, not, definitely
not his inner staff.
You know he can bring in hisown chief of staff, his own, you
know, personal inner officestaff.
I expect any candidate thatwins to bring in their own
personal staff.
But I'm talking aboutdepartment heads, like the fire
chief, the police chief, therecommendation that you know
(13:16):
they make for school boardsuperintendent, which is he
makes the recommendation but theschool board votes on that
person.
I said police chief, fire chief, all the department heads, so
those he would have theopportunity to do that.
He did mention that he may takea look at a couple of positions
(13:38):
and potentially make somechanges, potentially make some
changes.
I didn't particularly again, Ifeel differently about that,
since we're completing anunexpired term, but I do
understand that.
You know you want people thatyou have trust in and people
(13:59):
that trust you.
So kind of understand that.
But anyway, so kind ofunderstand that.
(14:23):
But anywayoshan talked aboutdoing away with trim.
We've actually raised taxesunder his administration, which
was not done the proper way, ifyou will.
When I say it was, you know, aloophole in our tax policy in
Prince George's County, becausenormally when you have.
(14:47):
When you want to raise taxes,you actually have to put it to
the voters for a referendumunder TRIM, and that has not
been done I don't think ever.
Or if it has, it's definitelyfailed.
Nobody wants to pay more taxes.
We want you to use, be goodstewards of the money that we
give you and you do the best youcan with what we have and then
(15:13):
figure out ways to.
You know ways to raise revenuein the county and generally.
That issue has been is that wehave not been able to attract
the type of commercial tax basethat we have, and so one thing
that I do fault Richard Bakerand I actually asked him this
(15:35):
when I went to that personalevent was about Conterra, which
is, if any of you live in thenorthern part of the county, you
know exactly where I'm talkingabout in the Laurel area, right
off of that new toll road.
I guess it's not so new now.
I rarely use it, I'm rarely inthat portion of the county.
(15:58):
So Conterra was one of thefirst projects that he got
approved, and he told me that itwas the first project and it
came like six months within hisadministration and because he
was very new to the office.
He unfortunately bought HookLine and Sinker what they wanted
(16:20):
to propose and do, and they didnothing.
And unfortunately he proposedand got a TIF, which stands for
tax increment financing, whichmeans they bought the property,
bought the land and they're onlypaying.
They're paying property taxover extended period of time
incrementally and not the fulltech commercial tax that they
(16:44):
should be paying incrementallyand not the full tech commercial
tax that they should be paying,which is quite unfortunate
because we as taxpayers,particularly property taxpayers,
those who are homeowners wedon't get that kind of incentive
right.
We have to pay our taxes whendue, every year, no matter what,
or you know, there's a tax lienon your property.
So I appreciate having someincentives to help bring
(17:09):
commercial businesses to theoffice I mean to the county but
I don't particularly like taxtips, tax increment financing
for development projects andwhen I say development projects
I mean I'm talking aboutsomething other than just
(17:29):
housing.
You know Conterra's Conterrapromised a lot of stuff and they
developed nothing except forapartments.
The last time I drove by thereI just saw a bunch of empty land
, all the trees had been cut andit's a bunch of apartments.
Now I have noticed on theplanning board's website that
(17:52):
they are planning to make someprogress on their project, but
right now the only thing thatI've seen are apartments on the
property, our apartments on theproperty.
So I'm very disappointed andI'm very disappointed in the
fact that these developers getto pay their property tax over,
you know, 10, 20, 30 yearsincrementally.
(18:16):
And here we are sufferingbecause we have a budget deficit
, because we've got all theseTIF projects here in Prince
George's County that have notreally materialized.
The one that has materializedobviously has been National
Harbor.
So you know, we have theGaylord there, we have the
Gaylord Convention Center, wehave MGM, we have a lot that's
(18:40):
there.
That is one TIF project thatmade sense and that has
benefited the county as a greateconomic engine.
However, some of the otherprojects have not been on the
scale and scope of NationalHarbor and, in my opinion, do
not deserve a TIF.
So I kind of dinged Baker forthat because his administration
(19:06):
there were quite a few, conterowas just one and it happened to
be the first one.
Now he has told me he's learnedhis lesson from that, but that
remains to be seen.
So, moving on, because I'vespent way too much time on Baker
(19:31):
, and moving to Miss AishaBrayboy, who's our current
state's attorney.
Miss Brayboy, I will say she hassent out the most mail that I
have received so far from any ofthe other candidates.
Obviously, she has a biggertreasury to do so and, quite
frankly, I do think that shewill.
(19:52):
Because of that, she willprobably win this election.
You know, the adage is that youhave to touch voters seven
times.
So I've gotten at least sevenpieces of mail.
I think I've gotten a robocalland I've gotten some text
messages from her and, of course, she's participating in all of
(20:15):
the candidates' forum.
So you know she is campaigninglike you know you should if you
want to win, and so she's reallyspent a lot of money, put a lot
of money into to the campaign.
Now, it wasn't unexpected atleast not for me that she would
run for a county executive, notjust in the special election but
(20:39):
for 2026, I knew that she wasgoing to be one of the
candidates.
It's just a quote, unquotenatural progression, at least in
this county.
If you may remember, jackJohnson was state's attorney and
then became county executive.
Angela also Brooks was state'sattorney and became county
executive, and so Aisha isfollowing that same progression
(21:03):
in terms of moving up intohigher office, although she
started out as a delegate forthe 25th Legislative District
but nevertheless she steppedinto the current role that she's
in as state's attorney.
So let's talk about her role inthe state's attorney's office.
(21:29):
So I can only go and this isjust hearsay.
I can't validate anything abouthow she runs the office.
There have been some murmuringsand complaining by senior
prosecutors about how the officeis run and staffed and the
(21:51):
inexperience and theinefficiencies of the office,
and so that can kind of impactsome of the cases that you win
or lose, cases that you reallyprobably should have won, that
you didn't win, and so therehave been some rumblings about
that.
(22:11):
So I'll just kind of say thatbecause, again, that's just
hearsay.
I have not looked into any ofthat.
But what I have noticed is thatMiss Brave Boy kind of puts her
finger up to the political windto see how, where the populist
(22:34):
attitude or persuasion is andkind of goes with the flow of
that.
And what I mean by that is.
So during the pandemic anddirectly after George Floyd,
there was this big push to doaway with cash, bail and the
(22:55):
unfairness of it all, and I getthe arguments on both sides.
I get the arguments on bothsides, arguments on both sides.
And so there was this big pushto do away with cash bail.
Because you know if you, if youare, if you can't afford the
(23:16):
bail, the cash bail, then youknow you have to spend a night
in jail and you miss work andthen you can get fired.
And you know our justice systemjust needs a total overhaul,
actually actually in the UnitedStates, but again that's for
another podcast.
But Ms Brave Boy fell into thatsame political wind, sticking
up your finger and saying, ohyeah, we're not going to do cash
(23:39):
bail in Prince George's County.
And what that did was, as wealso know, what happened during
the pandemic, and just acrossthe nation there was a spike in
crime and particularly juveniledelinquency and juvenile crime.
And so you had all these.
You know teens, you knowcarjacking, you know stealing,
(24:02):
you know just doing awful, awfulthings.
And then they were because ofthe cashless bail system and
even so they were underage.
So the juvenile delinquencypart also plays a part in that.
But they were let go and thenthey would do the same thing
over again.
It was a joke for the kids,no-transcript, and there was a
(24:47):
lot of repeat offenders.
And again, the kids justthought it was a joke.
They were stealing the Kias andstill are, in fact, stealing
the Kias, and they get theseTikTok challenges and they just
think it's a game.
Okay, well, I can steal five,you know, five kids in a week.
I can still, whatever you know,and boast about it.
(25:09):
And so some of those juveniledelinquents really needed, in my
personal opinion, needed tostay in jail and then feel what
it feels like to be isolated andcaged up like an animal.
Feels like to be isolated andcaged up like an animal and
maybe they think twice aboutdoing it again.
(25:29):
But because we didn't have thecash bail system that allowed
them to continue to be released.
And you know, back out on thestreets, and I even heard some
of the police officers say to usin some community meetings
either our coffee clubs meetingsor roundtable meetings that you
(25:50):
know, one teen told them likeI'll be out and back home before
you get off today.
Oversight, in the sense enoughand the knowledge to know that
they can, you know, get home, beout of jail and be back home
before the police officer is offtheir shift.
Then no, they needed to spendsome time.
(26:18):
They needed to spend some timein jail just to prove them
otherwise and maybe shake themup a little bit.
So I do ping her for that.
I also ping her.
She sided with thensuperintendent, school
superintendent Monica Golson, onremoving some of the resource
officers out of the schools.
And we know that parents sendtheir schools, children to
(26:40):
school, with the expectation ofsafety, that their children
going to be safe, that they'regoing to go, come home and be
able to go back and it's,there's not going to be an issue
.
And we know that.
You know.
You know they're teens, theyoung kids, you know they can't
control their emotions sometimesand they, you know, fights
(27:00):
break out, this, that and theother.
And I would rather have theschool resources officers there,
not for necessarily arrestingpowers but for them to have and
learn to have a goodrelationship with a healthy
relationship, I should say, withthe police department and that
they know that the officers arereally there for them to protect
(27:22):
and serve, as all policeagencies are supposed to do.
But particularly in PrinceGeorge's County, you know a
predominantly African-Americancounty and you have probably a
predominantly African-Americanpolice force, although we do
have quite a few, even in thecommand and in some of the
(27:42):
command staff we do have quite afew officers that are not
African-American, and so I thinkit's better to actually have
them there, to have thatpresence, to have them there as
seen as a protector and somebodywho's serving, as opposed to
somebody that is alwaysarresting but they can dis.
(28:06):
You know, quiet any uproars orany whatever is willingness to
(28:26):
remove officers from our schoolsystem.
And so and Angela also Brooks,when she was county press
(28:47):
conference dealing with this,the juvenile delinquency, and
then vice versa, and so thestate's attorney, aisha, had to
have her own press conference,and so there was this kind of
dueling back and forth aboutwhether or not the school
resources officers should remainin the school system, and Aisha
kind of sided with the or shesupported the idea that Monica
(29:11):
Golsan was saying at the time toremove some of the resource
officers, and again that wasthat kind of political shift
Again.
Remember, this is all duringthe Black Lives Matter, george
Floyd, all of that upheaval, andpeople were really looking at
how to do policing differently,and so it was more of again
(29:35):
sticking your finger in thepolitical wind.
And what is everybody saying?
And I'm going to go with whateverybody's saying, as opposed
to taking a real hard look atwhat's going on in Prince
George's County, prince George'sCounty schools and whether or
not our juvenile justice systemmay need to look a little
differently.
But right at that ship and hasbeen sailing fairly smoothly
(30:05):
since then.
But those were some misstepsthat I do ping her for on that.
The next person alphabeticallyis Marcellus Cruz.
I am not going to spend toomuch time on Mr Cruz because I
know nothing about him.
Unfortunately he left thecandidates forum a little early.
(30:26):
I think he went through thefirst round of questions and he
did answer the question from theteam, but what I picked up
immediately from him is that henever answered the questions.
(30:46):
He always talked about what thecounty needs, what we need,
what we need, what we need is henever gave us his plan, his
thought out, articulated plan ofwhat he would do as county
executive to address those needs, and so, because of that,
definitely ruling him out.
(31:08):
Anytime you hear a candidatethat ask a question or, excuse
me, answers a question withsaying, repeating what the
question is and saying what weneed, but not saying what he
individually or she individuallywill do what's your plan?
That is a clear, clear, clearanswer that that person has not
(31:33):
thought out a plan very well, atleast be able to articulate it
in you know, one or two minuteresponse and not just say you
know, go to my website, thatkind of stuff, although I don't
even.
He may have said go to hiswebsite, but he did not answer
any question with his own plan,as asked.
(31:55):
The question specifically askedwhat are your plans, what are
your initiatives, what are yougoing to do?
He never answered them,indicating what his plans were.
So that was Mr Cruz.
The next person is Mr CalvinHawkins, who currently serves as
our at-large on the countycouncil.
(32:17):
Now, before any of this, youknow the possibility of Angela
winning and before you know, Ithink Ben Cardin even knew that.
We knew that Ben Cardin wouldresign.
Again, you kind of heard somerumblings about who was going to
run for county executive.
Calvin's name has always beenin the conversation, as well as
(32:40):
Aisha.
I think those definitely arethe two that have always been in
the conversation, as well asAisha.
I think those definitely arethe two that have always been in
the conversation and of thosetwo, if you would have asked me
way back then, I was actuallyleaning towards Calvin, and this
is one of the reasons whyCalvin reminds me of someone
almost like a Mary and Barry.
(33:02):
You know just a little bit.
He actually, you know, eventhough he was raised and grew up
in the Glass Manor area of OxonHill.
You know, his family roots aredefinitely DC, southeast DC, and
he actually, what I havelearned about him, he actually
(33:22):
worked in DC government and soin a particularly during that
Marion Barry administration, andI think he learned the craft of
, you know, being what he callshimself the people's champ.
I think he actually learned howto do that by the observation
(33:42):
of that administration and hewould be, and definitely has
been, a voice for the smallpeople, the least of these, as
we call them, people that areeither down on their luck or
what have you.
He's definitely been that voicefor the people.
In some of the initiatives thathe's done have been for people
(34:05):
that you know needed a secondchance, people that are again,
like I said, down on their luck,if you will, you know.
Just, you know always peoplethat need a hand up.
I think that's good.
What scares me about Calvin isthat not only did he get the
(34:26):
endorsement of Angela, but thepeople in the machinery behind
Angela are also the people inmachinery behind Calvin and if
you look really closely, that'sreally the development community
.
And if you look at his recordon the county council, he is
(34:52):
always sided with thedevelopment community and that's
what.
That's what scares me a littlebit, that basically his
administration would be acontinuation.
And he's actually.
He actually said this, you know, he proudly likes the fact that
he's been endorsed by Angelaand he proudly, you know, says
that.
You know he'll continue some ofthe things that she's done and
(35:19):
some of the things that Iactually like.
And I'll give a very goodexample.
I love, love, loved her ideaand program of.
Let's face it, the Washingtoncommanders are leaving Prince
George's County in 2028.
And what are we going to dowith that piece of land land?
(35:47):
Now, the good thing is is thatGovernor Westmore has already
endorsed allowing the commandersto move forward with returning
to DC in exchange for somethings, and one of the things
that Prince George's will getout of it is a redevelopment of
the FedEx field site.
And then county executive alsoBrooks had this whole big
redevelopment of the blue lineMorgan Boulevard station,
(36:10):
bringing an amphitheater,outdoor amphitheater there, some
other arts things as well asyou know, development in terms
of residential.
But her idea and keeping that,I would love to see that happen
for that area of Landover, ofFedEx Field, of Morgan Boulevard
(36:32):
Station.
So if he continues that, Iwould love, love, love that.
What scares me, as I said, isthat that development community
is going to support him and ofcourse he'll have to deliver
from the development communitythe same stuff that we've been
getting here in Prince George'sCounty, and so I don't like that
(36:54):
.
About Calvin is that thedevelopment community loves him
and they will expect him toendorse anything that they they
want, any projects that theywant to bring.
That includes mostlyresidential, either townhouses
or single family development,and usually what comes with that
(37:16):
is very little, if any,infrastructure improvements.
So I kind of ding him on that.
But that's just some of myanalysis.
Mr Ron Hunt.
Now you guys, I had not seen MrHunt in action because he
wasn't on the ABC7 televiseddebate and the little bit that I
(37:39):
saw of the NAACP forum.
I had not gotten to hisquestions and response.
Needless to say, he was acharacter.
He is the former owner ofseveral nightclubs in DC.
(38:01):
Is the former owner of severalnightclubs in DC.
For those of you who are oldenough and again, I usually do
this podcast for millennials andyounger, so you would not know
about Chapter 7, chapter 3, Idon't know Chapter 1, 2, 3.
I don't know how many chapterclubs he's had and some other
(38:23):
nightclubs he's had in DC, butapparently they were very
popular and he did very welluntil the baseball stadium came,
and basically's all I reallyknow.
So I, you know, I had to kindof judge him on the form that we
moderated and you just have togo back and watch it for
(38:55):
yourself.
I'll just I'll say that youhave to go back and watch it for
yourself.
But one of the questions, thespecific question on the
competency, it was very clearthat he knew more about how DC
government operates than PrinceGeorge's County government
operates and for that I was likenope, that's not the guy for us
(39:15):
.
Because if, if you only knowhow DC government operates and
you don't understand the officethat you're running for and how
that department and how thatgovernment operates, then maybe
this is not the position for you.
He did raise his hand at theend.
We did a couple of yes and noquestions at the end, just just
(39:36):
for a bonus, just to see howpeople would respond by show of
hands.
He did raise his hand to saythat when lose or draw he would
run again in 2026.
So we'll see what happens there.
But clearly he needs to do alittle bit more homework about
how Prince George's Countyoperates, how Prince George's
(39:58):
County government and what theroles of the county executive,
because clearly he was not ableto answer that question.
So moving on, mr McDermott.
Mr George McDermott was our onlyRepublican that actually showed
up.
We actually had all at the timeof the filing date.
(40:21):
All 11 candidates had agreed toattend.
So there was another Republicancandidate and his name is
escaping me right now, butGeorge McDermott was the one
that did show up.
He, I believe, said he was 83years old.
What was surprising to me thathe said was he likened county
(40:45):
government to a corporation.
He said the county executive isthe CEO, the county council is
the board of directors.
He didn't say this, but I'massuming that he assumes that
(41:05):
all the taxpayers areshareholders in the county.
But the fact that he wanted toequate how to run a county like
you run a business, I can seethe parallelism there.
There, however, I cannotnecessarily agree that you have
(41:28):
to exactly run it that way,because in a business the
shareholders mainly want areturn on investment, whereas in
a jurisdiction people are justtalking about quality of life
issues.
They want their tax dollarsspent wisely, they want
everything done accordingly andthere to be transparency and to
(41:52):
get the services that they payfor.
So that's the difference.
The parallel kind of breaksaway once you talk about who the
quote unquote shareholders areversus who the taxpayers and
homeowners and the people, theresidents who actually live
(42:13):
there.
Because the company which isthe county, if you will, has to,
you know, provide certainservices and there are services
that are expected, whether it'seducation, whether it's public
safety, whether it's roads,whether it's school construction
.
So you can't make that parallel.
But I didn't hear him per seExcuse me I didn't hear him,
(42:43):
like Mr Cruz, provide any realplans that he would do as county
executive.
So I'm not going to spend muchtime on him.
You know I'm a registeredDemocrat so he wouldn't even be
on my ballot.
So if you are a registeredRepublican, I think you have two
(43:05):
persons, you can two or threepersons you can choose from and
you can kind of do the researchon Mr McDermott.
But I do applaud him and thankhim for attending and coming and
sharing his viewpoints.
What I will say is what themillennials and everybody
younger would say, just as theysaid of Biden and said of Trump
(43:28):
I just think he might be alittle too old and it's time to
you know.
You know, I think he actuallysaid he's 83 years old it's time
for someone new, some new blood, some new direction.
So, anyway, that was MrMcDermott, mr Albert Slocum.
(43:52):
Mr Slocum is a fairly goodfriend of mine and he, when I
was running in the specialelection for county council, he
supported me and was helping meout and I actually thought that
he was going to run and he hadnot actually thought.
He told me and asked me tosupport him for District 5
(44:13):
county council to replace theseat that Jolene Ivey gave up to
run for the at-large position,gave up to run for the at-large
position, and so there wereseveral people that wanted me to
support them for the District 5race that's also going on right
now in terms of this specialelection, and I said I was going
(44:34):
to support him.
So I was really surprised whenhe texted me saying that he's
going to run for countyexecutive.
I said I thought you said youwere going to run for district
five county council, and he'slike no, the time is now and we
need some new direction, this,that and the other.
So I could not commit to him,just like I didn't commit to
(44:55):
really anyone until after I hadyou know.
I knew we were going to havethis candidate's form, so I
wasn't committing to anyone.
I would have committed to, as Ihad mentioned him, to run for
District 5 County Council.
But his performance was a littlelackluster in the sense that on
(45:21):
the competency question, thaton the competency question, he
didn't know what the county'sclimate action plan was, and so
people, it was clear that hedidn't know, and he was kind of
looking for me because I was theone that posed a question to
him, and so he was looking forme to kind of give him some
direction, and I basically justsaid I can't help you.
(45:42):
You either know what the countyclimate action plan is or you
don't.
And the question was for him todescribe it and how he would
implement it.
And so that spoke volumes to me.
To me again, the competencyquestions were really good
(46:02):
because they really said whetheryou know the office that you're
trying to to to run for theposition that you're trying to
run for, and so also hisresponses to the team questions,
(46:24):
to direct questions, some ofthe initial questions.
He was kind of like MarcellusCruz in the sense that he talked
about what the county needed,as opposed to some action plan
that he would have.
And so I was.
Again, I'm always weary ofcandidates that can identify the
problem.
Everybody that lives in PrinceGeorge's County can identify the
problems.
But can you do you have a plan,do you have actionable items
(46:48):
that you could try to implementin order to address those needs?
And I didn't see that hisanswers were responsive in that
regard.
So that was Mr Slocum, ms Sweat,ms Tonyanya Sweat.
She lives down in South County,in Ackieke down here, so I'm
(47:08):
very familiar with Ms Sweat.
She's an attorney.
She actually was an attorney inthe federal government in some
capacity, I don't know exactly.
You can go to a website and getthat information.
She has run for countyexecutive before, so hats off to
her.
She just didn't up and throwher name in.
(47:28):
She has run before.
She's never really gottentraction outside of the southern
part of county.
She's kind of like me Peopleknow her locally here, but
getting her name out in otherparts has been a little
difficult, with the exception ofher being a big advocate and
attorney for the volunteerfirefighters, I should say the
(47:52):
volunteer firefighters you knowhave been dealing with issues in
terms of how to continue tointegrate and use them.
I think we're the only countythat still heavily relies on the
volunteers, but we're movingmore and more away from
volunteers to have professionalfirefighters.
(48:15):
Now, with a county with almosta million people and I'm sure
we've probably reached a millionnow, the way we're growing like
gangbusters with all thesetownhomes, we really do need
professional firefighters tocover the entire county.
Yes, I love our volunteers,anybody that wants to do
anything for free.
You're not going to hear anyopposition from me on that, but
(48:42):
Tanya represents them legally,so I think she may have some
support in maybe the northernand central portions of the
volunteer corps that live inthat area, but unfortunately the
majority, especially in thesouthern part of Prince George's
County, the majority of them donot live in Prince George's
County and they do not vote andwould not be able to vote for
(49:05):
her.
They live in Charles County andother parts of outside of
Prince George's County, so I'mnot using that as an argument of
not supporting her her.
(49:30):
I think Tanya brings a differentperspective of how government
works and how government oughtto work in Prince George's
County.
That would be refreshing.
And she brings a knowledge basethat also will be refreshing.
Unfortunately, the knowledgebase and how government works
and I would even get pinged forthis now because it's heavily
(49:50):
reliant upon being a goodpartner with the federal
government and unfortunatelywe're not going to have a in
under this currentadministration the fact is is
we're not going to have a goodworking relationship with the
federal government under thisadministration.
The fact is is we're not goingto have a good working
relationship with the federalgovernment under this
administration.
So you know the things that Ieven said when I was on the
campaign trail for the at-largeposition, because I said one of
(50:13):
the things that I said about thebudget is that we don't do a
good job in the county ofaccessing federal tax dollars.
The county of accessing federaltax dollars.
Well, guess what, we're notgoing to have that in Prince
George's County just because ofthis administration.
So, while it's a good idea andI wholeheartedly agree with some
(50:35):
of that federal perspectiveit's just this is not the time.
This, this is not the time.
Under the current administrationfederal administration Prince
George's County is not going toget any help and so we're going
to have to do.
We're going to have to do whatwe can with the resources we
(50:56):
have and unfortunately thereweren't a lot of questions.
Um, unfortunately there weren'ta lot of questions to her, at
least about the budget and howshe would implement.
I have to kind of go back andlisten, but I know had some well
(51:28):
thought out plans about what todo specifically with public
safety and, again, thefirefighters and how to use our
volunteer corps, and I thoughtthat was very well answered.
There were some other thingsthat stood out, but if the
reliance is going to be on thefederal government, prince
George's County can hang it upbecause we're not going to,
we're not going to get it.
I don't even think the FBI willnow come to Prince George's
(51:52):
County as a result of who wehave in office and they'll try
to cancel the contracts andcancel the awards and all of
those other things.
So, yeah, I would like to seesomething a little bit more
local that she would like toimplement that could help us
(52:14):
outside of the public safety andthe firefighters.
I thought again.
She's spot on on that and Ithink she would continue to be a
good advocate for that.
But you know Prince George'sCounty, we've got a whole
plethora of issues, and so I'dlike to see her launch a
(52:38):
campaign in 2026 and see wherethings stand in 2026, and not
this little interim piece.
And not this little interimpiece.
She didn't raise her hand,though, when we asked whether or
not you win, lose or draw,would you run in 2026.
She didn't raise her hand.
So I think she thought thatthis would be a good opportunity
(53:00):
to get in and fill in.
The only problem with fillingin an uncompleted term is that
you kind of got to buy in withwhat you have there.
I don't know that she has a lotof contacts within the county
to really implement some of thethings that she wants in just
(53:22):
this remainder of what we haveleft in this county executive
term.
So you know, some of the thingsthat she would probably want to
implement would not.
She couldn't do it.
In other words, in the lessthan two years that are
remaining in the term, she wouldneed a full-fledged four years
(53:44):
in order to accomplish what sheproposes, and so I was a bit
surprised that she didn't raiseher hand.
I think she should run again in2026 and try to flush out and
implement her full vision forthe county, and it's just not
(54:07):
going to happen in two years andit's not going to happen with
the federal administration thatwe have right now.
So that was Ms Sweat.
And then the last person is alsoa breath of fresh air, mr
Alonzo Washington.
Now, when I found out, I was alittle surprised, because I
found out that he was possiblygoing to run for the at-large
(54:27):
seat, but he never did.
But he did put his hat in forthe county executive and I love
Alonzo Washington.
He's a state senator.
He was a delegate first andthen became state senator.
Loved him for the bills that hehas put forward, particularly
(54:48):
towards children, education andso forth.
I've actually gone to Annapolisand testified in support of
several of his bills on a coupleof occasions as a senator, and
so I think he has very goodcommon sense legislation.
I do think it's time for somenew leadership, even though he's
(55:10):
technically in leadership inthe sense that he's already in
office.
He's, you know, like I said, hewas a delegate and now he's a
state senator.
I think he does a very good jobthere.
He answered the questions youknow fairly well.
Unfortunately he also had toleave a little early, I think
he's well.
(55:30):
No, he stayed pretty muchthrough.
I take that back.
He pretty much stayed throughthe entire time.
There was, you know, a fewlittle questions at the end, the
yes or no questions, raisinghand kind of thing.
He was not there, for he has atwo-year-old and so he wanted to
make sure he's home to see thetwo-year-old to bed and I
(55:53):
thought that was so sweet.
But he answered the questionsvery well.
I thought his workforcedevelopment.
I remember asking a questionabout Prince George's Community
College and workforcedevelopment and I thought he had
a well thought out plan forthat.
He too was a person that hadwell thought out positions and I
(56:16):
think when someone first askedme about the county executive, I
said I'm taking a really closelook at Alonzo Washington and I
really I still really am and Ithought he had thought out plans
in terms of what to do with andhow to continue to give the
teens the support that theyneeded in terms of cultural,
(56:38):
recreational and educationalopportunities, and so that
question was answered reallywell by him.
I can't remember the firstquestion that was posed to him
in the first round, but the onesthat he did answer that I can
kind of the top candidates, ormaybe even three Well, I'm just
(57:16):
going to stick with two rightnow Would be Alonzo Washington
and Rashawn Baker.
I spent way more time onRashawn than I did Alonzo,
because Rashard has a trackrecord that you can kind of go
back and look and see.
But at the end of the day,because this is a special
election to complete anunfinished term, I do agree that
(57:44):
we need experience and we needsomebody to come in day one.
What I'm hoping is that bakerdoes not try to do this
wholesale, wholesale change.
I hope he's learned his lesson,because one of the questions
that the team asked was what washis biggest mistake?
(58:05):
And his biggest mistakes, hesaid, was working with the
council and the lack ofcommunications.
Now, that wasn't really hisbiggest mistakes.
His really biggest mistakes wasnot listening to the people
when we told you we didn't wantour taxes raised.
And his other biggest mistakewas, you know, giving out tax
(58:25):
increment financing.
You know, if you wanted toraise taxes, then maybe you
shouldn't have done taxincrement financing for a lot of
these projects that youapproved that never came to
fruition, versus putting it onthe backs of homeowners and
taxpayers.
So I'm hoping that he reallylearned from that.
(58:46):
He didn't.
I did not see him raise hishand, but I know that he said in
the personal event that I wentto that he probably is going to
run in 2026 as well.
I think he would be good to fillthis unfulfilled term, but then
(59:08):
that's about it.
I'm ready for somebody new.
I'm ready for somebody somefresh perspective, fresh ideas,
not a return to hisadministration Only because I'm
not sure that he has any freshideas.
I think he would kind ofcontinue where he left off, and
some of what he left off was notyou know all that.
(59:30):
That palatable People also kindof fault him for the golden
parachute, for the and I meanthe superintendent who ran, the
superintendent who left Maxwellthat's who it is.
His name was not coming to meand you know appointing him and
(01:00:03):
you know all of the things thatwent on with Superintendent
Maxwell.
So I kind of hold my nose.
Hold my nose if I guess, if Ihad, if I thought that Alonzo
was really, really ready.
I look at Alonzo a little bitlike Tonya I want him to run in
2026.
I'd like to see a full-fledgedcampaign.
You know one.
He's a senator, so he's insession right now.
(01:00:24):
He I don't even know how he hastime to even run and be in
Annapolis.
So I would like to see him runagain in 2026 because he was one
of my top favorites.
My top three would be Richard,would be Alonzo, and then
(01:00:47):
probably Calvin.
And some people say, well,tamara, why would you support
Calvin?
And Calvin, you know, supportedlegislation that gerrymandered
you out of, would havegerrymandered you out of the
district, but for a court case.
And you know I don't, I don'thold any grudges and I think
that's why I'm not in office now.
I don't play politics, I'm justkind of clean and dry.
(01:01:09):
You know, run, you win, youdon't.
You know I'm not trying to playpolitical favors and so you
know he did what he did, and notso much that I don't forgive
him or anything like that.
You know it's it's a littlestain in the back of my brain,
but you know, for me it's justpolitics.
(01:01:31):
It's like, okay, yeah, you didthat and I'm I'm not going to
necessarily hold that againstyou.
You.
You were, you know, playingpolitics.
What concerns me most aboutCalvin is is the relationship
with the developers, and that'swhat I'm concerned about.
But I like the fact that he isthat people's champ.
(01:01:54):
I think he will hear the peopleand will try to respond, but I
hope that he will also, you know, have a plan of his own.
So I kind of look for for thosepersons, um, to run again and
to see if we can lead the countyin a better direction.
(01:02:17):
But right now we just need kindof a steady hand, somebody
that's experienced, that knowswhat they're doing, to come in
day one and move forward, and sothat's why I have leaned
towards Baker.
So that's where I landed now.
(01:02:39):
This episode.
I apologize now for all theverbal litters, the ums, the
stops to start.
This is what I could give youright now, because early voting
starts this Wednesday February26th through Monday March 3rd
and special election day isTuesday March 4th 2025.
(01:03:02):
And so I wanted to get this out, as I promised people.
We love you, we thank you forlistening and tuning in and
happy special election voting.
Go out and vote.
Whoever you, whoever you votefor, whether you agree with me
or not, go out and vote.
It's important.
Thanks so much for listening to.
(01:03:22):
All Politics is Local with meyour host Tamara Davis-Brown.
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