As a general rule, I recommend going to check out Vote411.org/Maryland, the League of Women Voters sends surveys to all the candidates asking about key issues pertinent to their position. They don’t endorse, they just pass on the answers.
For Montgomery County, the most contested election is school board. Here’s a background piece on the school boundaries dispute. I come to this as a child of Montgomery County schools, well served by a magnet program at a majority minority East county school (Montgomery Blair). I think the approach to addressing overcrowding and segregation taken by the current board make sense. Unfortunately, we still use a jungle primary system, rather than ranked voting, so if you feel similarly it probably makes sense to vote for one of the front runner candidates for that approach. Here’s Dan on the two:
Sunil Dasgupta of Rockville is a political science professor at UMBC and former PTA president who emphasizes student mental health and reducing class sizes, and wrote a seven-part series looking at the politics of school boundaries. Dasgupta has endorsements from the teachers’ union, Progressive Maryland, and SEIU Local 500, county councilmembers Sidney Katz and Hans Riemer, and YIMBY MoCo.
Lynne Harris of Silver Spring is a teacher at Edison High School, a longtime PTA parent, and a former president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs whose platform includes increasing access to advanced classes for students of color. Harris has support from County Executive Marc Elrich and councilmembers Evan Glass and Gabe Albornoz, Ananya Tadikonda, the former student school board member, and YIMBY MoCo. [She subsequently got the endorsement of the Post and Silver Chips]
I’ve heard good things from advocates for Harris and Dasgupta and respect endorsers on both sides. They both have pretty good websites linked above, I haven’t followed the race that closely, so I’ll just point you again to Vote411.org/Maryland and Equity Questionnaire that Dan Reed links to in a subsequent post.
For delegates, you can always go with supporters of your favorite candidate + neighbors/electeds that you like. I tend to use whether they answered the League survey as a tie breaker. Hint hint candidates!
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