By Adam Pagnucco.
We’ve been putting up a lot of videos lately but this is one of our favorites. At the risk of annoying Shnider’s wife, try calling him on the number he lists and see if he answers!
Tag Archives: Ben Shnider
Campaign Finance Reports: Council Districts, May 2018
By Adam Pagnucco.
Today we look at fundraising by the Council District candidates. As with our prior posts on the County Executive and Council At-Large races, we start with a note on methodology. First, we calculate total raised and total spent across the entire cycle and not just over the course of one report period. Second, we separate self-funding from funds raised from others. Self-funding includes money from spouses. Third, for publicly financed candidates, we include public matching fund distributions that have been requested but not deposited in raised money and in the column entitled “Cash Balance With Requested Public Contributions.” That gives you a better idea of the true financial position of publicly financed campaigns.
Let’s start with the Council District 1 candidates.
Former Comptroller staffer Andrew Friedson is easily the fundraising leader. His total raised for the cycle ($333,081) exceeds any of the Council At-Large candidates and his cash on hand ($245,290) almost equals the cash on hand of the next three candidates combined ($251,205). Friedson has raised $159,257 from individuals in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Glen Echo, Cabin John, Kensington, Potomac and Poolesville, which represents 48% of his take. That amount is not very different from the TOTAL fundraising from others reported by former Kensington Mayor Pete Fosselman ($174,996) and former Planning Board Member Meredith Wellington ($138,820). Of Friedson’s 1,074 contributions, 702 were for $150 or less.
The endorsement leader in District 1 is Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez, who has the support of MCEA, Casa in Action, SEIU Locals 500 and 32BJ, Progressive Maryland and MCGEO. But Gutierrez’s main base of voters is Wheaton, which is not in the district, and she does not have a lot of money for mail. Friedson got a big boost when the Post endorsed him.
Reggie Oldak faces a cash crunch at the end because of her decision to participate in public financing. Unlike Friedson, Fosselman or Wellington, she can’t get big corporate or self-financed checks to catch up late and she has already received the maximum public matching funds available ($125,000). District 1 has by far more Democratic voters than any other district and past candidates, like incumbent Roger Berliner and former incumbent Howie Denis, raised comparable amounts to the at-large candidates. The next County Council should consider whether to adjust the matching funds cap to avoid handicapping future District 1 candidates who enroll in public financing.
Now let’s look at the Council District 3 candidates.
Incumbent Sidney Katz and challenger Ben Shnider have raised comparable amounts for the cycle. But Shnider’s burn rate has been much higher (partly driven by early mail) and Katz has more than twice his cash on hand.
Katz’s strength is not simply his incumbency but the fact that he has been a county or municipal elected official in the district longer than Shnider has been alive. That shows up in their fundraising. Katz is in public financing and recently announced that he will receive the maximum public matching funds contribution of $125,000. Of Shnider’s $199,454 total raised, just $14,639 (7%) came from individuals in Rockville, Gaithersburg, Washington Grove, Derwood and zip codes 20878 and 20906. That is a huge gap in starting indigenous support that Shnider has to close.
Here are the summaries for Council Districts 2, 4 and 5.
Council District 5 challenger Kevin Harris qualified for public matching funds so he can send mail against incumbent Tom Hucker. But we expect Hucker and his fellow council incumbents, Craig Rice and Nancy Navarro, to be reelected.
The Progressives’ Big Gamble
By Adam Pagnucco.
One of the more remarkable things occurring in MoCo this cycle is the snowballing of progressive groups around District 3 County Council challenger Ben Shnider. Just look at our latest endorsement chart. Shnider, who was virtually unknown a year ago, has collected about as many progressive endorsements as much better known politicians like Council Members Hans Riemer and Nancy Navarro, Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez (running for Council District 1) and Council At-Large candidate Will Jawando. That’s a challenge for Shnider’s opponent, incumbent Council Member Sidney Katz, but it’s a challenge for the progressive groups too.
Sidney Katz is an odd target for progressives – and basically anyone else. Consider this: he has been an elected official at the municipal or county levels for forty years and no one dislikes him. Generations of Gaithersburg residents think of him as Dad, an uncle or Grandpa. No one would paint him as a conservative – for Heaven’s sake, he voted for a nine percent property tax hike along with the rest of the council two years ago. He has also voted for nearly every other progressive initiative passed by the council, including more school funding, more non-profit support, bills establishing sick leave and parental leave and almost everything else.
But there is one glaring exception: Katz was one of four Council Members who voted against the 2016 minimum wage bill which was then vetoed by County Executive Ike Leggett. That bill had incredible symbolic importance for many of MoCo’s liberal groups, who viewed it as a litmus test for determining which elected officials were true progressives. Katz’s efforts to forge a compromise and get a different version of the bill passed later did not mollify the left. For them, the damage was done. And someone’s head had to roll. But whose?
Four Council Members – Katz, Roger Berliner, Nancy Floreen and Craig Rice – voted against the first bill and Leggett vetoed it. Leggett and Floreen are term-limited and retiring. Rice has only token opposition in his Democratic primary. Berliner is running for Executive, an election in which progressive groups would be aligned with minimum wage lead-sponsor Marc Elrich regardless of the bill vote. That left Katz, the only opponent of the original bill against whom the left had a clear shot. And in Ben Shnider, the left has a challenger who is appealing, smart, hard-working, experienced in campaigns and an unquestioned progressive.
SEIU Local 500, a lead player in advocating for minimum wage hikes at the state and county levels, was the first major progressive group to endorse Shnider. Many more followed, including SEIU Locals 32BJ (janitors) and 1199 (health care), Progressive Maryland, the Laborers, Casa in Action, the teachers and more. The Sierra Club’s endorsement of Shnider was probably connected to another vote of Katz’s, this time against a bill banning pesticides. Katz is supported by the police and fire fighters unions, the volunteer fire fighters and the apartment and office building owners. MCGEO is the largest progressive group to not yet weigh in.
Shnider pressures Katz on the minimum wage bill.
Knocking off an incumbent is not easy. Indeed, only one Democratic district council incumbent has been defeated since the County Council’s current structure was established in 1990 and that happened twenty years ago. In the last six times that a Democratic district council incumbent was challenged, the incumbent won by 50 or more points five times.
Ben Shnider has nothing to lose by challenging Katz. He is running a tremendous campaign and has built great relationships with the left and the smart growth community. If he loses, he could very well come back to win another election as so many other MoCo politicians have. Win or lose, Shnider will be just fine.
But what about these progressive groups? The fact that so many of them have endorsed Shnider has MoCo’s political community watching this race – especially the county’s elected officials. The left will have many priorities in the next term and some will cost serious money and political capital. If these groups actually knock off Katz – or come close – then no one will want to run afoul of them in the future. But if they do nothing other than allow Shnider to use their logos and Katz wins big, they will look weak. Other elected officials will think, “They can’t hurt me so I can do what I want.” Let’s remember that for most politicians, the main thing on their minds is ALWAYS whether a group can help them or hurt them. If you can’t do either, you just don’t matter.
The progressives are making a big gamble by targeting Sidney Katz. For their sake, it better pay off.
MoCo Endorsements: March 9, 2018
By Adam Pagnucco.
We have entered the thick of endorsement season and a big one just came out: a partial decision by MCEA, holder of the mighty Apple Ballot. We have updated our institutional endorsement matrix and offer some comments below.
First, a note. Many of the listed endorsing organizations have not finished their processes and may be announcing more decisions in the future. Other important organizations (like the Washington Post, the Realtors and the Volunteer Fire Fighters) have not endorsed yet at all. So this list is a work in progress.
That said, here are a few impressions.
Senator Roger Manno, who might be the most pro-union member of the entire General Assembly, is sweeping labor endorsements in his run for Congress District 6. How far will that take him against Delegate Aruna Miller and Total Wine co-owner David Trone?
Council Member Marc Elrich, who is running for Executive, has put together an impressive string of progressive endorsements and he will be getting more of them. He is definitely the favored Executive candidate of the left.
Ben Shnider, who is challenging District 3 County Council candidate Sidney Katz, has also become a darling of the left. Will that be enough to take out Katz, who has been the most prominent politician in Gaithersburg for decades? We will have an opinion on that in the near future.
Will Jawando, who is running for Council At-Large, has had a great six weeks. He is the only non-incumbent who has assembled four influential institutional endorsements, including the Apple. (Chris Wilhelm has three and Danielle Meitiv and Brandy Brooks have two each.) Combine that with Jawando’s fundraising success, electoral experience and natural charisma and he is looking strong right now.
The good news for Delegate Jeff Waldstreicher, who is running for the District 18 Senate seat being vacated by Rich Madaleno, is that he is dominating the institutional endorsements over Dana Beyer and Michelle Carhart. The bad news is that his dispute with House candidate Helga Luest is escalating. Women are 60% of MoCo Democrats and this is a particularly bad cycle to run afoul of them.
While MCEA has made some county-level endorsements, it has postponed its decision on the incumbents (except for Sidney Katz). The teachers are unhappy with recent MCPS budget decisions made by the County Council, especially with the breaking of their collective bargaining agreement two years ago. With Ike Leggett’s recommended budget coming next week, we will learn more about what might happen to MCPS this year and that will affect the union’s thinking. The remaining non-incumbents in the Council At-Large race will be paying rapt attention!
Speaking of the At-Large race, we wrote last April that the sole incumbent running, Hans Riemer, was going to be reelected. We still believe that will happen and so do most of the folks running in his race. But what happens if he is passed over by both the Apple Ballot and the Post? The Apple is skeptical of council incumbents right now. As for the Post, the newspaper endorsed Riemer in the 2014 primary in part because it said challenger Beth Daly was “dead wrong.” But it dumped Riemer for a no-name Republican in the general election, saying he was “a first-termer with modest achievements.” The Post has a lot more options in the 2018 At-Large field than it did last time. Then throw in the facts that there are a lot of good folks in the At-Large race and Riemer’s name will be appearing near the end of a VERY long ballot. If Riemer loses both the Apple and the Post and the hungry field of non-incumbents continues to impress, is he still a lock to win? (Disclosure: your author used to work for Riemer.)
That’s it for now. We’ll have more when the next wave of endorsements comes in!
Progressive Maryland Endorses for County Council
By Adam Pagnucco.
Progressive Maryland, an umbrella organization containing several influential progressive groups, has announced it is endorsing the following candidates for County Council.
At-Large: Brandy Brooks, Will Jawando, Danielle Meitiv and Chris Wilhelm
District 1: Ana Sol Gutierrez
District 3: Ben Shnider
District 4: Nancy Navarro
District 5: Tom Hucker
Progressive Maryland has previously endorsed Marc Elrich for County Executive and Ben Jealous for Governor. Brooks is an employee of the organization. Hucker founded the group’s predecessor, Progressive Montgomery.
Two things strike us as interesting here. First, this is the first major institutional endorsement not received by at-large incumbent Hans Riemer. (SEIU Local 500 has endorsed three non-incumbents in the at-large race but left a spot open for Riemer contingent on further events in Rockville.) Second, Progressive Maryland’s affiliates include MCGEO, UFCW Local 400 (grocery store workers), the SEIU Maryland/D.C. council, NOW and ATU Local 689 (WMATA), all of whom play in MoCo elections. Does Progressive Maryland’s decision provide insight on which candidates may be endorsed by these other groups?
SEIU Local 500 To Endorse Five in MoCo Races
By Adam Pagnucco.
SEIU Local 500, one of the largest unions in Maryland, will be endorsing five candidates in MoCo races soon. The local’s membership of more than 8,000 is concentrated among MCPS support staff, adjunct college faculty and child care workers. It has one of the most aggressive political operations in the state and its endorsement is highly valued in MoCo.
At this time, the local will be endorsing:
Marc Elrich for County Executive
Gabe Albornoz, Ashwani Jain and Will Jawando for Council At-Large
Ben Shnider for Council District 3
The union has not decided on an endorsement yet in Council District 1 and may announce one later. It has postponed endorsement decisions for incumbent Council Members outside District 3 pending further actions of the council. Since MCPS accounts for a significant portion of the local’s membership, budget decisions on the schools may impact the union’s thinking.
Congratulations to the endorsees. To be continued!
Laborers Union Announces MoCo Endorsements
By Adam Pagnucco.
The Mid-Atlantic region of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) has announced its endorsements in MoCo county-level races. The union is supporting Marc Elrich (County Executive), Andrew Friedson (Council D1), Ben Shnider (Council D3), Nancy Navarro (Council D4), Tom Hucker (Council D5) and Hans Riemer and Chris Wilhelm (Council At-Large).
LIUNA’s announcement on Twitter.
Elrich and Shnider are starting to roll up progressive endorsements; both are supported by SEIU Local 32BJ and Casa, while Shnider has the Sierra Club and Elrich has the AFL-CIO. Friedson looks like he is building the kind of business-labor coalition that once supported politicians like Doug Duncan. Navarro and Hucker have no opponents – so far.
LIUNA, SEIU and UFCW Local 400 (grocery store workers) are probably the most active unions in the Washington region that include at least some private sector members. LIUNA does not represent any MoCo county employees, but it does represent workers employed by the county’s private trash removal contractors. LIUNA’s main objective is getting the county to use project labor agreements on its construction projects which would mandate union representation of the workers on those jobs. While the union has not been a huge player in MoCo politics in the past, it did spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get Cathy Pugh elected as Mayor of Baltimore in 2016.
[Disclosure: your author worked as a strategic researcher for LIUNA’s international office in 1994 and 1995.]
Ben Shnider’s First Mailer
By Adam Pagnucco.
Mailhouses rejoice as Council District 3 rivals Sidney Katz and Ben Shnider have chosen to exchange early mailers in an increasingly active race. We’ll have more to say about this primary soon.
Sierra Club Endorses Berliner, Council Candidates
By Adam Pagnucco.
The Montgomery County Sierra Club has endorsed Roger Berliner for County Executive as well as several council candidates. With a brand commonly recognized by progressives around the country, the Sierra Club’s support is valued in MoCo. Many expected this endorsement to go to Marc Elrich, so this is a blow to him and a boost for Berliner. It’s also a big pickup for District 3 challenger Ben Shnider, who is starting to get traction against incumbent Sidney Katz. We reprint their press release below.
*****
Sierra Club endorses Berliner for County Executive; and several outstanding candidates for County Council
ROCKVILLE, MD – The Sierra Club, representing 6000 members across Montgomery County, announced today that it is endorsing Roger Berliner for County Executive and several outstanding candidates for the County Council.
Those endorsed for the four At-large Council seats are Evan Glass, Will Jawando, Danielle Meitiv, and Hans Riemer. In addition, Sierra Club is endorsing Ben Shnider for District 3; Nancy Navarro for District 4; and Tom Hucker for District 5.
With all the open seats in this election, 2018 provides an historic opportunity to elect a county government committed to forging significant and measurable solutions to addressing climate change through a variety of new and enhanced programs and policies.
Dave Sears, chair of the Montgomery County group of Sierra Club said, “We are excited about the prospects of our endorsed candidates focusing their skills, experience, and knowledge on making our county a national model for how local governments address the climate emergency facing our planet.”
Campaign Finance Reports: District County Council, January 2018
By Adam Pagnucco.
In addition to the wild and woolly Executive and Council At-Large races, MoCo has two competitive District County Council elections. Let’s have a look.
Council District 1
In District 1, which stretches from Kensington in the east to Poolesville in the west, nine candidates are vying to succeed incumbent Roger Berliner, who is term limited and is running for Executive. But of these nine, only four look competitive at the moment and one stands out: former aide to the Comptroller Andrew Friedson.
Friedson’s lead in total raised and cash balance is as obvious as it is staggering. But consider these three facts. First, if Friedson were running in the Council At-Large race, his total raised for the cycle ($218,903) would be second only to Hans Riemer ($219,103), who is the only at-large incumbent running. Friedson’s cash on hand ($200,622) would be second only to Delegate Charles Barkley ($232,428). Second, Friedson’s lead is not in money alone. We added up the number of individual contributors each of the top four fundraising candidates had in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, Kensington, Cabin John, Glen Echo, Poolesville and zip codes 20852 (Rockville) and 20878 (Gaithersburg/North Potomac) to approximate in-district contributors. Friedson had 289 contributors in these locations, followed by Reggie Oldak (217), former Town of Kensington Mayor Pete Fosselman (195) and Meredith Wellington (92). Third, Friedson has accomplished this in just five months. Fosselman has been running for ten months, followed by Oldak (nine months) and Wellington (eight months). We wonder how much Friedson would have raised if he had been campaigning longer.
The good news for Reggie Oldak is that she has done well in public financing and should have no problem hitting the $125,000 cap for public matching funds. The bad news is that it’s probably impossible for her to catch Friedson because once she hits the cap, she will be limited to $150 individual checks. Wellington has relied on self-financing more than the other candidates and has a high burn rate (41%). Fosselman should have been the fundraising leader in this race. He was Mayor of the Town of Kensington for a decade and is plugged into Ike Leggett’s network, the county developer network (he once worked for Rodgers Consulting) and what is left of the network of former Governor Martin O’Malley, who endorsed him and had his PAC max out to him. But Fosselman is fourth in cash on hand and faces the risk that the business community will turn to Friedson as a better prospect to win.
Council District 3
In District 3, which is mostly comprised of Rockville, Gaithersburg, Aspen Hill, Leisure World, part of Norbeck and Washington Grove, former J Street Political Director Ben Shnider is taking on incumbent Council Member and former Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz. Shnider, who is in the traditional financing system, outraised the incumbent, who is taking public financing.
Shnider’s fundraising edge, along with his endorsement by SEIU Local 32BJ, gives his campaign credibility against Katz, who has been in county and municipal politics for decades. A further look at the fundraising numbers reveals two things. First, 76% of Shnider’s fundraising has come from out of state. (Katz’s percentage is just 2%). But second, and more worrisome for Katz, Shnider is starting to catch on in the district. When we added up the number of individual contributors from Rockville, Gaithersburg, Washington Grove and zip code 20906 (Leisure World/Norbeck) to approximate in-district contributors, Katz had 99 and Shnider had 75. Shnider is the underdog in this race, but Katz needs to start working harder to hold him off.
The other districts lack competition. District 2 incumbent Craig Rice has not been raising money and is apparently unworried about his Republican rivals in the age of Trump. District 4 Council Member Nancy Navarro and District 5 Council Member Tom Hucker have no opponents and are headed to reelection.
We will get to state legislative races soon, folks!