An ongoing effort to mend a rift between the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee and local labor groups appears to have taken a step forward, as a party screening committee put forth a slate of candidates aimed at placing a significant number of new faces on to the 24-member MCDCC.
One party insider described behind-the-scenes developments over the past week – with the slate not finalized until shortly before Tuesday’s primary filing deadline – as “a bloodless coup in a lot of ways.”
While there will be a number of contested central committee seats in the upcoming June 24 primary – including challenges to some committee veterans – the slate proposed by a five-member screening committee headed by MCDCC Chair Gabriel Albornoz won praise from a top local labor leader.
“We’re satisfied we’re going to end up with a team of enthusiastic youthful committed individuals who are progressive-minded – but, more importantly, are prepared to really rebuild the party,” said Gino Renne, president of UFCW Local 1994/MCGEO, which represents much of the county government’s non-uniformed work force. Among the candidates on the slate is MCGEO staffer Erin Yeagley, who is running for one of the central committee’s eight at-large seats.
Renne’s union was in the forefront of a boycott last year of the central committee’s “Spring Ball” that kept a number of state and Democratic officeholders away. The immediate cause of the boycott was a decision by local Democratic officials to endorse so-called Question B on the 2012 election ballot.
The ballot question proposed to repeal “effects bargaining,” which had allowed the union representing county police officers to bargain over the effect of management decisions; the repeal was adopted in the 2012 general election.
The slate formally unveiled Tuesday by the party screening committee includes just 10 of the MCDCC’s current 24 voting members, with a number of seats opening up through incumbent members retiring or running for public office. Of perhaps most significance to labor is that the slate includes only five incumbents who had voted to support Question B in 2012, party sources noted.
In addition, nearly half of the slots on the proposed slate are occupied by candidates with ties to the Montgomery County Young Democrats. The immediate past chairman of the Young Democrats, Dave Kunes, has played a key role in discussions since last spring aimed at reaching a peace pact of sorts between the Democratic Party structure and union groups. Kunes has close ties to organized labor; he is now field director of the the statewide teachers’ union, the Maryland State Education Association.
Aside from mollifying labor, the slating process appears to have been conducted with the county’s changing demographics in mind: A majority of the slate is comprised of members of minority groups, reflecting the county’s recent change to majority-minority status.
If last spring’s Democratic dinner brought the tensions between party and labor officials into the open, the rift appears to predate the flareup over Question B.
Renne, himself a former Democratic precinct official, complained that the local party organization in recent years “just became an institution that did really nothing more than put out a ballot.” He said the party should return to being a vehicle for debate on key local issues, adding, “It should not only provoke those conversations, but help the political structure – elected [officials] and the various constituency groups – come up with answers that can be implemented.”
In the past, “labor was an important source of resources for door knocks [to reach out to Democratic voters] and became a pretty significant fundraising arm” for the local party, Renne noted before adding, “We’ll go back to that if we see some progress.”
The slate put together by Albornoz – who has passed the word that he will not seek another term as committee chair later this year – and the screening panel does include current MCDCC Vice Chair Venattia Vann. She was sharply criticized by MCGEO for past positions when she unsuccessfully sought appointment to a vacant state delegate seat last fall.
Vann and local party activist Timothy Whitehouse have been slated in Potomac-based District 15, but will face two challengers in the June primary – including county official Anis Ahmed, who also unsuccessfully sought last fall’s state delegate vacancy.
Meanwhile, a contentious fight over a committee seat is shaping up in District 14 in the eastern section of the county. Current MCDCC member Arthur Edmunds was included on the slate, but has been at odds with the state legislative delegation in District 14, sources said. Brian Anleu, who has ties to the Young Democrats, is taking aim at Edmunds’ seat with the backing of the district’s legislative delegation.
In Bethesda-based District 16, veteran political operative Kevin Walling – who recently dropped out of the contest for a state delegate seat – was added to the slate for an at-large slot on the MCDCC. “I’m looking forward to working hard not only for my campaign but helping other like-minded Dems get elected to the central committee,” said Walling, who has a campaign treasury of $30,000 as a result of his now-abandoned delegate bid.
