Two local delegates and a state senator are joining together in Bethesda-based District 16.
Sen. Susan Lee and Dels. Marc Korman and Ariana Kelly announced Monday they’re forming a slate to run as a team in the 2018 election.
The three Bethesda residents and incumbent legislators said they’ll commit to advancing a progressive agenda in Annapolis.
“The good things we like about living in Montgomery County and Maryland did not happen by accident,” Lee said in a statement. “Rather, they are the result of the hard work and dedication of our citizens and the policies and laws set in Annapolis and Montgomery County.”
The partnership will allow the candidates to share campaign costs such as signage and mass mailings, if they choose to do so. In their most recent state campaign finance filings, Kelly reported having $50,900 in campaign cash, Korman had $87,850 and Lee had $213,700.
Kelly and Korman said in a statement they will continue to fight for environmental sustainability, infrastructure improvements and education funding in the state Legislature.
The three Democrats did not choose a third District 16 delegate candidate to add to their slate. The other incumbent delegate from the district, Bill Frick (D-Bethesda), is running for the 6th Congressional District seat now held by Rep. John Delaney, who is running for president.
Frick’s move for the Congressional seat has attracted challengers for his delegate seat.
Sara Love, former public policy director for the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, announced this month she’ll run for delegate in District 16. Other candidates considering a run for the seat include Bethesda residents Jordan Cooper, who finished fifth in the 2014 District 16 Democratic primary, and Samir Paul, a computer science teacher at Montgomery Blair High School.
Korman and Kelly previously told Bethesda Beat they preferred to let voters decide who to nominate in the primary if Frick’s seat is open, rather than add a newcomer to their slate.
The District 16 slate is the second formal local team to be announced this summer in advance of the 2018 election. District 39 incumbents Sen. Nancy King and Dels. Kirill Reznik and Shane Robinson announced in June they were forming a slate together with first-time candidate Lesley Lopez. Lopez, a Democrat, is running in the Germantown-based district in hopes of filling the seat being given up by Del. Charles Barkley, who is running for County Council.
Lopez has been director of communications for several Washington-based trade and advocacy groups. She’s currently the communications director of the U.S.-China Business Council.
Gabriel Acevero, a field representative for the local union UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO, is also running to try to win Barkley’s seat, along with Bobby Bartlett, of Germantown.
