Democrat
Dawn Luedtke
What office are you running for? County Council
Political party: Democrat
Where you live: Ashton
Date of birth: Dec. 21, 1973
Current occupation and employer:
Assistant attorney general – Maryland Office of the Attorney General
Political experience:
I am an appointed public official in my role with the Office of the Attorney General. I have worked at OAG since 2013. I have not previously run for public office.
Website: https://www.dawnluedtke.com
Email: dawn@dawnluedtke.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PennDawn96/
Twitter: @PennDawn96
Instagram: @Dawn_Luedtke
Why are you running for this office?
I have been engaged with advocacy and leadership since I was a teenager in student government and interning for Congressman Robert E. Andrews. I’ve devoted the last nine years to public service at OAG working with implementing and shaping policy in education, public safety, and public health across the State and want to focus on bringing my skills to my local community as a member of the council. District 7 needs someone with my level of experience in advocacy across broad policy areas to ensure it has the voice that it has been missing for far too long.
What is the most important issue in this race and what specific plans do you have to address it?
Inefficiency. Regardless of policy area (education, business development, constituent services, public safety, etc.) county operations have unnecessary backlogs and complications that are not in the best interest of residents, complicate matters for the staff performing those functions, and result in increased time to delivery for services. All policy areas will be positively impacted if we can focus on government operations, gaps, expenditures vs. yield and accountability. We also need to examine redundancy of functions and applications. I know that there are measures being taken presently to modernize systems, but we are far behind technologically. Without improvement in that area, the most brilliant policy ideas that can be put into legislation and passed cannot be operationalized effectively.
What is one major issue that has been handled poorly and what would you have done differently?
I believe that the knee jerk reaction to removing SROs from the schools was done in great haste, without actual knowledge of the training they receive, the state’s laws and programs for SROs and school security employees, and without engaging in compliance checking on whether MCPS’s school security employees (non-law enforcement) and other MCPS personnel required to be trained had, in fact, received the training. If the goal was reduction of the presence of law enforcement officers within schools each building and population has its own characteristics and needs. Moreover, the students were returning to schools after missing over a year of in-person instruction and would have higher social emotional needs. Adolescent depression and anxiety often manifests in aggression. The pulling of SROs without assessing these needs and without including additional resources from day one of the 2022-2023 school year was a grave error. I would have left SROs while increasing psych support.
What experience (work, political or other) has prepared you to hold this office?
My knowledge of law and policy as well as with working with public governmental bodies throughout my career provides me with outstanding preparation for holding this office. In private practice and in other employment I have worked as a finance director and auditor, with IT, and with multiple expert witnesses and content areas. In my public service, my content areas of expertise include education, public safety (law enforcement/fire/EMS/dispatch/emergency management), public health (certification in health law, policy work in mental & behavioral health, tobacco control & prevention work, elder law), hate bias and hate crimes, cybersecurity and cyber threats, and government operations. My work has been recognized with speaking engagements on these topics both within Maryland and across the country through programs offered by the National Association of Attorneys General, OJJDP at DOJ, and on litigation matters.
Republican
Harold Maldonado
What office are you running for? County Council
Political party: Republican
Where you live: Derwood
Date of birth: Nov. 22, 1973
Current occupation and employer:
Senior analyst at FINRA.
Political experience:
15 years as a political analyst
Website: https://haroldmaldonado.com
Email: maldonado4council@usa.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HaroldM4Council
Twitter: @HaroldM4Council
Why are you running for this office?
As an economist with over 25 years of experience working on economic development issues and home and abroad, I have the technical and on-the-ground wherewithal to present real solutions to fix our broken economy, our broken education system, and reduce the rising crime that has been growing exponentially. I have been a public servant and know the responsibility this poses on personal accountability, responsibility, and on the public policies that the people I represent hold as unnegotiable issues. The council has lost the trust of the people and they’re not accountable to anybody. It’s time for a change!
What is the most important issue in this race and what specific plans do you have to address it?
To say there’s one overarching issue in our county is to be shortsighted. I would say we have three main issues; economy, education, and public safety, which are interdependent of one another. For the economy, I plan to focus on improving the investment environment to foster growth and establishment of small- and medium-sized businesses. For education, I plan to make the Board of Education and teachers independent from teacher unions. For security, I plan to increase the budget for the police department and increase the ratio of a police officer per 1,000 population to at least five (current national average is 2.4).
What is one major issue that has been handled poorly and what would you have done differently?
The council has handled education poorly. Reading and math scores have plummeted, once top schools in the country, are now in disarray and decay. Closing schools through unnecessary remote learning and harmful mask mandates have caused irreparable damage to our kids’ learning, social, health, and overall development. What the council has done with our kids is criminal. Our kids are learning about hate, racial animosity, and inappropriate sexual issues at a time when they should be learning about improving reading comprehension and math skills. The future of our county is in jeopardy as the level of education is declining.
What experience (work, political or other) has prepared you to hold this office?
As an economist with over 25 years of experience working on economic development issues and home and abroad, I have the technical and on the ground wherewithal to present real solutions to fix our broken economy, our broken education system, and reduce the rising crime that has been growing exponentially. I have been a public servant and know the responsibility this poses on personal accountability, responsibility, and on the public policies that the people I represent hold as unnegotiable issues. The council has lost the trust of the people and they’re not accountable to anybody. It’s time for a change!
