Progressive Maryland (PM) has announced a new list of endorsements, which joins its early endorsements released in May. The organization will be making one more round of endorsements before the primary, which will include the Montgomery County Council races. A candidate must receive support from two-thirds of PM’s board to be endorsed.
Here’s the big news in MoCo: PM picked challenger Roger Manno over incumbent District 19 Senator Mike Lenett despite the fact that Lenett has been endorsed by three of PM’s biggest members: the teachers, SEIU and the Carpenters. We hear the debate over this endorsement was VERY contentious. PM’s support for District 14 challenger Karen Montgomery over incumbent Senator Rona Kramer was a given. PM is sitting out the Senate races in District 17 (Forehand-Kagan) and District 39 (King-Ali) because no candidate could get two-thirds support. In House District 19, PM went for Bonnie Cullison, Jay Hutchins and Sam “Hunk of the Hill” Arora. In House District 39, open seat candidate Shane Robinson won support, adding to his growing list of endorsements. In most other races, PM stuck with the incumbents (other than in House 17, where they supported no one).
Following is PM’s press release.
News Release
July 1, 2010
Contact: Rion Dennis, Progressive Maryland, 301.437.9006
Progressive Maryland Announces Second Round of Candidates Who Earn its Endorsement in 2010 Election
PM vows maximal effort to elect these “Champions of Working Families”
Silver Spring, July 1. Progressive Maryland (PM) today announced its second round of endorsed candidates for federal, state and local office for the 2010 elections. With 15,000 individual members and supporters as well as dozens of organizational affiliates, PM is the strongest pro-working families’ advocacy group in the state. PM gets vigorously involved in elections to help elect its endorsed candidates and defeat opponents. In the 2006 election, more than 90 of its endorsed candidates won.
“Thursday, our board of directors reviewed the records and questionnaire responses of dozens of candidates who seek our endorsement,” said Elbridge James, PM’s President. “It takes a two-thirds supermajority vote of our Board to get PM’s endorsement, so our endorsed candidates are truly Champions of Working Families.”
“PM will now mobilize our members from all over the state as well as dozens of affiliates and knock on thousands of doors to elect this progressive slate,” said Rion Dennis, PM Acting Executive Director. “We are focused especially on improving the state Senate, where too many pro-working family reforms have died over the past four years.”
Progressive Maryland will be making another round of endorsements before the September 14th primaries and another round before the General Election.
Here are all the endorsements including the 25 new incumbents and candidates (in bold) winning Progressive Maryland’s 2010 endorsement as of July 1:
Federal Incumbents Running for Re-Election
Senator Barbara Mikulski
Representative C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, MD-2
Representative John Sarbanes, MD-3
Representative Donna Edwards, MD-4
Representative Steny Hoyer, MD-5
Representative Elijah Cummings, MD-7
Representative Chris Van Hollen, MD-8
General Assembly Delegates Running for State Senate
Delegate Karen Montgomery for Senator in District 14
Delegate Roger Manno in District 19
Delegate Joanne Benson for Senator in District 24
General Assembly Incumbents Running for Re-election
Delegate Adrienne Jones, District 10
Delegate Jon Cardin, District 11
Delegate Elizabeth Bobo, District 12B
Delegate Shane Pendergrass, District 13
Delegate Frank Turner, District 13
Delegate Anne Kaiser, District 14
Senator Rob Garagiola, District 15
Delegate Kathleen Dumais, District 15
Delegate Brian Feldman, District 15
Senator Brian Frosh, District 16
Delegate Bill Frick, District 16
Delegate Susan Lee, District 16
Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez, District 18
Delegate Jeff Waldstreicher, District 18
Senator Jamie Raskin, District 20
Delegate Sheila Hixson, District 20
Delegate Tom Hucker, District 20
Delegate Heather Mizeur, District 20
Senator Jim Rosapepe, District 21
Delegate Ben Barnes, District 21
Delegate Barbara Frush, District 21
Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk, District 21
Senator Paul Pinsky, District 22
Delegate Anne Healey, District 22
Delegate Tawanna Gaines, District 22
Delegate Justin Ross, District 22
Senator Douglas Peters, District 23
Delegate James Hubbard, District 23A
Delegate Aisha Braveboy, District 25
Delegate Veronica Turner, District 26
Delegate Kris Valderrama, District 26
Delegate James Proctor, District 27A
Delegate Joseph Vallario, District 27A
Delegate Charles Barkley, District 39
Delegate Kirill Reznik, District 39
Delegate Shawn Tarrant, District 40
Delegate Sandy Rosenberg, District 41
Delegate Maggie McIntosh, District 43
Delegate Pete Hammen, District 46
Delegate Doyle Niemann, District 47
Delegate Jolene Ivey, District 47
General Assembly Challengers
Ryan Trout for Delegate in District 4A
James “Ward” Morrow for Delegate in District 7
Mary Ann Maher for Delegate in District 9A
Eric Luedtke for Delegate in District 14
Craig Zucker for Delegate in District 14
Bonnie Cullison for Delegate in District 19
Jay Hutchins for Delegate in District 19
Sam Arora for Delegate in District 19
Nicole Williams for Delegate in District 23A
Greg Hall for Delegate in District 24
Stan Janor for Delegate in District 31
Shane Robinson for Delegate in District 39
Lori Albin for Delegate in District 42
Mary Washington for Delegate in District 43
Luke Clippenger for Delegate in District 46
Ann Arundel County Offices
Chris Trumbauer for County Council District 6
Howard County Offices
Jen Terrasa for County Council District 3
Prince George’s County Offices
Rushern Baker for County Executive
Sam Epps for County Council District 1
Will Campos for County Council District 2
Eric Olsen for County Council District 3
Karen Toles for County Council District 7
Obie Patterson for County Council District 8
Mel Franklin for County Council District 9
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