By Adam Pagnucco.
Jordan Cooper, who is running for a seat on the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC), has endorsed five Republican candidates for office. That’s an interesting choice given that the entire job of MCDCC is to promote the Democratic Party’s agenda and candidates.
Cooper ran unsuccessfully for Delegate from District 16 in 2014. He is running for that seat again while simultaneously running for a seat on MCDCC. Cooper blasted the county Democratic Party as “corrupt” for passing a rule barring candidates from running for party office and government office at the same time. But as the links above plainly show, he is not covered by the rule since he had filed for the two offices before the rule was passed and it was not retroactive.
Since then, Cooper sent out a questionnaire to other candidates for the purpose of endorsing them. In defending his “endorsement process,” Cooper said he intended to endorse Republicans. He spoke the truth. His Public Interest Podcast endorsed 88 candidates for office, of whom five were Republicans.
The endorsed Republicans include:
Robert Drozd, State Senate, District 14
George Hernandez, Delegate, District 17
Joe Norman, Delegate, District 8
Doug Rathell, Delegate, District 30A
Anjali Reed Phukan, Comptroller
Other endorsed candidates who are not Democrats include:
Jon Cook, Delegate, District 18 (Green)
Nathan Feldman, Delegate, District 11 (Green)
David Jeang, State Senate, District 19 (Green)
Ray Ranker, Delegate, District 21 (Unaffiliated)
Ian Schlakman, Governor (Green)
As a private citizen, Cooper can support anyone for office he wants. But he is running for a seat on the governing body of the county Democratic Party. Article II of MCDCC’s by-laws state, “It shall be the responsibility of this organization to promote, establish and conduct political campaigns in Montgomery County, Maryland for the nominees of the Democratic Party and to act as spokesman for the Democratic Party in this County on all questions of public policy.” In other words, one of the prime reasons for MCDCC’s existence is to elect Democrats in Montgomery County. Of Cooper’s endorsees, six – Republicans Drozd, Hernandez and Phukan and Green Party members Cook, Jeang and Schlakman – are running against Democrats for offices representing Montgomery County.
Is it too much to ask someone who wants a seat on the county’s Democratic Central Committee to support the party’s candidates for office?