By Adam Pagnucco.
Last month, the Intercept published an exposé of Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks’s record on criminal justice. The article criticized her from the left as this excerpt demonstrates:
During past campaigns for Prince George’s state’s attorney, Alsobrooks positioned herself as staunchly “tough-on-crime.” In addition to pushing the notion that cannabis decriminalization led to drug dealers murdering each other, she has supported DNA collection of people without criminal convictions, putting police in schools, and harsh penalties in a variety of situations, among other positions opposed by justice system reformers.
Now, however, in her bid for Senate, she’s refashioning herself as one of the reformers — despite continuing to support some of the same punitive policies she championed as her county’s top prosecutor.
I don’t often read the Intercept but I found out about this story from a helpful source: Council Member Will Jawando.
The very day that the article was published, Jawando’s U.S. Senate campaign promoted it in this blast email.
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An image of the email and its subject line.
It’s a Saturday, but we wanted to make sure you saw this report:
This morning, The Intercept released bombshell reporting on Angela Alsobrooks’ troubling record on criminal justice.
They revealed a pattern of so-called ‘tough on crime’ policies that have failed Prince George’s County and Maryland time and time again. Here are some of the policies our opponent has supported:
- Vetoed $250,000 to mental health and job training resources for young offenders.
- Supported keeping officers in school, which are proven to contribute to the school to prison pipeline.
- Pursued severe penalties as States’ Attorney — including the death penalty.
Maryland incarcerates more young Black men per capita than any other state. And our opponent’s work contributed to that staggering number. We must do better and Will has a plan to do just that.
Will has spent his career fighting the systemic racism in our criminal justice system. He believes it’s a false choice to think we have to choose between safety AND justice. Will passed the state’s most aggressive criminal justice reform — combating police brutality, increasing mental health resources for students and removing police from schools.
We want to be clear: what you do is more important than what you say. And Marylanders have a clear choice. We believe, this state and the nation are ready for a true advocate for criminal justice reform, not someone adhering to the failed and outdated policies of the past. We hope you join us.
Thanks for hearing us out,
Team Jawando
*****
Jawando followed up on Twitter.
This came on top of Jawando calling himself “the only real progressive in this race” and criticizing campaign money from “big developers,” an obvious reference to Alsobrooks. And then there was this retweet of a slam on Alsobrooks for not having Latinos in her cabinet.
And what should happen a month later? This.
Jawando is far from the only politician who has attacked and then supported a rival. Remember Ted Cruz and Donald Trump? This just goes to show an eternal law of politics: today’s opponent can be tomorrow’s “friend.”