By Adam Pagnucco.
Yesterday, Maryland Matters reported that CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres is stepping down. It’s a significant event from a national perspective and an absolutely huge event from a local perspective. That’s because Torres is unquestionably one of the most influential figures in Montgomery County history.
Gustavo Torres announces his retirement on Instagram.
Just think about it. CASA launched in the 1980s from basically nothing. As Torres put it in his retirement statement, “When I started at CASA more than three decades ago, we had three employees, a trailer, and no office. We operated out of a church basement in Takoma Park. There were no driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. No TPS. No membership or organizing or advocacy at all.”
Fast forward to now. CASA’s 501(c)(3) had $20 million in revenues, $27 million in net assets and 229 employees in 2023. Its 501(c)(4) had an additional $2.5 million in revenues and $1.3 million in net assets that same year. Its Super PAC spent $5.6 million on national elections in the 2022 cycle and another $3.9 million in the 2024 cycle. In Maryland, its Super PAC has spent $7.7 million on state and local elections since 2022. All told, the reach of these organizations has expanded far out of Maryland and into Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia and beyond.
That’s a loooooooong way from a church basement.
Torres didn’t do it alone. He has recruited a devoted, mission-driven staff that has helped him a lot over the years. He has also received substantial assistance from Montgomery County taxpayers. CASA’s 501(c)(3) has had noncompetitive contracts with county government for more than 20 years. MoCo taxpayers played a critical role in CASA’s rise whether they knew it or not.
And that brings me to the troubling aspect of Torres’s tenure. While the organization’s 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4) and Super PAC are legally distinct, their operations are so aligned that CASA once called them “the CASA family of organizations.” That introduces real questions about the respective roles of taxpayer-funded contracts, nonprofit status and political activity (like endorsements). Also of interest is the lobbying activities of CASA’s 501(c)(3), which is funded partly by county taxpayers, on issues like rent control.
An open reference to “the CASA family of organizations.”
Torres’s fall from grace started when CASA made controversial comments on Israel and Gaza in 2023, resulting in a torrent of criticism from elected officials and the loss of one of its biggest private funders. But elected officials have been privately complaining about the organization’s approach for years. Perhaps their biggest single complaint is the hard-edged style of the group, which (according to them) eschewed nuance to insist on fealty. That’s why Torres’s departure is widely noted but little mourned, at least among my sources.
But none of that takes away from Torres’s accomplishments. Whether you like him or not, whether you agree with him or not, Gustavo Torres will go down as one of the most influential figures in MoCo history and perhaps the greatest organization builder the county has ever seen. His departure is truly the retirement of a titan.