By Adam Pagnucco.
Board of Education Member Julie Yang, who is running for the Council District 1 seat, has sent out the mailer on antisemitism shown below. It reminds me of a mailer on the same issue by school board candidate Rita Montoya two years ago. Montoya won her race and now serves with Yang on the school board.
Antisemitism is a huge issue for the Jewish community right now. Rabbi Adam Raskin recently wrote about this in Washington Jewish Week. He recalled meeting with an unnamed candidate and discussing that person’s endorsement by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), suggesting that the candidate repudiate it. The candidate replied, “The DSA activists are great door-knockers… If I repudiate their endorsement, it could mean the difference between winning and losing the election.” The rabbi wrote, “I found this answer profoundly disappointing and unprincipled.”
Jewish voters have an outsized impact in MoCo Democratic primaries and many of them live in District 1. Yang is smart to appeal to this constituency. One note: the mailer features a supportive quote from a Washington Jewish Week editorial. Fellow District 1 candidate Debbie Spielberg accurately stated in a press release that she and not Yang was endorsed by the media outlet.
Yang’s mailer is shown below.
