By Adam Pagnucco.
The Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) and its state-level affiliate, the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA), have released their third set of endorsements for state and county offices. And these endorsements are going to make some news!
Previously, the teachers released endorsements for friendly General Assembly incumbents and county offices. This new and final set applies mostly to General Assembly candidates who have not previously gone through the teachers’ endorsement process, including some who were appointed to their seats, as well as those whose district includes two counties (Howard and Montgomery). I was told that, for these candidates, MSEA’s board confirmed MCEA’s recommendations to get to endorsements. It was MSEA’s board action on Thursday that yielded the endorsements.
The new endorsements are:
District 9 Senate: Katie Fry Hester
District 9A House: Chao Wu, Natalie Ziegler
District 14 House: Bernice Mireku-North, Matt Post
District 15 House: Lily Qi
District 16 Senate: Sara Love
District 16 House: Sarah Wolek, Teresa Woorman
District 17 Senate: Cheryl Kagan
District 17 House: Ryan Spiegel
District 39 House: Greg Wims
Fry Hester, Wu, Ziegler, Qi and Kagan are incumbents who have previously won elections. Post is an open seat candidate who is employed by MSEA. The others (Love, Mireku-North, Wolek, Woorman, Spiegel and Wims) were appointed to their current seats, although Love was previously elected as a delegate.
The Apple Ballot always matters, but there are two state legislative districts where it will have an outsized impact.
District 16: Wolek and Woorman were appointed to their House seats earlier in this term. In the last round of campaign finance reports, Wolek had robust fundraising but Woorman did not. Tazeen Ahmad is also in the House race along with long-time incumbent Marc Korman. Getting the Apple Ballot is great news for Wolek and Woorman but is not so great for Ahmad.
District 39: Senator Nancy King has organized a slate to take out Delegate Gabe Acevero. It includes Wims, who was appointed to his House seat, elected Delegate Lesley Lopez and non-incumbent Rob Wu, who is a Gaithersburg City Council Member. By endorsing Acevero, Lopez and Wims, the teachers stuck with the incumbents and are helping Acevero stave off the effort to defeat him, as he did three years ago.
Next up are the January campaign finance reports. Incumbents who have Apple Ballots and plenty of money are rarely defeated. We shall see what they say!