JUICE: Jay Hutchins Not Running Against Sam Arora, Kagan Attacks Del. Simmons, Councilmembers Leventhal & Rice Spar

Below Maryland Juice highlights a few notable items from the last week, including some interesting points of conflict between politicos.

JUICE #1: 2010 RUNNER-UP JAY HUTCHINS DECIDES AGAINST REMATCH WITH SAM ARORA - The candidate thought for months to be most likely to challenge freshman Del. Sam Arora has now announced he will not seek office in 2014. Indeed, many had presumed that Jay Hutchins (the runner-up to Arora in the 2010 Democratic Primary) would take another shot at a now mortally wounded Delegate Arora. After all, progressive advocates and LGBT activists have promised to back a candidate to replace Arora after the Democrat broke a promise to support marriage equality. But a few days ago, Hutchins posted a message on his Facebook page announcing his decision not to seek office in 2014:

JAY HUTCHINS: Friends, After serious consideration, I have made the decision not to run for elected office in this upcoming election cycle. I will continue to be an active voice in the district, county and state. I cannot express deeply enough my gratitude for your ongoing support. Jay

Hutchins' departure from the District 19 race in 2014 creates a wide opening for another ambitious progressive candidate to challenge Sam Arora. Maryland Juice is aware of a few candidates who have been mulling over the race for the past few months, but it remains to be seen who among them will emerge as the strongest contender. More soon on the new crop of District 19 challengers!


JUICE #2: D17 RIVALRY IN 2014? // FORMER DELEGATE CHERYL KAGAN JABS AT DEL. LUIZ SIMMONS - Maryland Juice recently highlighted comments from former Delegate Cheryl Kagan questioning Del. Luiz Simmons' commitment to passing new gun regulations in Maryland. The controversy emerged after The Washington Post published an editorial suggesting Simmons was open to exempting AR-15 rifles from the state's new assault weapons ban. Kagan blasted Simmons on Facebook, prompting the District 17 lawmaker to host a town hall meeting reaffirming his support for new gun regulations. Maryland Juice previously speculated that we could be witnessing a preview of the 2014 Democratic Primary for State Senate in District 17. Kagan notably lost the 2010 race for State Senate by only a few hundred votes and Simmons is now rumored to be eyeing the same office.

Cheryl Kagan further commented on the matter through a pair of Facebook messages last week, and her additional musings included new jabs at Delegate Luiz Simmons:

CHERYL KAGAN: Following the blog posts and flurry of emails and messages yesterday, several questions occur to me this morning:

1) Why can't a former elected official (me) express opinions about pending legislation without folks jumping to conclusions about intent?

2) Why would a current legislator (Del Luiz Simmons) have surrogates contact me... but not reach out to a constituent directly?

3) How is it that any significant representative could have absolutely no presence on any social media as another method of communicating his/her views?

4) Will Del Simmons ever decide to comply with campaign finance and ethics laws and actually use authority lines in his robo-calls (he again failed to do it in yesterday's call) and taxpayer-paid mailers???

I'd love hear some answers to these questions, but I need to go to work now!

The message above was followed soon after by a comment from Kagan about Delegate Luiz Simmons' telephone town hall on gun control:

CHERYL KAGAN: Ah, the power of Facebook! For 10+ years, Del Luiz Simmons has delivered robo-calls and taxpayer-funded mailings with no required authority line ("Paid for by..."). After posting about that issue issue here, he actually added one to his phone call tonight! Now, let's see if he'll finally do right on the issues of gun control, domestic violence, and other pending legislation!

Maryland Juice concedes Cheryl Kagan's point that she ought to be able to express thoughts about legislation without folks jumping to conclusions. But even still, a hunch is a hunch, and my gut tells me I'm right to think we haven't seen the last of Kagan on the campaign trail. We may know soon enough!


JUICE #3: MOCO COUNCILMEMBERS GEORGE LEVENTHAL & CRAIG RICE TRADE SHOTS OVER WALMART LOBBYING - Maryland Juice sources recently flagged a testy exchange between Montgomery County Councilmembers George Leventhal and Craig Rice over a proposed new Walmart in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Below we provide a bit of background about the controversy, along with video footage of the amusingly feisty debate.

Here's some brief background on the issue: Walmart is trying to open a store in Aspen Hill, Maryland, but the county isn't scheduled to revise zoning in that neighborhood for a few more years. Walmart is therefore pushing aggressively to expedite the rezoning discussion, and Leventhal highlighted the activities of Walmart's lobbyists on Twitter last week:

But when Leventhal arrived at a County Council hearing about expediting rezoning for Walmart's Aspen Hill location, he was upset to see audience members holding pre-printed signs supporting the plan. Check out the following report on the incident from The Sentinel (excerpt below):

SENTINEL: Even debating whether or not to build a Wal-Mart in Aspen Hill brought about one of the most heated arguments in recent memory to the County Council this week.... More than 30 members of the Aspen Hill and Leisure World communities were in attendance and they came with signs printed with the phrase: “What’s the wait? Give Aspen Hill a chance!...”

The development group, led by President Bruce Lee, owns several other properties in Aspen Hill and has looked to revitalize the area. Unable to find takers for a lease, Lee said he wants  the property rezoned for retail....

Councilmember George Leventhal (at-large) said his concern with the mini master plan is there is an existing agreement between Lee’s group and Wal-Mart to have Wal-Mart become the tenant for the property and build a store there. Leventhal said he is worried about the county council becoming susceptible to manipulation and lobbying by developers and corporations....

Leventhal said the audience members holding signs were holding signs printed by consultants hired by the Lee Development Group and Wal-Mart. In fact, Lee said his group provided transportation to the county council meeting and the signs which were created by a consultant....

Leventhal's comments about the attendees holding pro-Walmart signs triggered an angry rebuke from Councilmember Craig Rice (a supporter of the Walmart plan).  

Below you can see video footage of the heated exchange:

The Future Of Montgomery County: Take DC's Streetcars to MoCo's Suburban Big Box Stores? // aka the Walmart Question

Rorschach's Journal 11/6/2012

The year is 2020. Tom Smith, a resident of Gentro Heights NW, needs a sack of grain. He picks up the Georgia Ave Streetcar from in front of his house and gets off at the Downtown Silver Spring Transit Hub, where he transfers to the Purple Line. Tom's journey ultimately ends at the Walmart West Montgomery Station in Rockville, Maryland. Welcome to Montgomery County 2020.... maybe.

Maryland Juice's domestic partner/wife Virginia Juice has recently been reading a classic land use and planning tome, "Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs. I don't remember why she started reading it, and don't tell her, but I wasn't paying close attention when she was telling me about the book. Nevertheless, my eye was drawn to a mention of the book in the comments to this morning's very interesting MoCo-centric news round-up at the Greater Greater Washington blog (excerpts below):

Streetcar to Silver Spring?: Montgomery Councilmembers Nancy Floreen and Hans Riemer are asking DC to consider running the streetcar to Silver Spring. It's entirely logical, if only the various DOTs can work together. (South Silver Spring)

Berliner against anti-urban Walmarts: Councilmember Roger Berliner wants to stop the Walmart at Rockville Pike and Randolph Road because it will undermine the more urban form the county wants to foster in that area. (Patch) 

Mall owner prefers a town instead: The owners of White Flint Mall want to replace the mall with a town. The project would include 5 million square feet of offices, apartments, and shops and will take 25 years to complete. (Gazette, Mike) 

Jobs outstrip housing: The region is failing to match job growth with housing growth. Eventually, employers and workers may relocate to cities where housing is cheaper. (Post) ... Building up, rather than out, is the best solution we've got. (City Block)

Food stamps down in DC, up in MD, VA: The number of food stamp recipients fell 10.5% in DC while jumping 10.2% and 21.2% in Virginia and Maryland respectively. The shift may signal the displacement of poverty from DC to the suburbs. (Examiner) 

And...: Prince George's County will create "prostitution-free zones" along the DC border. (Patch)

Sidebar on the Future of Civic Activism: Increasingly the era of the suburban civic activist is being displaced (or at least enhanced) by the era of the digital civic blogger, email/listserv warrior, etc. Just look at the slow proliferation of interest in wonky sites like Greater Greater Washington, Just Up the Pike, the South Silver Spring Association blog, the Citizens League of MoCo and many other land-use oriented blogs. Too often, I hear elected officials asking why young people, working class folks, communities of color, and others don't "participate" more. They ask why people don't show up at public hearings, why they don't apply for advisory boards, etc. But when I look around, I see a vibrant culture of expression on some very nerdy policy issues -- from a range of voices. It is not hard to find the outlets where ordinary citizens are speaking out on such matters these days. Just look at the first few comments to the news roundup above (I highlight one comment for continued discussion below):