Tamara’s Take on the County Executive Race

Hello Prince George's County. Welcome to a leather edition of all politics is local with me, your host, Tamer Davis Brown. So I have been getting phone calls, texts, emails, you name it. There's a way to contact me. Coming up to me personally, people are asking, who are you voting for for Prince George's County executive? And I have deferred and delayed and deferred and delayed and I actually told people that I'm not making a decision until after I hear from the candidates directly during the candidates form that I co-moderated with the D9 coalition for civic engagement and the greatest suburban Maryland chapter of check in Jill of America. I'm a member of both organizations, well, for Jack and Jill, I'm an associate member, meaning my children have graduated out there, young adults thriving and doing their adulting thing. But I'm also a member of the D9 coalition for civic engagement, been working with them since their since its inception. And it was a great night. It was a packed house. We had a lot of people coming to not only support the individual candidates, but there were people actually there that had not made up their mind and not decided for whom they're voting and wanted to hear from the candidates directly. We did something a little different. There were no opening and closing statements that was by design and intention. We wanted to delve right into the questions that people were asking. All of the questions came directly from the public. When people registered for the event, they had an opportunity to write their questions down. And so we categorized the questions in topics and kind of amalgamated all of the questions that were the same. The other thing that we did that was very unique and was probably the best in the highlight of the candidates form is we teamed with, like I said, Jack and Jill, great suburban chapter of Jack and Jill of America. And the teens did an outstanding job asking direct questions to the candidates. Those questions also came from the public directly with the exception of the last three. We were able to fit in the three questions that they actually decided to draft. And those questions went to all nine of the candidates that were present. And so I thought that went over really well. The teens did a phenomenal job. And then the last thing that we did that was unique is we asked competency based questions, questions about the office that people about the office of county exec that the candidates should have known what the answer is because they are seeking this office. We need to know how the office operates, how it relates with other departments and agencies. And so we asked those questions as well. And we gave the audience the actual answers and the sources to those answers. And we did the same thing with the Facebook Live because the entire event was streamed on Facebook Live and it's still up and available if you want to see it. But we provided the link or anyone who wanted to access the answers could do so. And I thought it went really well and it helped solidify, you know, who really knew what they were running for the position that they were running for and how it really operates. And so let's dive into my analysis for each of the candidates for that from that night. I also did tune in on the YouTube channel for ABC 7 and watch that debate. I only believe four candidates on that one. And I watched a portion of I didn't get to finish watching the NAACP's candidate form at Reed Temple. I know they had two one at Ebenezer and Me Church and the other at Reed Temple A and Me Church. And I was only able to view a portion of the Reed Temple one, but I'm going to go in alphabetical order and kind of give my analysis. So the first candidate obviously alphabetical order by last name, of course, is Roshorn Baker. As you know, Mr Baker has been in county executive for this county before he came in and a tumultuous time kind of like this one a little bit, but very different times on the heels of Jack Johnson and his entire administration. And we know how that ended. And so it was a very difficult time dark time for the county shadow, if you will, of that administration and the publicity that it got nationwide because of the recordings and how they were released by the public. It was just total embarrassment for us, but he came in and he actually did very well as county executive in terms of creating an instituting county stat to bring more accountability and transparency in our government and how the county government is able to look at the needs of each other. And then make a decision of where funds should go to to deal with those departments. It was also under county exec Baker that we broke out permitting an inspection from department of public works and transportation. It used to be one big department that had a permitting enforcement and inspection department and the public works and transportation. So he broke that out and I believe also broke out department of environment as well. And and so now, you know, the department of environment deals with our trash pickup and snow removal and all of that and DPW and T actually I take that back DTW and T deals with the snow removal, but because they handle all of the roadways, but department of transportation. I mean, excuse me department of environment deals with the snow removal and all of the environmental impacts that the county has. So, you know, he did do a good job in trying to distinguish and really impact how government is efficient in that regard for Prince George County because we were still operating under a quite antiquated system. The other thing that he did I actually really, really liked and still do like the person that was our planning board chair at the time. So, Mr. Samuel Parker and the reason I like him is Mr. Parker actually has a degree in planning in urban planning and design and development. And so they were doing some really unique things that has led to what our parks and planning department is doing now with some of the things that they have instituted not just in parks and planning, but in zoning and one of the things that they were really doing was. The project back then it was 2025 which seemed like it was a long long time ago or 23 it was either 2025 or 2035 but when county executive Baker when for sure in Baker was county executive they had this project 2025 and it was actually was called vision 2025. And it was a long term planning that they were undertaking and there was a lot of work went into it. There were a lot of public meetings and I thought that was good. But the reason that I mentioned having Mr. Parker as a planning director and head of the planning board it was someone that understood what zoning and development is all about and you guys know from hearing me talk about zoning and development. It's really what drives the economic engine here in the county and it helps out to make our quality of life very miserable or very excited and right now we are on the misery side only because we have so much townhouse development so much over development and communities you know every time there's a piece of land that's being sold. So to a developer and the reason is is that you know the airs of the property if it's especially not owned by the county they're going to go with the highest bidder and the highest bidder is going to be a developer and the developer is going to develop housing and we just there's no way around it but what we can do is smartly develop how that community is with the infrastructure that needs to be done again. Again another whole another story but I did like under the Baker administration at that time that he had Mr. Parker as the planning board chair and the planning board seemed to operate a little bit more effectively and efficiently one thing this county. has to do is get rid of the ability of the County Council to be the district council on zoning matters. Our County Council has no business in my personal opinion deciding any zoning case is not a single person and if I was on the council that would include me as well. Know anything about zoning and land use development and we get ram you know shot and ran over by developers and not only understanding and knowing the development laws but keeping it as antiquated as possible. Again another long story that deserves its own podcast episode. Let Mr Baker did do those things. Unfortunately Mr Baker was a little late for our candidates forum so he missed the first round of questions basically. I think we the co-moderator gave him one question to be able to answer in two minutes instead of doing the two questions for the first round and so not really counting that against him obviously he had something else prior to our candidates forum but you know I made the session a little a little awkward because he didn't pull the numbers and what happy not counting that against him but what I will say is I do appreciate the fact that he's been County Executive before and this is to feel a unexpired term of the County Executive from Angela also Brooks administration and so the fact that his tag line is that he's ready day one actually really is appealing to me you know he's ready day one we need somebody to come in and step in I did have an opportunity to attend a private event for him and you know ask the question about whether or not he was planning to keep all of the administrative hits in the position that they are and whether or not that would wouldn't that keep the continuity of the County County running and his answer was kind of yes and know if you will I truly understand that you have to have people that you trust and you want to be able to work with but I don't think that we need a wholesale change in any of the department hits right now you know maybe after 2026 but right now I don't think so I think we need kind of a steady hand and I'm hoping that if he does win that he would keep you know not definitely not his interstaff you know he can bring in his own chief staff his own you know personal inter office staff I expect any candidate that wins to bring in their own personal staff but I'm talking about department heads like the fire chief the police chief the recommendation that you know they make for school board superintendent which is he makes the recommendation but the school board votes on on that person I said police chief fire chief all the department heads so those he would have the opportunity to do that he did mention that he may take a look at a couple of positions and potentially make some changes I didn't particularly again I feel differently about that since we're completing an unexpired term but I do understand that you know you want people that you have trust in and people that trust you so kind of understand that but anyway I that's my little analysis of Baker I guess the positive is that he's been county executive and he would come in and he knows what to do day one some of the negative other than what I've mentioned and you know it's taxes are a big issue here in Pristorges County and we're sure talked about doing away with trim we've actually raised taxes under his administration which was not done the proper way if you will when I say it was you know a loophole in our our tax policy in Pristorges County because normally when you have when you want to raise taxes you actually have to put it to the voters for referendum under trim and that has not been done I don't think ever or if it has it's definitely failed nobody wants to pay more taxes we want you to use because stewards of the money that we give you and you do the best you can with what we have and then figure out ways to you know ways to raise revenue in the county and generally that issue has been is that we have not been able to attract the type of commercial tax base that we have and so one thing that I do fault Richard Baker and I actually asked him this what I went to that personal event was about a contrarian which is if any of you live in the northern part of the county you know exactly where I'm talking about in the the Laurel Laure area right off of that new toll road I guess it's not so new now I rarely use it I'm there rarely in that portion of the county but uh Contera was one of the first projects that he got approved and he told me that was it was the first project and it came like six months within his administration and because he was very new to the office he unfortunately you know bought hookline and sinker what they wanted to propose and do and they did nothing and unfortunately he proposed and got a tiff which stands for tax increment financing which means they bought the property about the land and they're only paying their paying property tax over extended period of time incrementally and not the full tech commercial tax that they should be paying which is quite unfortunate because we as taxpayers particularly property taxpayers those who are home owners we don't get that kind of incentive right we have to pay our taxes when do every year no matter what or you know there's a tax lien on your property so I appreciate having some incentives to help bring commercial businesses to the office I mean to the county but I don't particularly like tax tiff tax increment financing for development projects and when I say development projects I'm talking about something other than just housing you know Contera's Contera promised a lot of stuff and they developed nothing except for apartments the last time I drove by there I just saw a bunch of empty land all the trees have been cut and it's a bunch of apartments now I have noticed on the planning boards website that they are planning to make some progress on their their project but right now the only thing that I've seen are apartments on the property some very disappointed and I'm very disappointed in the fact that they that these developers get to pay their property tax over you know 10 to 20 30 years incrementally and here we are suffering because we have a budget deficit because we've got all these tiff projects here in Prince George's County that have not really materialized the one that has materialized obviously has been national harbor so you know we have the galore there we have the galore conviction center we have MGM we have a lot that's there that is one tiff project that made sense and that has benefited the county as a great economic engine however some of the other projects have not been on the scale and scope of national harbor and in my opinion do not deserve a tiff so I kind of ding that kind of ding Baker for that because his administration there were quite a few contaro was just one and it happened to be the first one now he has told me he's learned his lesson from that but that remains remains remains to be seen so moving on because I've spent way too much time on on Baker and moving to miss Aisha Braeboy who's our current state's attorney Miss Braeboy I will say she has sent out the most mail that I have received so far from any of the other candidates obviously she has a bigger treasury to do so and quite frankly I do think that she will because of that she will probably win this election you know the the the adage is is that you have to touch voters seven times. So I've gotten at least seven pieces of mail. I think I've gotten a robocall and I've gotten some text messages from her. And of course she's participating in all of the candidates form. So she is campaigning like you should with if you want to win. And so she's really spent a lot of money, put a lot of money into to the campaign. Now it wasn't unexpected at least not for me that she would run for a county executive. Not just in the special election, but for 2026. I knew that that she was going to be one of the candidates. It's just a quote unquote natural progression at least in this county. If you may remember, Jack Johnson was state's attorney and then became county executive. And so also Brooks was state's attorney and became county executive. And so Aisha is following that same progression in terms of moving up into higher office. Although she started out as a delegate for the 25th legislative district, but nevertheless, she stepped into the current role that she's in as state's attorney. So let's talk about her role in states, the state's attorney's office. So I could only go and this is just here say I can't validate anything about how she runs the office. There have been some murmurings and complaining by senior prosecutors about how the office is run and staffed and the inexperience and the inefficiencies of the office. And so that can kind of impact some of the cases that you win or lose cases that you really probably should have won that you didn't win. And so there have been some rumblings about that. So I'll just kind of say that because again, that's just here say I have not looked into any of that. But what I have noticed is that Miss break boy kind of puts her finger up to the political win to see how where the populist attitude or persuasion is and kind of goes with the flow of that. And what I mean by that is so during the pandemic and directly after George Floyd, there was this big push to do away with cash bail and the unfairness of it all. And I get the arguments on both sides. I get the arguments on both sides. And so there was this big push to do away with cash bail because you know, if you are if you can't afford the bail, the cash bail, then you know, you have to spend a night in jail, you need to miss work and you can get fired. And you know, our justice system just needs a total overhaul actually in the United States. But again, that's for another another podcast. But Miss break boy fell into that same political win sticking up your fingers and oh yeah, we're not going to do cash bail in Prince George's County. And what that did was as we also know what happened during the pandemic and just across the nation, there was a spike in crime and particularly juvenile delinquency and juvenile crime. And so you had all these teens, you know, car jacking, you know, stealing, you know, just just doing awful, awful things. And then they were because of the cashless bail system. And even so, they were underage. So that the juvenile delinquency part also plays a part in that, but they were let go and then they would do the same thing over again. It was a joke for the kids. And so I do think that scaring them a little bit and keeping them in jail probably would have been a better thing and a more deterrent for these juveniles. Then to just kind of let them go each and every time, especially those that were repeat offenders, there was some recidivism going on and there was a lot of repeat offenders. And again, the kids just thought it was a joke. They, you know, they were stealing the the kids and still are. In fact, you know, stealing the kids and, you know, they get these TikTok challenges and they just think it's a game. Okay, well, I can still, you know, five kids in a week, I can steal whatever, you know, and boast about it. And so some of those juvenile delinquents really needed in my personal opinion needed to stay in jail and and then feel what it feels like to be isolated and caged up like an animal. And maybe they think twice about doing it again, but because we didn't have the the cash bail system that allowed them to continue to be released and, you know, back out on the streets. And I even heard some of the police officers say to us in some community meetings, either our our coffee club meetings or roundtable meetings that, you know, one teen told them like, I'll be out and back home before you get off today. Now, if if they had the foresight and the sense enough and the knowledge to know that they can, you know, get home, be out of jail and be back home before the police officer is off their shift. Then now they needed to spend some time. They needed to spend some time in jail just to prove them otherwise and maybe shake them up a little bit. So I do ping her for that. I also ping her. She sided with then superintendents, school superintendent Monica Gaulson on removing some of the resource officers out of the schools. And we know that parents in their schools, children to school with the expectation of safety that the children are going to be safe that they're going to come home and be able to go back and it's there's not going to be an issue. And we know that, you know, you know, their teens, their young kids, you know, they can't control their emotions sometimes and they, you know, fights break out this that and the other. And I would rather have the school resources officers there not for necessarily arresting powers, but for them to have and learn to have a good relationship with a healthy relationship, I should say, with the police department. And that they know that the officers are really there for them to protect and serve as all police agencies are supposed to do, but particularly in print short just county, you know, predominantly African American county. And you have probably a predominantly African American police force, although we do have quite a few, even in the command and some of the command staff, we do have quite a few officers that are not African American. And so I think it's better to actually have them there to have that presence to have them there as seen as a protector and somebody who's serving as supposed to somebody that is always arresting, but they can just, you know, quiet any uproars or any whatever is that's going on in the school system. And so I did not particularly like the fact that there was a willingness to remove officers from our school system. And so, and Angela also broke when she was county executive, she was on the other side of this issue. And you kind of may have remember because they had dueling press conferences and Angela didn't have Aisha at her press conference dealing with this juvenile delinquency and then vice versa. And so the state's attorney Aisha had to have our own press conference. And so there was this kind of dueling back and forth about whether or not the school resources officers should remain in the school system. And Aisha kind of cited with the, or she supported the idea that Monica Goson was saying at the time to remove some of the resource officers. And again, that was that kind of political shiver again. Remember, this was all during the Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, all of that upheaval and people were really looking at how to do policing differently. And so it was more of, again, sticking your finger in the political win and what is everybody saying? And I'm going to go with what everybody's saying as opposed to taking a real heart look at what's going on in Prince George's County, Prince George's County schools and whether or not our juvenile justice system may need to look a little differently. I think since then, Ms. Breyboy has kind of write it that, write it that ship. And and has been selling fairly smoothly since then, but those were some missteps that I do ping her for on that. The next person alphabetically is Marcellus Cruz. I am not gonna spend too much time on Mr. Cruz because I know nothing about him. Unfortunately, he left the candidates form a little early. I think he went through the first round of questions and did answer the question from the team, but what I picked up immediately, excuse me, what I picked up immediately from him is that he never answered the questions. He always talked about what the county need, what we need, what we need, what we need is. He never gave us his plan, his thought out, articulated plan of what he would do is kind of executive to address those needs. And so because of that, definitely ruling him out. Anytime you hear a candidate that asks a question, or excuse me, answers a question with saying, repeating what the question is and saying what we need, but not saying what he individually or she individually will do what's your plan that is a clear, clear answer that that person has not thought out of a plan very well, at least be able to articulate it in one or two minute response. And not just say, go to my website, that kind of stuff, although I don't even, he may have said, go to his website, but he did not answer any question with his own plan as asked. The question specifically has, what are your plans, what are your initiatives, what are you gonna do? He never answered them, indicating what his plans were. So that was Mr. Cruz. The next person is Mr. Calvin Hawkins, who currently serves as our at large county, on the county council. Now before any of this, the possibility of Angela winning and before, I think Ben Cardin even knew that we knew that Ben Cardin would resign. Again, you kind of heard some rumblings about who's gonna run for county executive. Calvin's name has always been in the conversation as well as Aisha, I think those definitely are the two that have always been in the conversation. And of those two, if you would have asked me way back then, I was actually leaning towards Calvin. And this is one of the reasons why Calvin reminds me of someone almost like a Mary and Barry, just a little bit, he actually, even though he was raised and grew up in the glass manner, area of Oxen Hill, his family roots are definitely DC, South East DC. And he actually, what I have learned about him, he actually worked in DC government. And so, particularly during that Mary and Barry administration, and I think he learned the craft of being what he calls himself the people's champ. I think he actually learned how to do that by the observation of that administration. And he would be and definitely has been a voice for the small people, the least of these as we call them people that are either down on their luck or what have you, he's definitely been that voice for the people and some of the initiatives that he's done have been for people that needed a second chance. People that are, like I said, down on their luck, if you will, you know, just always, people that need a hand up. I think that's good. What scares me about Calvin is that not only did he get the endorsement of Angela, but the people in the machinery behind Angela are also the people in machinery behind Calvin. And if you look really closely, that's really the development community. And if you look at his record on the county council, he has always sided with the development community. And that's what scares me a little bit that basically his administration would be a continuation. And he's actually, he actually said this, and you know, he proudly likes the fact that he's been endorsed by Angela. And he proudly, you know, says that, you know, he'll continue some of the things that she has done. So some of the things that she's done and some of the things that I actually like, and I'll give a very good example. I love, loved, loved her idea and program of, let's face it, the Washington Commanders are leaving Prince George's County in 2028. And what are we gonna do with that piece of land? Now, the good thing is, is that Governor Westmore has already endorsed allowing the commanders to move forward with returning to DC. It exchange for some things. And one of the things that Prince George's will get out of it is a redevelopment of the FedEx field site. And then County Executive also Brooks had this whole big redevelopment of the Blue Line Morgan Boulevard station, bringing an outdoor amphitheater there, some other arts things, as well as, you know, development in terms of residential. But her idea and keeping that, I would love to see that happen for that area of land over a FedEx field of Morgan Boulevard station. So if he continues that, I would love, love, love that. What scares me, as I said, is that, that development community is gonna support him. And of course, he'll have to deliver from the development community, the same stuff that we've been getting here in Prince George's County. And so I don't like that about Calvin, is that the development community loves him and they will expect him to endorse anything that they want any projects, that they wanna bring that includes mostly residential. Other townhouses or single family development. And usually what comes with that is very little if any infrastructure improvements. So I kinda ding him in that, but that's just some of my analysis. Mr. Ron Hunt, now you guys, I had not seen Mr. Hunt in action because he wasn't on the ABC7 televised debate. And the little bit that I saw of the NAACP forum, I had not gotten to his questions and response. Needless to say, he was a character. He is the former owner of several night clubs in DC, for those of you who are old enough. And again, I usually do this podcast for millennials and younger. So you would not know about chapter 7, chapter 3. I don't know, chapter 1, 2, 3. I don't know how many chapter clubs he's had and some other night clubs he's had in DC, but apparently they were very popular and he did very well until the baseball stadium came and basically cleared all of that area out and we could have now the national stadium. But that's all I really know. So I had to kind of judge him on the forum that we moderated. And you just have to go back and watch it for yourself. I'll just, I'll say that. You have to go back and watch it for yourself, but one of the questions, the specific question on the competency, it was very clear that he knew more about how DC government operates than Princeton or just county government operates. And for that, I was like, nope, that's not the guy for us. Because if you only know how DC government operates and you don't understand the office that you're running for and how that department and how that government operates then maybe this is not the position for you. He did raise his hand at the end. We did a couple of quite yes and no questions at the end, just for a bonus, just to see how people would respond by show of hands. He did raise his hand to say that when loser draw, he would run again in 2026. So we'll see what happens there, but clearly he needs to do a little bit more homework about how Princeton County operates, how Princeton County government. with the kind of the roles of the county executive because clearly he was not able to answer that question. So moving on, Mr. McDermott, Mr. McDermott, George McDermott was our only Republican that actually showed up. We actually had all at the time of the following day all 11 candidates had agreed to attend. So there was another Republican candidate and his name is escaping me right now, but George McDermott was the one that did show up. He, I believe, said he was 83 years old and what was surprising to me that he said was he likened the county government to a corporation and said the county executive is the CEO of the county council is the board of directors. He didn't say this, but I'm assuming that he assumes that all the taxpayers or shareholders in the county. But the fact that he wanted to equate how to run a county like you run a business, I can see the parallelism there. However, I cannot necessarily agree that you have to exactly run it that way because in a business, the shareholders mainly want a return on investment, whereas in a jurisdiction, people are just talking about quality of life issues. They, you know, they want their taxes dollars spent wisely. They want, you know, everything done accordingly. And there to be transparency and to get the services that they pay for. So that's the difference. The parallel kind of breaks away once you talk about who the quote-unquote shareholders are versus who the taxpayers and homeowners and the people, the residents who actually live there because the company, which is the county, if you will, has to, you know, provide certain services. And there are services that are expected whether it's education, whether it's public safety, whether it's roads, whether it's school construction. So you can't make that parallel. But I didn't hear him per se. Excuse me. I didn't hear him like Mr. Cruz provide any real plans that he would do as county executive. So I'm not going to spend much time on him, you know, I'm a registered Democrat so he wouldn't even be on my ballot. So if you are a registered Republican, I think you have two persons you can, two or three persons you can choose from and you can kind of do the research on Mr. McDermott. But I do applaud him and thank him for attending and coming and sharing his, his viewpoints. What I will say is what the millennials and everybody younger would say just as they set up Biden and set up Trump just thinking might be a little too old and it's time to, you know, you know, I think he actually said he was 83. I've lived in this county 80s something years. I think he said he's 83 years old. It's time for someone new, some new blood, some new direction. So anyway, that was Mr. McDermott. Mr. Albert Slocum. Mr. Slocum is a fairly good friend of mine and he during when I was running in the special election for county council, he supported me and was helping me out and I actually thought that he was going to run and he had not actually thought he told me and asked me to support him for district five county council to replace the seat that Jolyne Ivy gave up to run for the at large position. And so there were several people that wanted me to support them for the district five race that's also going on right now in terms of this special election. And I said I was going to support him. So I was really surprised when he texted me saying that he's going to run for county executive. I said I thought you said you were going to run for district five county council and he's like, no, the time is now and we need some new direction. This that any other. So I could not commit to him just like I didn't commit to really anyone until after I had, you know, I knew we were going to have this candidate's form. So I wasn't committing to anyone. I would have committed to as I had mentioned him to run for district five county county council. But his performance was a little lackluster in the sense that the competency question he didn't know what the county's climate action plan was. And so people, it was clear that you know that he didn't know and he was kind of looking for me because I I was the one that posed a question to him. And so he was looking for me to kind of give him some direction. And I basically just said I can't help you. You know, you either know what the county climate action plan is or you don't. And the question was for him to describe it and how he would implement it. And so that's spoke volumes to me. And again, the competency questions were really good because they really said whether you know the office that you're trying to run for, the position that you're trying to run for. And so also his responses to the team questions, direct questions, some of the initial questions he was kind of like Marcella's crews in the sense that he talked about what the county needed as opposed to some action plan that he would have. And so I was again, I'm always weary of candidates that can identify the problem. Everybody that lives in Prestor just kind of can identify the problems. But can you do you have a plan? Do you have actionable items that you could try to implement in order to address those needs. And I didn't see that his answers were responsive in that regard. So that was Mr. Slocum. Ms. Sweat Ms. Tanya Sweat she lives down in South County in Acquique down here. So I'm very familiar with Ms. Sweat. She's an attorney. She actually was an attorney in the federal government and some capacity. I don't know exactly can go to a website and get that information. She has run for county executive before. So I hats off to her. She just didn't up and throw her name in. She has run before. She's never really got in traction outside of the southern part of county. She's kind of like me. People know her locally here. But getting her name out in other parts has been a little difficult. With the exception of her being a big advocate and attorney for the volunteer fire department fire fighters, I should say. The volunteer fire fighters have been dealing with issues in terms of how to continue to integrate and use them. I think we're the only county that's still heavily relies on the volunteers, but we're moving more and more away from volunteers to have professional firefighters. Now with the county with almost a million people, and I'm sure we've probably reached a million now the way we're growing like gangbusters with all these town homes. We really do need professional firefighters to cover the entire county. Yes, I love our volunteers, anybody that wants to do anything for free. You're not going to hear any opposition for me on that. But Tanya represents them legally. So I think she may have some support in the maybe the northern central portions of the volunteer corps that live in that area. But unfortunately the majority especially in the southern part of Prince George's County. The majority of them do not live in Prince George's County and they do not vote. It would not be able to vote for her. They live in Charles County and other parts of outside of Prince George's County. So I'm not using that as argument of not not supporting her. What I think Tanya brings a different perspective of how government works and how government ought to work in Prince George's County that would be refreshing. And she brings a knowledge base that also will be refreshing. Unfortunately, the knowledge base and how government works. And I would even get pinged for this now because it's heavily reliant upon being a good partner with the federal government. And unfortunately, we're not going to have an under this current administration. The fact is we're not going to have a good working relationship with the federal government under this administration. So you know, the things that I even said when I was on the campaign trail for the at large position, because I said one of the things that I said about the budget is that we don't do a good job in the county of accessing federal tax dollars. Well guess what? We're not going to have that in in Prince George's County just because of this administration. So while it's a good idea and I will hardly agree with some of that federal perspective, it's just this is not the time. This is not the time under the current administration, federal administration, Prince George's County is not going to get any help. And so we're going to have to do what we can with the resources we have. And unfortunately there weren't a lot of questions to her at least about the budget and how she would implement. I have to kind of go back and listen, but I got her federal experience, her federal perspective on what to do. I will say that she answered the questions most directly. Had some plans, had some will thought out plans about what to do specifically with public safety and again the firefighters and how to use our volunteer corps. And I thought that was very well answered. There were some other things that stood out. But if the reliance is going to be on the federal government, Prince George's County can hang it up because we're not going to get it. I don't even think the FBI will now come to Prince George's County as a result of who we have in office and they'll try to cancel the contracts and cancel the awards and all of those other things. So I would like to see something a little bit more local that she would like to implement that could help us outside of the public safety and the firefighters. I thought again, she spot on on that and I think she would be continued to be a good advocate for that. But you know, Prince George's County, we've got a whole plethora of issues. And so I'd like to see her launch a campaign in 2026 and see where things stand in 2026 and not this little interim piece. She didn't raise her hand though when we asked whether or not you win loser draw, would you run in 2026? She didn't raise her hand. So I think she thought that this would be a good opportunity to get in and feel in the only problem with feeling in an uncompleted term is that you kind of got to buy in with what you have there. I don't know that she has a lot of contacts within the county to really implement some of the things that she wants in just this remainder of what we have left in this county executive term. So, you know, some of the things that she would probably want to implement would not, she couldn't do it in other words in the less than two years that are remaining in the term. She would need a full fledged four years in order to accomplish what she proposes. And so I was a bit surprised that she didn't raise her hand. I think she should run again in 2026 and try to flush out and implement a full, her full vision for the county and not in this, you know, it's just not going to happen in two years and it's not going to happen with the federal administration that we have right now. So that was my sweat. And then the last person is also a breath of fresh air. I'm still on so Washington now. When I found out I was a little surprised because I found out that he was possibly going to run for the at large seat, but he never, he never did. But he did put his head in for the county executive and I love Alamzo Washington. He's a state senator. He was a delegate first and they became state senator. Loved him for his, the bills that he has put forward, particularly towards children, education and so forth. I've actually gone to Annapolis and testified in support of several of his bills on a couple of occasions as a senator. And so I think he has very good common sense legislation. I do think it's time for some new leadership. Even though he's technically in leadership in the sense that he's already in office, he's, you know, like I said, he was a delegate and now he's a state senator. I think he does a very good job there. He answered the questions, you know, fairly well. Fortunately, he also had to leave a little early. I think he's, well, no, he stayed pretty much through. I take that back. He pretty much stayed through the entire time. There was, you know, a few little questions at the end. Yes, no questions, raise your hand kind of thing. He was not there for, he has a two year old and so he wanted to make sure he's home to, see the two year old to bed. But I thought that was so sweet. And he answered the questions very well. I thought his workforce development. And I remember asking a question about Princeton's community college and workforce development. And I thought he had a well thought out plan for that. He too was a person that had well thought out positions. And I think when someone first asked me about the county executive, I said, I'm taking a really close look at Alonzo Washington. And I really, I still really am. And I thought he had thought out plans in terms of what to do with and how to continue to give the teams the support that they needed in terms of cultural, recreational and educational opportunities. And so that question was answered really well by him. I can't remember the first question that was posed to him in the first round. But the ones that he did answer that I can remember off the top of my head, I thought he did, thought he did really well. And so for me, the two people that were kind of the top candidates or maybe even three, well, I'm just going to stick with two right now. But would be Alonzo Washington and Richard Baker. I spent way more time on Richard and that I did Alonzo because Richard has a track record that you can kind of go back and look and see. But at the end of the day, because this is a special election to complete an unfinished term, I do agree that we need experience and we need somebody to come in day one. But I'm hoping is that Baker just not try to do just wholesale change. I hope he's learned his lesson because one of the questions at the team asked was what was his biggest mistake and his biggest mistakes he said was working with the council and the lack of communication. Well, that wasn't really his biggest mistakes. His really biggest mistakes was not listening to the people when we told you we didn't want our taxes raised. And the other big, big is the mistake was giving out tax increment financing. If you wanted to raise taxes, then maybe you shouldn't have done tax increment financing for a lot of these projects that you approved that never came to fruition versus putting them on the backs of homeowners and taxpayers. So I'm hoping that he really learned from that he didn't I did not see him raise his hand, but I know that he said in the personal event that I went to that he probably is going to run in 2026 as well. I think I think he would be good to feel this unfulfilled term, but then that's about it. I'm ready for somebody new. I'm ready for somebody some fresh perspective of fresh ideas, not a return to his administration only because I'm not sure that he has any fresh ideas. I think he would kind of continue where he left off and some of what he left off was not all that palatable. I also kind of fall tim for the golden parachute for the superintendent who ran, I mean the soup not who ran the superintendent who left Maxwell that's who it is. His name was not coming to me. And you know, appointing him and you know, all of the things that went on with superintendent Maxwell. [BLANK_AUDIO] I kind of hold my nose. If I, I guess if I had, if I thought that Alonzo was really, really ready, I look at Alonzo a little bit like Tony, I want him to run in 2026. I'd like to see a full-fledged campaign, you know, one, he's a senator. So he's in session right now. He, I don't even know how he has time to even run and be an enapolis. So I would like to see him run again in 2026 'cause he was one of my top favorites. My top three would be, Richard would be Alonzo and then probably Calvin. And some people say, well, Tim, why would you support Calvin and Calvin, you know, supported legislation that Jerry Manageu out of the district but for court case? And, you know, I don't hold any grudges. And I think that's why I'm not in office now. I don't play politics. I'm just kind of cleaning, you know, run, you win, you don't. I'm not trying to play political favors. And so, you know, he did what he did. And not so much that I don't forgive him or anything like that. You know, it's a little stain in the back of my brain but, you know, for me, it's just politics. It's like, okay, yeah, you did that. And I'm not gonna necessarily hold that against you. You were, you know, playing politics, what concerns me most about Calvin is, is the relationship with the developers. And that's what I'm concerned about. But I like the fact that he is, that people's champ, I think he will hear the people and will try to respond. But I hope that he will also, you know, have a plan of his own. So I kind of look for those persons to run again and to see if we can lead the county in a better direction. But right now, we just need kind of a steady hand. Somebody that's experienced that knows what they're doing to come in day one and move forward. And so that's why I have leaned towards Baker. So that's where I landed. Now this episode, I apologize now for all the verbal letters, the arms, the stops of start. This is what I could give you right now because early voting starts this Wednesday, February 26th, through Monday, March 3rd. And this special election day is Tuesday, March 4th, 2025. And so I wanted to get this out as I promised people, we love you, we thank you for listening and tuning in and happy special election voting. Go out and vote. Whoever you vote for, whether you agree with me or not, go out and vote. It's important. Thanks so much for listening to all politics is local with me, your host, Tamara Davis Brown.