Attack Ad in County Race, School Psychologists Cuts, UMD Admissions Debrief

Affordable Maryland Incorporated is an independent political action committee, or PAC, that is engaged in local county-level politics.

In 2022, the group opposed Mark Elrich's campaign to be county executive and came up short by 32 votes.

And in this election, they are opposing Will Joando's campaign to be county executive.

As of May 19th, the PAC had raised $1.3 million this election season, mainly from local real estate businesses, developers, real estate investment trusts, and the like.

It is led by Jonathan Robinson, a Democratic pollster and political analyst who lives in Rockville, and Eric Saul, an architect who lives in Silver Spring and is the publisher of the satirical website Tacoma Torch.

both saul and robinson are outspoken advocates for increasing housing supply and have been guests on i hate politics several times and they are personal friends let's start with the ad they released

as head of the education committee will jawando had one job watch over county schools but under jawando graduation rates plummeted half of third graders can't read at grade level and the principal who sexually harassed staff was promoted Then as Trump slashed jobs, Juando made life more expensive.

Back in income tax hikes, home sales tax increases, even claiming a property tax hike was not large enough.

Juando, failing our kids, higher taxes.

It's okay to say no to Juando.

The response to the ad from Joando's backers, particularly Montgomery County Education Association, MCEA, which represents the county's educators, and SEIU Local 500, the staff members' union, was swift condemnation.

But it was Maryland's senior U.S.

Senator Chris Van Hollen's public criticism that was striking.

Generally, Maryland's elected federal leaders avoid getting down and dirty in local politics, which tends to be intramural competition within the Democratic Party.

Here is what Van Hollen said.

Hi, I'm Chris Van Hollen, and I'm proud to represent Montgomery County and all of Maryland in the United States Senate.

I have not weighed into the Democratic primary for county executive, and I'm not doing so now.

But I want to make one thing clear.

There's no place for outside Super PAC ads that lie about any of the candidates or their records.

And I'm frankly sickened by the ad I saw that lies about Will Jawando's record on education.

The notion that he doesn't care about our kids' education or that he is solely responsible for some of the problems in our schools is absurd.

So I urge all the candidates in that race to denounce that ad and demand that it be pulled down.

Lies like that should have no place in our politics.

Let's hold ourselves to some basic standards of political decency here in Montgomery County and Maryland.

Van Hollen knows all three of the leading county executive candidates very well.