The Politics Hour: Maryland's primary elections and the D.C. council reverses budget cuts

From WAMU 885 at American University in Washington, welcome to The Politics Hour starring Tom Sherwood. I'm Kojo Nandi.

Tom Sherwood is our resident analyst and a contributing writer for Washington City paper. Tom Sherwood, welcome. Hello, everybody. Later in the broadcast, we'll be talking with WMU's senior D.S. Policy Politics Reporter Alex Comer. We'll also be talking before that with Tara Jackson, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Prince George's County State's attorney. Joining us in studio now is Will Jawando,

the presumptive Democratic nominee for Montgomery County Executive, or the way he tells it, the nominee for Montgomery County Executive. Will Joando, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. If you have questions or comments for Will Joando, give us a call at 800 433 8850. Send us email to cojo at wamu.mu.com. You can also send us questions on Instagram by commenting on our post or responding to our stories. The number again, 800 4338850. Tom Sherwood, since we have Will Gawando in the room, let's talk Maryland

politics. The most money it would appear was spent in that district race between April McLean Delaney and what's the other guy's name? Toast. The one who spent 12, 25 million dollars. Toast is his name. For that race. And David Trone, of course. We're talking about David Trone, of course. Tell us a little bit about what happened there. David Trone spent $25 million. April McCain-Delani spent about $7 million, both of their own money, I understand. In order to really understand what happened in this election, you have to go back to the U.S. Senate race in 2024, when David Tron spent $60 million, $62 million of his money, trying to become the U.S. Senator, Angela Also Brooks, handed him his head in that election.

He was the former, David Trone is a former congressman from the 6th Congressional District. He decided to challenge April Delaney. All the money you just said was spent. She had to spend some of her own money. I don't remember how much it was, but not nearly what he spent. He flooded the airways, he flooded whatever prints around. He flooded social media, but what he didn't do is get the votes and he lost. So I suspect this might be the last election campaign for David Trone,

wealthy businessman and just some people wondered why he was running. Much of the Maryland political establishment, including the governor through their support to McLean Delaney's way, the governor also stood through his support behind our current guest. How significant is that? Well, it's always better to have endorsements than not, but you can't rely on them. You have to have a ground game. You have to have basic support among the people who are going to be voting for you. They are impressed by various endorsements like the governors.

The governor went out of his way to endorse a lot of people this time around, but not everyone, as we well know, Bill Ferguson, the state senator. So endorsements are important, but you can't win on endorsements. Money is important. You can't win on money. You've got to have a cohesive campaign that blends all of those things, and then you have a chance of winning. Well, Gwanda, would you care to weigh in on the McLean Delaney victory?

The record show he was nodding his head at my analysis. I was. It sounded like our campaign. You're on your own message, Tom. Yeah, I think it was a nasty campaign. And I'm thankful that April McLean Delaney won, frankly. You know, I think you shouldn't be able to buy elections. So you were in her corner?

I didn't officially endorse anybody or have a vote in that race, but I live in the 8th District. But I'm happy with the outcome. And I think so is the state delegation. You got to be able to work with people, and that's important. As we mentioned, Governor Wes Moore weighed in on that race as he did on yours. and he said, we are planning on coming back for a redistricting special session. It was remembered that the Senate President Bill Ferguson initially was opposed to that. Now he seems to be warming to it some, so it looked like it's going to happen.

The whole point of redistricting across the country is where Republicans are trying to build up their membership for the midterm elections and the Democrats are doing so. But Governor Wes Moore, as hard as he tried, could not. get this legislature to prepare a redistricting for the 2026 elections. However, he's pushed this, I think it's part of his national agenda, but won't get distracted by that. He has finally gotten the Democrats met yesterday, and they're going to hold a special session to have to, to, to redistrict the state of Maryland to get rid of the one Republican Andy Harris in the first district. However, It has to go before the voters, I think it's a constitutional change, so it has to go before the voters this November, if the legislature meets and does this.

And then it will be in effect for the 2028 election, which, by the way, happens to be the time when Wes Moore, everyone expects to be running for president. But it has nothing to do with our doing. In case you're just joining us, our guest is Will Juwondo, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Montgomery County Executive, and we're taking your calls. At 800433-88050, you can send email with questions or comments to code you at wamu.org. You can also send us questions on Instagram by commenting on our post or responding to our stories. Well, Juando, as I said, you are the presumptive nominee for Democratic, for Montgomery County Executive. It appears that you have, as you've already declared it, why do you think more voters chose you? Well, I think we ran a, not I think, I know we ran a positive campaign focused on the issues,

focused on affordability for working people, focused on investments in education, focused on pushing back against Donald Trump and protecting our immigrant community, which is a third of our residents, including my dad who came here. And also, we built a diverse coalition, as Tom was talking about on the lead end, over 40 organizations, Jews United for Justice, our teachers union, our laborers, SCIU, AFL-CIO, we built a really intergenerational cross-racial coalition in that we knocked tens of thousands of doors. We spoke to issues that people were seeing. And even in the face of millions of dollars of attack ads against me, we have one of the widest margins of a kind

of executive race in recent history. You labeled yourself as the more progressive candidate compared to your two council colleagues who ran. How do you think that factored into the race? And what exactly did you mean by that? Well, for me, progressive is making progress for working people. You know, people want schools and great neighborhoods for every kid. They want affordable housing. They want jobs that pay a living wage.

If you're a senior, you want to be able to retire with dignity and afford to live in Montgomery County. These are basic things that they're kind of the microcosm of the American dream. I call it the Montgomery County Promise. And being progressive is delivering that for everybody. We're on the verge of having the world's first trillionaires when these IPOs for these AI companies come out. And people are fed up with money being concentrated at the very top and their lives not getting better, even though they're working harder. And so I think progressivism speaks to that. And I think Democrats should speak to that.

Montgomery County needs to do something more about getting more business, getting more revenue, getting more jobs. You were endorsed by Mark Helridge, the current county executive. But the business community in Montgomery County has had yet another stark setback. You know, in 2022, David Blair ran, and he lost close. 2018, David Blair ran with business support. He lost. And Nancy Florine ran in the general election with business support. he lost. And in 2014, Ike Leggett, a name well known in Montgomery County, beat Doug Duncan,

who had more business support. What are you going to do differently? Mark Howard said this week at his weekly news conference, that he has tried, and he's just been elected, we might say, to the at large member of the council. Again. In December. So he says he has been unable to get the council to have a reasonable business tax. situation so you can get more businesses in the county. Where are you on all that kind of progressive stuff to get businesses to provide the money for the social programs you want to do? Yeah, we absolutely need to grow our economy. This is something I talked about for the last year and a half in my last eight years on the council. Both of my parents, my mom and my stepdad

are small business owners in Montgomery County. My dad has a transportation service for seniors. My mom has a catering business. I help them both start those businesses. We do need to make it easier to start and grow a business in Montgomery County. 95% of the businesses are small. So one of the first things I'm going to do in my first 100 days is come out with a regulatory package that reduces fees for small businesses, that shortens timelines, that makes it easier to start and grow a business. We also have to double down on what we're good at with the third largest life science hub in the country. I was recently in China and Japan on an economic development trip in October. We met with over 40 companies, many in the life science space. Two of

decided to come here, including Samsung Biologics. AstraZeneca just invested $2 billion in the state. We need to double down on things like that that we're good at. And I think you can do both. You can pay people the living wage and grow the economy and make it easier to start a business. You can do all of those things at the same time. I often say it's Costco not Sam's Club.

Costco pays people $30 an hour. Sam's 15. Costco has better profit margins and people stay there longer because it pays you well. So we can do both these things. We should be clear that you've won the process. primary. I have won the prime. And so you still have the November 3rd election. And assuming you win that, given the Democratic tilt of... Four to one. Well, it's not a tilt, is it? When do you actually take office? Is it in December? December 1st would be the swearing in at Strathmore. You're all invited. I wanted to go back to the campaign for a second, because you've accused your opponents of playing dirty and alleging quoting here,

dark money. What is dark money and what role in your view did it play in the race? Well, anyone probably listening who watches TV has seen some of these ads from a super PAC called Affordable Maryland Pack, which was funded by out-of-state, real estate, private equity, interests. And that's what we're referring to there with that type of money. Millions of dollars spent attacking me, you know, lying about my record. And I think that has no place in politics. Obviously, it's one of the many unfortunate things out of Citizens United. And this is actually one of the first times that it is. it has played so prominently in a negative attack ad on TV against the county executive candidate.

But I'm really glad the voters saw through it. And a lot of people at the polls were telling me, I don't believe those ads. I wish people would tell me what they want to do, not just attack. And I think it backfired. Let me stay with that for a second. Your campaign was accused but cleared of any wrongdoing for illegally coordinating with a Brooklyn-based progressive group that also backed New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Zohran Mamdani. what exactly happened there?

And there's just another attack. We don't have enough time in the show to list all the ways people tried to take us down. This was saying I transferred money from my Senate run a couple years ago to working families, which I did do, and they support all sorts of progressive candidates around the country. I believe in them. It's a totally legal transfer. And then they're saying over a year later because they spent a few thousand dollars on an independent expenditure for me that that was coordinated in no way. was and we were cleared 100%.

How does this affect your future? You're still serving on the council for several more months. Yes. Alongside your opponent, Andrew Friedson, has your working relationship changed since you both launched your campaign? And he was the benefit of those I had. Yes. Oh, absolutely.

And ran his own set. Look, I'll work with anybody. And this is to people that didn't vote for me. If you voted for me, I'm going to work with anybody in a constructive way to make Montgomery County even better than it already is. is it's one of the best places to live in the United States. We're super diverse. We have super talented people.

And so whether it's Andrew or Evan, who Evan called me Tuesday night to concede before I even spoke and said he wants to work with me. And I'm going to work with both of them for my remaining time on the council and going forward with anybody to make Montgomery County even better than it already is. Well, politics are about personal relationships as Andrew Friedson, who many thought was out early with a million dollar campaign fund. has seemed to be ahead in general. Has he spoken to you yet? I have not spoken to him yet. And Evan Glass, who's a popular council member, I think he was the last election. I think he got more at large votes than anyone else four years ago.

But he seemed to be caught between you on the most progressive. And Edraffreth is being more the business community moderate. I wouldn't call him conservative, but moderate. And Glass got in the middle. Is there a place for Evan Glass and your, administration? He didn't give me that question. I'm sure he didn't. No. I mean, look, as I said, I'm going to work with anybody. One of the first things we have to do that we've already started on is putting together a great transition team and hiring the smartest, most diverse, and talented cabinet

and agency heads that Montgomery County has ever seen because you need good people. And there's a lot of them that I worked with in the Obama White House and administration and over my years on Capitol Hill and in the county. So I'm excited about that. Here is a question from Eric. You opposed serious senior property tax abasement program. Every other D.C. metro area jurisdiction has a program. Will you propose a comprehensive income-based senior property tax credit program? I haven't opposed them. That's not correct, but I do support them. We need one that's equitable. In Montgomery County, you have to have lived in your home for 40 years to qualify for our senior property tax credit. That's too long.

40 years? 40 years, yeah. And you only get it set for seven years at 25 percent off. We need to to change that. That'll be on top priority in my list. One of the fastest growing groups in our county, the fastest growing is our seniors. And this from Kevin in Germantown. I'd like to hear his plans to maintain the presence and feel of the county's agricultural zone. Yeah, absolutely. One third of our county was cordoned off for agricultural usage. My mom grew up on a farm in Kansas. I have a great affinity. We have, we need to protect that for local food production purposes, for the integrity and for our climate.

And so I'm going to make sure that we maintain that commitment. There are some uses like wineries and solar that have been limited uses up there, and I think that's fine. But we're going to maintain the integrity of the agricultural reserve. Speaking of the politics for the council, the 11 member council, you've never been elected president of the council. Is there a reason for that? A lot of the people that, they cycle in and out for a year,

council president. Someone asked me, well, if you haven't been president of the council, but you've been a member, how would that affect if you're dealing with the council since you've never led the council? Yeah, this is an interesting question. I was elected vice president of the council, Tom. Which is actually the harder vote because the vice president is the president in waiting. That's the harder vote to take. I did not put myself forward for president when I was vice president because I was deciding to run for county executive. Okay, cool. And so that's why I...

Is that job really more than ceremonial? You get to control the agenda? You set the agenda. That's the main thing, right? Yeah, that's the main thing. And we're all equal body. The other thing I'd say is I had the most endorsements of anyone on the council. I had three council members, council member sales, council member Evans, council member Mink,

of anyone running in this race. So I can work with all my colleagues. Hey, all, did they win that? The two Mink and sales, Shepra Evans can't run again. She was just serving as an interim over Alvernazas. So how would you describe your governing style and what are your legislative priorities in, say, your first hundred days in office assuming you will? We're going to have a style that's very similar to our campaign. We're going to be inclusive of everybody, hear viewpoints, bring everyone to the table, build the smartest, most diverse team possible.

And we're going to focus on a few things in the first hundred days. Our schools are a crown jewel. I fought really hard to limit cuts this. year in the budget. We have to restore some of the cuts that were made. The 36 million. 36 million and get our social workers back in our schools. Mental health is a huge issue. I have three kids in MCPS right now at each level, high school, middle, and elementary. That's going to be a big part. We have to build more affordable housing. And then we have to make sure government is delivering for people, fixing our roads, making it easier to start a business,

making sure trash is working, all those basic things that people depend on. And for local government. We're going to be working really hard on all of those. Here is Oscar in Silver Spring. Oscar, are you on the air? Go ahead, please. Good evening and congratulations, Mr. Juwondo. Quick question in reference to affordability. Two questions. One, do you believe some, because you're progressive, and I always say progressives are like programs like the forever stamp they never end. Do you believe that certain programs ought to be sunsetted so that you can evaluate

whether or not they're working or not? And the second thing, income and affordability, what fees, what taxes and things that you are, you will suggest that need to be reduced for middle class wage earners in Montgomery County? Yes, I thank you for your call. Yeah, thank you. Great questions. Yes, I use data to inform my decisions. So we're going to look across government, programs that are working that are achieving the intended outcomes will stay. the ones that aren't will be rolled back.

I also had piloted a guaranteed income program in Montgomery County where we gave residents who need support $800 a month for two years and we studied it with the Urban Institute. I think that's a way to remove government administration from actually helping people and reduce costs in the long term. And on taxes, we need a fairer tax system. One of the reasons people are struggling is because property taxes are regressive in Montgomery County. A data center or a major corporation pay the same property tax rate as a single

family home. And that is wrong. We need state legislation to change that. That's going to be a top priority for me. I've talked to the governor. I've talked to our state legislators about it. And that would reduce your tax rate. In D.C., where we're sitting right now, residents pay closer to 82 cents on the dollar, and businesses pay over $1.50. And in Montgomery County, it's flat. So that's one way I can reduce your costs in addition to the senior property tax credit, which we want to expand to more people. In the District of Columbia, the council chairman, Phil Mendelsohn, who was unopposed for re-election, has warded the council off from the legislature, the legislature and the judge counsel from doing tax increases. But he's going to hold a hearing in the fall to look at the tax revenues because the city's tax revenue commission failed to come up with any suggestions.

And on cuts, you are strongly supported by the unions in the county. When we talk about county government and the cost of the government, a lot of it is spending on personal. personnel, which the unions are going to not like, are there anything going to irritate the unions in what you're planning to do? Well, I think we, again, we can do this together. I've already talked to a lot of them, for example, our county government employees, we have about 10,000. A third are eligible for retirement. And there are ways we can leverage technology.

And over time, through attrition, not firing people, I think we can reduce the size of county government over time, over my term. Atrition type. Yeah, through attrition. If you get down to 9,500 or 9,000, that's going to save a lot of money, and you can do things more efficiently and not have to fire anybody. But I do want to make it clear, we need to pay people a living wage. And it's not a whether you pay people or not, you've got to do both. You grow the economy and you pay people a living wage.

Current County Executive Mark Elrich earlier this month signed off on a six-month pause on data center development. You've advocated for a two-year moratorium. If you are sworn in later this year, do you plan to extend? the pause? I do. I'm hoping we can pass my bill that's pending in the council before, so I don't have to. Can you do it with the executive authority? I can, and if I have to, I will on the first day I'm sworn in. But the six-month pause will extend beyond my December, so it'll last until then. I have a bill pending. I'm hoping to work with Councilmember Glass and my colleagues to pass that bill. He also had a six-month moratorium bill. I think we can pass that, give certainty, and create a timeline,

for putting a process in place to make sure that it's renewable energy that's used, that they're not raising our property, or electric bills, rather, and that they pay a fair tax rate, and that we fix our noise ordinance and other things that community members need to be involved in. And we need time to do that, and I think two years is an appropriate amount of time. Virginia, we'll get to Virginia later in the show, but it's doing the same thing. Data centers were seen as a golden calf with all the money flowing in, then the cost of it, the energy costs, environmental costs,

land use costs. Now it seems across the country, whether it's Texas or anywhere else, there are moratoriums on data centers because people are trying to figure out what the hell is going on with them because they're going to be around for a long time. That's exactly right. They may well build them and then they may become obsolete. I said we don't want to be first. We want to be right. And this was a big issue in the campaign. A lot of people talked to me about it. And in Virginia, for example, over 50% of their energy is going to data centers.

That's a problem. County gets a tremendous amount of extra revenue from its status. But they don't want any more now. They don't want any more. Speaking of more revenue besides taxes, what other options are there for bringing more revenue to the county? Yeah, we talked about a fair tax system. We talked about growing our economy from the bottom up, middle out.

95% of the businesses are small. We want to make it easier for them to grow, reducing fees, reducing timelines, and then doubling down on things we're good at, like life science, light manufacturing. I think I have an idea. I want to bring a 10,000 person sports and entertainment arena that can have our graduations and have concerts. You're not going after D.C. teams, are you? No, we won't do that. 10,000 people.

Let's get that on the record right now. Any more D.C. So there's a lot of things we could do. Speaking of elections on how you got elected, here's some thought and a question from Michelle. Michelle, you're on the air. Go ahead, please. Hi. I just want to say congratulations.

to Mr. Juando first. And I am an avid lover of good elections, and I saw D.C. ran their first ranked choice voting election, and I'm really interested to know how you will help Montgomery County and Maryland move forward with better election systems like rank choice voting and maybe even looking at other reforms to our Here is Will Jolando. Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. And thank you to all the election workers who are working real hard to count the ballot. We need fair elections. One of the unfortunate things that happened in this election were deceptive ballots that were put out by some of our state senators purporting to be the Democratic sample ballot. We need to ban those practices. Ranked Choice voting is a great system. We need to look at it. And we also need to expand public financing to state-wide offices. So I'm all in on electoral reforms that limit corporate money and lift up the power of people. So I look forward to working with everybody on that.

off of waiting in 20 seconds. Congressional District 5 replaces Danny Hoyer. You're looking forward to him helping out the region on Capitol Hill? I'll work with him. He's a friend. That was a tough fought election. A lot of good folks, including Walla and Harry and others. But I look forward to working with our delegation. We're going to have to do things together and regionally. Earl Joondas, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Montgomery County Executive. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Up next, Tara Jackson, Democratic nominee for Prince George's County State's Attorney. I'm Kojo Namedi.

Welcome back later in the broadcast. We'll be talking with WMU Senior D.C. Politics Reporter Alex Koma, joining us in studio. Now is Tara Jackson, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Prince George's County State's attorney. Tara Jackson, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. If you have questions for Tara Jackson, you can start calling now. 800 433 8850, send us an email. Codja at WAMU.org. You can also send us questions on Instagram by commenting on our post or responding to our stories. Before we get to Prince George's County, Tom Shorewood, let's talk Virginia, which has now advanced.

The legislators have a $205 billion budget. However, it includes, or I should say moreover, it includes a new tax on data centers, compliments of Senate Finance Committee chair, Louise Lucas. Well, she got some of what she wanted. You know, better late than never, the legislature was unable to do in its 90-day session, able to get a budget done. And they had July 1st deadline. They've been meeting and meeting and meeting over how they're going to treat data centers, as we just talked to Will Joanne Doe about.

Everybody's talking about how to treat data centers. Louise Lucas, a senator from Portsmouth, wanted to just abolish the $2 billion in sales tax benefits. that data centers got. And she was standing strong on that. The House and Governor Abigail Spanberger didn't want to do that because they thought it would hurt the state's business interest. So this week they reached a compromise where there will be a sales tax on the data centers that will raise about $600 million a year of over two years.

That's $1.2 billion, not the $2 billion that the state senator wanted. But they're going to keep those breaks in for the data centers. Data centers are controversial, but they bring in a great deal of money, and the Virginia now has its share. And I got to tell our list is you run all these numbers without consulting notes at all. How do you do this? Because I'm sick to death of us talking about data centers for the last 12 months. But that's what it is. It's a very big deal.

It's a lot of money in the state of Virginia. Yes, when you get sick and tired of something. And if you want to see data centers, it's just going to day trip to Loudoun County. Tara Jackson, congratulations on your primary victory. Thank you. Why did your message resonate in your view with Democratic voters? Well, you know, I think it was about experience. At the end of the day, I think that our community wanted to make sure that someone with experience, true experience, experience not only as a prosecutor, but experience as a leader across the county, experience with the county,

itself and the communities wanted to make sure that they put someone in office that had that experience. You're now set to serve a full term after circuit court judges appointed you to be the interim state's attorney in 2025 to replace county executive Aisha Braveboy. And you've been appointed to several positions before, and as a result, several local lawmakers, including your opponent, asked them not to appoint anyone who would run for the seat during this election cycle.

How do you respond to those concerns? I, for one, thought you'd never run for office. I think you're not alone. But, look, I think that I know that the judges of the circuit court, obviously the law says that the judges of the circuit court have to appoint an interim state's attorney when there is a vacancy. And in my mind, their goal was to make sure that that office continued to run well

and that we didn't miss a beat because cases have to be, you know, continue to have to move through the system. And so I applied for the position along with others and they selected me. And I think it was a fair process. From selection to election, Tom Jay Jones. Yes. Yes, and you're one of the strongest mild-mannered people I've ever met. You have a history of being in administrative positions.

You're a lawyer, I think University of Maryland law school. Yes, yes. That's correct. And it did surprise a lot of people when you stepped from the administrative side deciding, I'm going to run for this office. What was the key moment for you, talking with family or however you decided that you would move from being appointed to everything?

to running for something? What was that? Because that's a big step for people. You know, I guess I just saw the need. And I believed that I had what it took to take, to lead that office, the state's attorney's office, really concerned about what I have seen around the nation, frankly, as it relates to state's attorney's offices and prosecutors' offices, decisions being made for political reasons. Do you have prosecutorial experience? Is that something new? No, absolutely.

I was a prosecutor two different stents before this last stint. So a total of 10 years before this time around. First job really out of law school. I was a prosecutor for four years, tried everything from assaults to homicides, was a child and sex abuse prosecutor for a time, and I was a defense attorney for about six or seven years, and then I led that very office, so the very office that I'm in today, I was the principal deputy state's attorney or the number two under now Senator Alsterbrooks. That job, state's attorney, has been a launching pad for people to go on to county executive and to other things as well.

No, we want to run for that. U.S. Senate. U.S. Senate, for example. Do you see this as what you want to do as the state's attorney, or is this maybe a way station onto maybe running for other office like county executive, where you also have experience? Now that you've apparently won an election, have you grown to like it? No, I want to be state's attorney. I want to be where I am different from others who have been state's attorney. I have had the opportunity to serve in the county executive's office. And so I was the chief administrative officer for the county for four years, actually for almost five years.

Been there, done that. Been there, right? And then had the opportunity, though it was appointed and it was required by the law, I had the opportunity to serve the county as its only ever acting county executive. So when Senator Alsoprooks went to D.C., I had to make sure that government transitioned well before the special election. Just as state's attorney, where are you in the district that's a huge issue about curfews and juvenile justice? And we have a system where the attorney general prosecutes juveniles, the U.S. attorney, the federal agency prosecutes major crimes. What would your office specifically do?

I'm not sure why it's even called state's attorney. You're really the county attorney, but what's the... I read that up. She looked that up. She represents the state. I represent the state. Where are you in, like, prosecutions for juveniles? Because I will tell you, some of the city officials say, well, all the kids from Prince

Georgia's County take the green line into the district. You talk a lot about youth accountability. and discipline. So go ahead. Okay, good. I do. I do. And let me say this. I am the Prince George's County State's attorney is the title. The county attorney is the civil attorney. That's more paperwork. For the county law office. But in terms of juvenile crime, and let me first say, we arrest our fair share of persons from the District of Columbia as well as young people from the district. It's an open border between the two. That's right. That's why we call you Ward 9s. As, you know, Prince Georgians don't like that too much. I know that.

They never used to like PG County, even. That's another story. But we, we, you know, I believe in accountability. I believe that young people should be held accountable for the crimes that they commit. I believe that accountability is, is loving. I, you know, say to everyone. I've said on the campaign trail, I hold my son accountable because I want him to learn that his consequences have actions. And so I believe the same thing for our young people that are committing crimes in the county. At the same time, I want to make sure that there's opportunity for young persons who don't have opportunity, who maybe have grown up in homes where they have not been taught how to be held, or they've not been held accountable in their homes.

So I really, really am trying to operate on both fronts, but I definitely believe that young people have to be held accountable. And that means to me also that even if we divert young people away from the criminal justice system, which is the goal, the goal is really to rehabilitate our young people, that when we do that, we still build accountable. into the diversion programming so that they understand, again, what I've done is wrong. And I can't do it again. Robberies, including carjackings, are down about 50% across Prince George's compared to this time last year, according to police statistics. What has your office done to curb some violent crime like robberies? And let me say this. Robberies were down from 24 to 25, carjacking, specifically, 24 to 25 over 50 percent and now again 25 to 26 over 50 percent so we're we continue to head in the

right direction exactly how are you doing that you know I I can't say that it's one solution but we are continuously collaborating with our police departments across the county you know we're unique in that we have not only the Prince George's County police department but we have many many municipal police department. So we work together on a very regular basis and discuss issues in different communities and how to attack crime specifically in different communities. Carjacking was a huge, almost fad, I'd call it a fad because it sounds superficial. Huge deal in the district in 2023 is also big in other communities, including yours. It seems like carjacking among younger people.

There were a lot of juveniles who were doing it went out of favor. Now one of the things you see now are the mass gatherings, hundreds of kids, teens, getting together. 95% of them just gathering because they want to gather, a few of them causing trouble. There's a curfew, I think, at National Harbor, things like that. Is that an issue? Are you dealing with mass gatherings of teens like the district is? We're not seeing it yet, and I say yet, I should not see. say that, but we, because we know that crime is fluid, we're certainly looking at what's happening

in the district. But we are seeing gatherings, for sure, across Prince George's County, just not at the same level. And let me say this. When, you know, when I was young, I gathered, too, with my friends. I used to hang out at the mall. We want to, young people want to be together. We just have to find constructive activities for them to do when they get together. But certainly, we are monitoring the police department especially is monitoring activities across our county on a really, frankly, a daily basis. And we understand that it's summertime and kids want to get together. What's their working relationship like with county executive Aisha Brave Boy? We have a good working relationship. I make sure that I communicate with her regularly around the work that we're doing in the office. Again,

It's her police department that I'm working with primarily. And I believe that the county is best when we are all working together for its good. You also have to work closely with the county council, which has apparently moved farther left in recent years. What's your experience working with that 11-person legislative body, especially when there are disagreements? Yeah. Well, I haven't had the opportunity to work closely with them necessarily in this role. They have passed a few laws that impact us in terms of public safety. But, you know, when I was acting county executive, I worked more with them.

And I made it my business to make sure that I communicated with each of them around the budget, especially. And so, at least for those that were in office at that particular point, I would say we established a good working relationship. We don't agree on everything, but we worked well together. I'm not asking you where you live specifically, but who's your district council member? The council member now is, I'm in district nine, and so Tamara Brown is the, I believe, the nominee. Okay, couldn't. Why did you want to know? Sydney Harrison is the current council member.

I just want to get a sense of who, in case I can't reach her, I might call her a councilman. Ask for some help. You never know. We're sure. Tara Jackson is the presumptive Democratic nominee for Prince George's County State's attorney. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having it. I do have an opponent in November?

I do not. That's what I was thinking she's home free. She's done with elections. You'll still have to do a campaign, though. Yes, I do. I do. But I'm excited to be at this point. Got to make sure you come back.

joining us in studio now is Alex Coma, WMU Senior D.C. Politics Reporter, hi, Alex. Hello. After a week, really a week after historic primary elections, the D.C. Council has approved a new budget that reverses some of the biggest cuts proposed by Mayor Muriel Bowser. What's back in the budget and how did they find the money for it? Yeah, they managed to wrangle about $600 million beyond what Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed. They were able to get access to some money from these tax changes we've been talking about, the decoupling from parts of the federal tax breaks passed by Republicans last year. And then you add in another $150 million, which I know we'll talk more about, coming from the Reserve Funds, a very controversial decision by the Council to pull some money from that, to essentially restore a lot of what the mayor sought to cut around social service programs, namely our around child care, housing vouchers, health care.

And really, the goal here was to prevent the worst from happening in the next budget year in 27 with the caveat that, yeah, a lot of this stuff isn't funded much before that, and there are more fights to come over how to keep funding. Speaking of fights, let me cut straight to the chase. How is the council's spending plan setting up a confrontation with chief financial officer Glenn Lee? Yeah. Well, that's the reserve issue in a nutshell.

Lee has been warning for weeks that this is not a move he supports, that he feels that this would destabilize the district's finances, send a bad message to the credit rating agencies, which affect how easily the city can borrow money for big projects. And he has basically said that he would see this budget as unbalanced. That's not maybe the sexiest term, but it is a very important one because he's responsible for determining that the budget is indeed balanced, which is a congressional requirement. And so can he block this budget? Not necessarily, but he could certainly make a big stink about this for some important people in Congress to listen. I'm sure. I point out that the CFO is not employed by the council. Right. The CFO back from the 90s when the city had near bankruptcy, the Congress created an independent CFO in, I think, 2005, and then reinforced his or her duties, 2015 or something like that. I can't remember. Point being, though, the CFO can't apparently stop the budget. He certified that the mayor's proposed budget was balanced, but even he said then and she said then that there were cuts she didn't really want to make. She hoped the council would fill in some of them, and it did.

But the $150 million is only part of a $22 billion budget. So you think you could find the money somewhere. Here's the problem with Alex suggested. If the council has, and they have to, one more budget thing they have to pass them called the Budget Support Act, I won't tell you what that is. But once that's done, the budget's done for next year. And if they keep the $150 million in, some people expect that Mr. Glenn Lee will go to Congress with a letter and just say, this budget has a problem with $150 million. and that could get all the Republicans excited up there. What can Congress do in that situation, Alex?

Well, I mean, the budget is a bill like anything else that Congress does have the power to oversee. Now, granted, it has been a very long time indeed since they have tried to block an entire district budget versus a specific piece of legislation. And a lot of what the council is wondering right now is even if the CFO is upset about this, which plainly he is, is does he have the stomach, the muscle to make what would. be, you know, an action that maybe he sees is in line with his authority, but that fundamentally would not win a lot of friends of which he does not have terribly many. He's out of office next summer, though, isn't he next spring? Well, he is up for reappointment. I don't think many people think the new mayor, presumably Ward 4 Councilmember, Janice Lewis George, would appoint him again after the poor relationship that they have had with the council, especially if he were to run to Congress

with something. Well, if he's leaving the job, he doesn't want to think, he doesn't want to believe that I've talked to people who have talked to him. He doesn't want to leave with the budget, in his view, out of balance for this $150 million or being improperly used. And I think he'll make that statement. The question is, with the Republican Congress, which is admired in all the Trump stuff, the midterm elections, will they mess around with the district over $150 million or would they just get through the midterm elections?

D.C. Mayor Muriel, Vowler, weighed in on the budget, saying the council's spending will create immediate problems for the city's next mayor, almost certainly the Democratic primary winner and ward for council member Janice Lewis George. What are Bowses concerned? $800 million problem, she said. Yes, for a council member, she doesn't especially agree with. She seems very concerned with how the start of a Lewis George mayorality would go. And basically is warning, not without some reason, that much of what the council did really only solves many of these issues for a single year. A lot of these programs are funded once, but are fundamentally recurring programs. You talk about the child care pay equity fund, raises wages for child care workers.

That's something that, again, the council is funded for a year, but that everyone in the industry says, you need to do this year over year. And the money isn't there for that. So Bowser says, why didn't you do what I suggest you to do and find savings among those programs that cost a lot of money year over year? The council said the reason why is because we view these as absolutely essential. And so this is setting the stage for a real debate this fall, which Council Chairman Phil Mendelsohn has promised that the Council can have about ways to raise revenue, which there were some talk they could try and raise taxes this year. They didn't.

They're pushing off that conversation for the fall with the idea, can we set up? Well, Ward 1, Council Member Brianna Doe, who, by the way, did not run for reelecting, is floating a wealth proceeds tax, which Mayor Bowser calls, quote, terrible public policy. Are additional taxes coming to some D.C. residents? I mean, at this point, I think it's looking more likely than not. You bring up the wealth proceeds tax, the idea that you're targeting passive income from people who are already making a lot of money above $400,000 a year. They have to live in the district? Yes. So capital gains, you know, things like that.

These are sources of money, you know, that counsel is long, targeted to say these are people who have already gotten federal tax breaks maybe, they could afford to pay a bit more. There's been conversations about a pieter tax on second homes in the city. Really, the goal of this fall is to kind of bring a lot of these things that normally happen just before the budget passes out into the open and have a longer conversation about him and crucially sort of let Lewis George weigh in on all this when she's in this transition peers. And as Alex has reported, the council itself has moved left or just more progressive, we use that

word. And so there's going to be some type of change most likely coming exactly when. But we're talking about trying to balance really the 28 budget and maybe alter the 27. Lawmakers also reverse course on funding semi-open primaries starting in 2028. What led several council members to change their mind and explain what that means? Yeah, the basic idea is that anyone now can participate in a party primary. If you're an independent in particular, you can ask to participate in a party primary, which affects a lot of people. You will still need to ask crucially, but this is a very big change. Normally, only Democrats in the Democratic primary and so on. Goes into 28. The election starts in 28. And it starts only in 2028. And so what changed their

mind is that I think they heard from a lot of people who were headed to the polls. They were confused. This happens every year. They hear about a big election. Maybe they're registered independent because of their job or something. And they say, why can't I vote in this? And I think that made a different. I have a question about the Resale Act, which affects a lot of our viewers. Can I?

You only have about a minute and a half. But go ahead. Charles Allen Council will pass, once the Council, pass a resale act, which will limit the resale of tickets, which is a huge issue for sports fans and others, contract goers. What's the status of that? Yeah, that's coming up for a vote next week. basically, as the legislation's written now, it would ban some practices that people don't like. Like, you know, Stubhub selling tickets that don't exist, you know, that sort of thing, more price transparency.

But the big issue is Allen wanted a price cap included in this bill, basically saying the face value of the ticket plus 10% more, you can't go over that. It would end these resellers selling tickets that normally go for 45 bucks for thousands in some cases. But lawmakers took that provision out. He is very much pressing to have that back. in on Tuesday. And that's all the time we have. Alex Comus, W.M.U. Senior D.C. Politics Report, Alex, thank you for joining. It's great to be here. If you missed any of the show this week, you can catch a re-airing of the politics hour tonight at 10 p.m. The politics hour is off next week. For the 4th of July, we will be back on air on Friday, July 10th. Tom, America turns 250 years old this year,

almost as old as you and I. How are you celebrating this holiday? I'm sorry, President Trump has politicized the whole 250th celebration. It's going to be a huge fireworks thing on July 4th. I recommend you not go downtown. It's just fenced off and too secure. Find a place to watch the fireworks. They're going to be twice as long. I'll be on your balcony.

Thanks for listening and stay safe. I'm Kojo Namdi. The politics hour with Kojo Namdi is produced by Matt Blitz. Our supervising producer this week is Chris Remington. Our engineering team is Kellen Quigley and Adrian Danhouser. Our phone screener is Ruth Secular. For past shows, visit the politics hour.org.