Something’s Still Going On

Back on July 27, we noted the failure of Montgomery County NOW (MCNOW) to endorse former Maryland NOW President and Treasurer and former MCNOW President Duchy Trachtenberg. After all, they had endorsed six other candidates for the four at-large seats, so why not support the one candidate who had indisputably worked hardest on their issues? Well, over two weeks have passed since then, folks, and what do you know:

MCNOW has still not endorsed Trachtenberg.

Now suppose that we have it all wrong and Trachtenberg is NOW’s heroine. Suppose that she forgot to send in her questionnaire, or it was lost. A reasonable person in Trachtenberg’s shoes would get the questionnaire in, make a few phone calls to MCNOW officers and wrap up the endorsement quickly just to stop the chatter. But apparently that has not happened and the chatter has dramatically intensified in the last two days.

The focus of the rising interest in Trachtenberg’s relationship with NOW is connected to a January Gazette article discussing a grievance filed by Maryland NOW against Trachtenberg for allegedly mishandling money while she was their Treasurer. The article never talked about the specific allegations against Trachtenberg, but they were bad enough that Trachtenberg had her lawyer threaten to sue any NOW official who discussed them with the media. Furthermore, Trachtenberg told the Gazette that she had no knowledge of the grievance until told about it by a Gazette reporter. A Maryland NOW official said Trachtenberg was told of it when it was filed. These two accounts cannot be reconciled.

How bad is this? Imagine a United Food and Commercial Workers local not endorsing Valerie Ervin, who was a member of that union for years. Imagine a Latino organization not endorsing Nancy Navarro. Imagine anyone who eats granola or tofu not endorsing Marc Elrich.

Something’s going on, folks, something’s still going on…