Oscar Ramirez's Central Committee Letter, District 17

My name is Oscar Ramirez and I am running for Central Committee in District 17. When you step into the voting booth on Tuesday, you'll probably want to have two questions answered. Let me try to answer those for you.

Who am I?

I was born in Lima, Peru and grew up in the Baltimore area (my family moved to Maryland when I was two years old). I attended Johns Hopkins. I have mostly lived in Silver Spring since 2003 but am now a proud home owner in North Bethesda with my wife Stephanie and our puppy, Dug. I am proud to say that Stephanie works in the White House.

I went to law school at GW in the late 90's with the intent to practice law when I graduated. The fall of my 3L year, however, I had one of those life-changing moments. It was November 2000. Like many people who are raised in immigrant families I was only peripherally involved in politics. I followed it on tv but never thought of politics as a career choice. As I watched the election results come in that November night - seeing the tv pundits call the election for Al Gore, then George Bush - I said to myself that the next time something like that happened, I wasn't going to be on the sidelines watching it on tv. I was going to be a part of the process. I was going to make a difference.

I then turned down my big law firm offer to look for a job in politics.

Why should you vote for me?

Since graduating from law school, I have worked in almost every facet of Democratic politics. I worked on the Hill for more than seven years for two members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Joe Baca and Hilda Solis, and one member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Al Green. I was Hilda Solis' Chief of Staff when she was nominated to be Secretary of Labor by President Obama. I worked with Secretary Solis at the Department of Labor as a political appointee last year. I now work in government relations.

Because my interest in politics arose from the 2000 Bush-Gore campaign, I have taken every opportunity to go campaign for Democrats in Maryland and around the country. In 2001, I worked for Mark Warner's gubernatorial campaign in Virginia. In 2002, I volunteered for Chris Van Hollen. In 2004, I was the regional field director for northeast Ohio for the Kerry campaign. In 2006, I ran the voter protection program for the Maryland Coordinated Campaign in Prince George's County. In early 2008, I volunteered my time in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Maryland, Texas, Ohio, and Pennyslvania for Barack Obama. Later that year, I joined the campaign full-time as the Virginia Policy Director.

I have also been involved in fundraising for candidates, raising money for elected officials in Montgomery County like Nancy Navarro and Ana Sol Gutierrez and for candidates like Hans Riemer, whose campaign for County Council I am proud to chair. I have also raised money for Democratic elected officials and candidates around the country at the local, state and national level.

In Montgomery County, I am proud to have been the president of the Hispanic Democratic Club for the past 4 years. I have also been a member of the Young Democrats and served on the Central Committee representing District 18 for 2 1/2 years. I left the Central Committee in the Spring of 2009 when my wife and I moved out of District 18.

If elected to rejoin the Central Committee, I will continue my work to ensure that our Democratic Party reaches out to every segment of our county through voter registration efforts and outreach at community events. I truly believe our party is strongest when we have diverse voices at the table. I will also work to raise funds for the Central Committee so that, at a time when Democratic elected officials face strong challenges, we continue to have a strong Democratic Party.

I hope I can count on your vote on Tuesday, September 14th!

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Endorsements for Al Carr Come In

Disclaimer: I have not endorsed any candidate for this vacancy. But in the interest of openness and transparency I want to post things of interest for all to see. I have been contacting candidates asking for information about them to post here. So far, only Al Carr and Dana Beyer have done so. Maybe it is because they have run for elected office before and understand the process a bit better. Maybe others have not responded here because they don't know we exist. So if you are a candidate for the District 18 vacancy please leave a message and I will post it or leave your email and I will contact you privately.

Mier Wolf endorses Al Carr
Mier Wolf is a long-time activist in Chevy Chase, a former Mayor of the town, an early supporter of Chris Van Hollen as well as the late Jane Lawton. Here is his letter to the MCDCC on behalf of Al Carr.

Dear Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee,

I urge you to approve the appointment of Al Carr to replace Jane Lawton in the House of Delegates for District 18. This request comes in the midst of our great grief over Jane's untimely death. We all have our stories about working with Jane, a legendary community servant and friend to so many people. For me, we were local government colleagues for 25 years. We worked together on numerous projects including the building of the Leland Community Center and the opening of the Capital Crescent Trail, Georgetown Branch. I followed Jane as Chairman of the Town of Chevy Chase Council and later became our first mayor. Most recently I was chairman of Jane's House of Delegates campaigns in 2002 and 2006.

Since the requirement to replace Jane is upon you I wanted you to know how much I respect Al Carr and believe he should go to Annapolis in the House of Delegates on behalf of District 18. Al's government experience includes serving on the Kensington Council which has given him the opportunity to learn how municipalities are best governed and how those methods might be extended to other county jurisdictions Al is an environmnental advocate who convinced municipalities like ours to look for more efficient energy sources for our public lighting which we have done. Secondly, he is a consistent proponent of nurturing the Capital Crescent Trail. Furthermore, Al has the intellectual firepower to take on any other issue he chooses to pursue or to which he is a assigned to study. Finally, Al is a gentleman who listens to the points of view of others in formulating his positions on issues. His constituents would feel well listened to if Al were representing them in Annapolis.

It is heartbreaking for me to think that Jane will not be in Annapolis serving us, let alone how sad it is for her family and friends to have had her life end so soon. That's why I felt as a matter of conscience I should at least contact you to let you know that Al Carr would serve us with distinction in Annapolis in Jane's stead.

Thank you for your efforts in such an important time for our legislative district.

Sincerely,
Mier Wolf

James Browning Endorses Al Carr
James Browning was a candidate for Delegate in District 18 in 2006. He is a former Executive Director of Maryland Common Cause lobbying in Annapolis on behalf of progressive issues.

I write to express my support for Al Carr as Dist. 18's next Delegate. I had the privilege to run against Al for one of Dist. 18's House seats in 2006 and came away with enormous respect for his intelligence, dedication, and ability to be an effective advocate for all parts of the district.

In particular, I believe Al is the right person to help the District and Montgomery County as a whole with two of its biggest challenges--controlling development and improving public transportation. Al understands how the big picture fits with the minutiae when it comes to offering better transportation solutions. I believe he will also do a great job of recruiting legislators from other parts of the state to support progressive solutions which, due to party and geographic stereotypes in Annapolis, may not seem to be in their best interests, at first. Al is the messenger who will make sure that Dist. 18's message will be heard in Annapolis.

Sincerely,
James Browning

MCDCC Member Alan Banov supports Al Carr
Alan Banov has been a member of the District 18 Caucus since 1989 and a member of the Central Committee for five years. He lives in Kensington and was an active supporter of Al Carr in 2006. He is an employment lawyer in private practice in Silver Spring.

In a phone conversation, Alan told me there are five reasons why he supports Al Carr for Delegate: 1) he has the most relevant experience; 2) he has run for Delegate in the past, which means that he knows how to campaign and that he has already won votes from District 18 Democrats; 3) he has been an effective lobbyist for municipalities in Annapolis; 4) with Jane’s passing, the County Delegation needs another Delegate who understands the issues of local municipalities; and 5) based on his temperament, contacts, and experience, Al will probably work well and effectively with the other legislators in District 18, the County, and the State.

Martha Jones
Activist supporting Rollingwood incorporation

Among the candidates seeking this position, Al Carr is the best one to pick up the gauntlet and be prepared from the beginning. Al's experience is relevant to what is needed by those who are leaders in Annapolis. He has a quiet and effective way of working with people to bring them together to accomplish their goals. As a municipal official, in a district which has so many municipalities, he has experience with working with a constituency, a wide variety of agencies and governments, the Maryland Municipal League and the General Assembly. In addition to his government background, he has served in the precinct organization for the Democrats in District 18.

With a thorough working knowledge in the telecommunications field, Al has the tools to achieve success in his areas of interest more efficiently and effectively. Many of those interests parallel Jane's in promoting the environment, helping the Chesapeake Bay, helping communities become more "Green" and working on ways to reduce domestic violence and assist victims of domestic violence.

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What New in the District 18 Vacancy

Here is the latest over at Free State Politics (FSP) from Eric. A quick look at the MCDCC web site has only three officially announced candidates: Dana Beyer, George English and Oscar Ramirez. I called MCDCC HQ about an hour ago and they also had Rick Kessler. But interestingly there was nothing filed by Al Carr. Now Al Carr is in the race. He told me so. Of three people I had rumored to be in the race on Tuesday all three of them are out: Blog-father, David Lublin, and Central Committee Members Vic Weissberg and Alan Banov.

What is interesting is only the 23 members of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) have a vote in this and all three District 18 members of the MCDCC is openly committed to a different candidate: Ramirez supports (surprise) himself; Weissberg supports Kessler and Banov supports Carr.

Like my fellow blogger Eric at FSP, there are persistent rumors of "finding" a woman to run, ignoring that Dana Beyer is already in the race. But I have tried to stay out of the rumor (till now) and I hope to only report what is actual. Still I find it an interesting turn of events.

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Beyer, Carr and Ramirez are Running

Dana Beyer, MD and Al Carr, who both ran for vacancy in 2005 and in the 2006 primary are running for the vacancy caused by the death last week of Jane Lawton. Also running is Oscar Ramirez, who is on the Democratic Central Committee. Beyer finished fifth and Carr finished seventh in 2006. This is Ramirez's first run for Delegate.

Beyer is currently a Healthcare staffer for County Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg. Carr is a Kensington Town Councilman. Ramirez is the legislative director for Texas Congressman, Al Green.

Among the other rumored candidates are Central Committee Members Vic Weissberg and Alan Banov and our blog-father here at MPW, David Lublin. If any of our readers are considering their candidacy why not post a comment.

Late edition: Here is a link to the Central Committee web site with an outline for the procedures for the vacancy.

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