City of Frederick, MD Democratic Buzz

George Wenschhof Bio

Democratic Mayoral candidates:

We conducted our first of a series of online "Meet The Candidate" forums for Jason Judd and Jennifer Dougherty and were pleased that we were able to post their live answers to your questions without a glitch. I was concerned as to how my recently acquired computer skills would hold up!

You can read the questions and the responses by Jason Judd here. Jennifer Dougherty's responses can be read here. We will be holding these the beginning of each month throughout the primary campaign. If you miss the live date, we will post links in the right hand margin of our Home Page so you can easily access and read. They are a great way for you to get to know the candidate so make sure you post your questions when we ask for them and tune in for the candidate's live responses. I will also be interviewing the candidates at a future date and will keep you posted on when.

Jason Judd continues to attend house parties as he meets city residents and is planning a Chili primary fundraiser at his family's home in Yellow Springs. The date is Sunday May 3 and the cost is $25 per person and $40 per couple or family. All types of chili will be served, including vegetarian. To RSVP email carolynjudd8955@hotmail.com or call (301) 695-5766.

Jennifer Dougherty continues to gear up her city campaign after taking a short respite from her recent campaign for the 6th district congressional seat. It appears former city Public Information Officer Nancy Poss will be helping her in her campaign. Dougherty's press releases today sound like themes from a congressional race as she talks about the need for the city to "Get Off the Grid" with ideas on how the make the city use of energy more efficient. You can read her ideas on this here. She also talks about her idea of a "Civilian Conservation Corps 2.0" to help save the watershed. You can read her proposal here.

Democratic Aldermen candidates:

Kelly Russell who was the first to file several months ago, finally held a formal announcement yesterday. We published her announcement column yesterday and it can be read here.

Michael O'Connor and Andrew Kotkin are the other Democratic aldermen candidates who have filed to date.

All of links to the websites for the Democratic candidates are conveniently located in the right hand margin of our Home Page. I encourage you to check them out.

Incumbent aldermen David Koontz and Donna Kuzemchak are expected to run for reelection and this would bring the number to five.

Frederick County Young Democrat President Burke Miller informed me he was accepted into Law School and will not be running for alderman. Best wished for Burke. He has done a great job reestablishing the Young Democrats in the area.

Former City of Frederick Director of Planning and later Director of Community Development James Schermschal informed me he had given it some thought but he is busy aiding his parents who are in assisted care. He informed me his father just turned 89! Happy Birthday!

Frederick News Post columnist Katherine Heerbrandt reported in her column yesterday that Karen Lewis Young will be filing for aldermen soon. Karen is married to Ron Young and was a former President of the Board of Directors of the Weinberg Center. If she and Jennifer Dougherty were elected it would promise to be a better show than the Bill Hall - Jennifer Dougherty showdowns during Jennifer's term as mayor. When Karen was President of the Weinberg Board, she and Jennifer were constantly battling over the future direction of the Weinberg Center.

Rumors persist that former two-term alderman Bill Hall will also enter the race after recently changing his registration back to Democrat. He would be an automatic favorite as he is well liked in the community.

Carol Krimm, a member of the local Democratic Central Committee continues to be another possible candidate for alderman. She attended the city workshop last Wednesday evening and spoke of how the city should not have neglected to file the required paperwork with Frederick County Government to receive their reimbursement from the tax equity program.

When I ran for alderman in 1997, I spoke of how the county tax equity program no longer was equitable for the City of Frederick and the double taxation rate for city residents was unfair. The formula for the City of Frederick needed to change back in 1997 and still needs to today.

As other names surface and candidates announce, we will keep you posted.

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