MD Congressional District 8 Candidates Debate

Last night (Sept. 30) the first debate took place among the 6 candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination (plus one unaffiliated) for the Maryland Congressional District 8. It was at the Silver Spring Civic Center and was sponsored by Progressive Neighbors and the Sierra Club. And it had some real heat!

The candidates were, in alphabetical order (1) David Anderson, (2) Kumar Barve, (3) Ana Sol Gutierrez, (4) Will Jawando, (5) Kathleen Matthews, (6) Jamie Raskin. Later in the debate, Liz Matory came in the room, said she was running as an unaffiliated candidate having left the Democratic party, and was seated at the candidates table.

The questions were all on the subject of the environment but the format allowed questions from the moderators, the public, and most interestingly from and to each other. That brought out the most heated part of the debate.

State Delegate Kumar Barve asked State Senator Jamie Raskin to explain his personal campaign contribution to State Senator C. Anthony Muse despite Muse's opposition to many progressive issues such as same-sex marriage. Senator Raskin angrily said this type of negative campaigning was common among Republicans but should not happen among Democrats.

The other heated exchange came when candidates were asked if their demographic (female, African American, Hispanic) should be considered in this race. 

It was very interesting and a video has been posted on Jonathan Shurberg's excellent blog, Maryland Scramble at http://marylandscramble.com/

All other upcoming candidate debates and forums that I know about will be listed at http://bessel.org/upcoming.htm