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A few hundred voters turned out Saturday to hear pitches from seven of the 11 candidates running for Prince George’s County executive, in a largely civil debate a little more than two weeks before the special primary election.
Not all were there to be educated: Many in the crowd wore T-shirts emblazoned with the names of two Democratic front-runners for the seat, State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy or At-Large County Councilmember Calvin Hawkins, a fact that drew the sharpest rebuke of the afternoon from one of the other candidates.
Real estate adviser Albert Slocum, noting those in candidates’ shirts “taking up half the seats in here,” asked audience members if they weren’t tired of being sick and tired with the same leaders in office.
“All these [campaign] signs out there. All these trucks showing people’s faces on them. This is not a game. It’s not a game. It’s not a joke,” said Slocum, which drew a few oohs from the crowd.
“We need real change. We need to put Prince George’s first,” said Slocum, who arrived about 30 minutes late because of a scheduling conflict.
The field lost one of those well-known faces last week when County Council Chair Jolene Ivey (D), who recently won a special election to an at-large county council seat, withdrew from the campaign. But the field is still heavy with current and former officeholders: In addition to Hawkins and Braveboy, state Sen. Alonzo Washington (D-Prince George’s) and former County Executive Rushern L. Baker III were at Saturday’s forum at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Fort Washington.
Besides Slocum, the other two candidates in attendance, both Democrats, were business owner Marcellus Crews and education advocate and attorney Tonya Sweat.
The eighth Democrat in the race, Ron Hunt, did not attend, but people found his fliers on their vehicles when they walked outside after the forum ended. The three Republicans in the race did not attend: George E. McDermott, Jesse Peed and Jonathan White.
The special election is needed to fill the remaining two years of former Executive Angela Alsobrooks’ term, after her election to the U.S. Senate in November. The primary will be held March 4.
Alsobrooks last month endorsed Hawkins, who said she had been “a phenomenal leader over the last six years.”
“She’s gone now. Somebody else has to fill that void,” he said. “I’m looking for your support as we move Prince George County forward.”
Candidates at the more than two-hour forum were in general agreement on several topics such as supporting public safety and federal workers, and mental health services for youths and adults.
But they differed on a few of the hot-button issues of the day, including the endangered proposal to build the new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt and a plan by state leaders, grappling with a massive budget deficit, to delay implementation of parts of the Blueprint for Maryland’s future, the state’s school reform plan.
‘Not just a freaking building’
Officially, the FBI move from downtown Washington is still on the books, but Virginia lawmakers who want the facility for the Commonwealth continue to fight the move to Maryland. More threatening is the reelection of President Donald Trump (R), a fierce critic of the agency who had talks with Republican leaders in his first term that included the possibility of relocating the FBI to Alabama.
Washington said he would ask the county’s Office of Law and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office to sue the federal government if it interferes with the move. But Sweat said that, with Trump back in the White House, “the FBI is gone.”
“Why do we want it? Over one-third of Prince George’s County’s land mass right now belongs to the federal government, yet we have a [budget] deficit,” Sweat said.
But Baker, who served two terms as executive from 2010 to 2018, said the FBI headquarters would bring other businesses to the county.
“The FBI is not just a freaking building. It is the largest development project that the United States is going to do. It will change this county the way the Pentagon changed Northern Virginia,” he said. “It is about everything you can do around it.”
Baker, who had to leave early to attend a funeral, was only able to answer two questions at the forum.
The other area of dispute was in response to a question about the 10-year Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan, specifically a proposal from Gov. Wes Moore (D) to pause funding for “collaborative time” for teachers.
The goal of the plan is to reduce the amount of time teachers spend in the classroom, from the current 80% of their days to about 60%, freeing them up for planning, working with other teachers, working one-on-one with students, training and the like.
To do that, however, the state would have to hire thousands more teachers at a time when it already faces a teacher shortage. The Moore administration has proposed delaying funding for collaborative time programming for four years: Instead of starting next year and running through fiscal 2033, funding would begin in fiscal 2030 and run through fiscal 2037.
Hawkins and Braveboy said they agree with the governor’s proposal because the state and the counties don’t have the revenue to pay for all of the Blueprint.
“We also have other priorities, like cleaning up our streets, like making sure we have reliable trash pickup and snow removal,” Braveboy said. “The government has to make choices, and I think the governor is doing the right thing.”
Sweat disagrees with the governor’s plan. So does Washington, who also criticized Hawkins’ and Braveboy’s positions.
“What State’s Attorney Braveboy and Calvin Hawkins just said is they want to cut career coaches that are in every high school in Prince George’s County,” said Washington, who served on a commission established that worked on implementing the Blueprint. “The Blueprint for Maryland’s future does not build schools. What it does is work on instructional activity for our students.”
Crews responded to part of the question that STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and financial literacy should be part of the standard curriculum in schools.
“It is time that we allow starting at sixth grade, apprenticeships and certifications,” he said. “Imagine this: By the time little Johnny or Shelly reaches ninth grade, they have several certifications and experience. They start working full time. They are now professionals. It’s more than just a diploma.”
Mail-in ballots have already been sent out and early voting starts Feb. 26 for the March 4 primary, when voters Democratic and Republican voters will nominate candidates for county executive, as well as candidates for the Council District 5 seat vacated when Ivey won her at-large seat. A candidate’s forum for that race is scheduled for Monday at the Cheverly American Legion Post 108.
The primary winners will face off in a special general election June 3. Because of the overwhelming number of Democrats in Prince George’s, the winner of the Democratic nominations will be the heavy favorites to win the seats and complete the remaining time in the terms, which run through 2026.
