Voting in the June 26 Primary Election as part of your life strategy

We’re going to work through the question of voting and whether it makes a difference in a series of blog posts over the next several weeks, as we get to, and then inside, about 60 days until the June 26 primary election.

Coming up on sixty days till the June 26 Primary Election in Maryland – a crucial time for mobilizing on behalf of not only progressive candidates but on the progressive issue stances to which we will hold them when they are elected. Make sure your neighbors and your community are energized on both counts by joining our canvasses across the state. Become part of our Movement Politics team.

Historical patterns of racially tinged investment in Baltimore City over the years have devastating consequences of inequality. Investment “maps” of Baltimore City …all showed a similar pattern. The neighborhoods of the “White L,” running up the Charles street corridor and around the harbor, consistently receive more [public and private] investment, while the “Black Butterfly” of Baltimore suffers from disinvestment, as Samuel Manas reports in Maryland Matters.

Activists came away from the 2018 session seeing a rollback in enthusiasm and willingness to consolidate gains after an encouraging group of wins in the 2017 session. Pushback from industry, developers and business interests doomed many bills. One bright spot: fully funded state effort for Bay cleanup.

The Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for the coming week -- April 16 through 23 -- with statewide action and local chapter events from Frederick County to the Eastern Shore.

If you got the briefer, email version of the Memo you'll find the rest of the details here. Want to get that in your inbox once a week? Sign up here.

The struggle for workplace rights happens across all parts of working Maryland. A requirement for paid sick leave finally won this year after many years of battle in the Assembly, overriding a veto from Gov. Larry Hogan. But others face further struggle. The UMD Diamondback reports here that UMD graduate assistants have lost -- at least for this year -- their attempt to get a law allowing them collective bargaining rights with the University system.

Montgomery County doesn’t have a choice about proceeding full speed ahead to do active stormwater collection and infiltration, observes advocate Kit Gage. So why does County Executive Ike Leggett advocate stopping many projects and needlessly re-inventing the process?

For a revolution against the 1% to succeed, ideology will be crucial, Hal Ginsberg argues. But partisanship must be strenuously resisted. Resisters must avoid the temptation to view every Trump voter as an unreconstructed ignorant, sexist, racist, xenophobe. Bernie backers will have to forestall the impulse to chastise Hillary Clinton at every turn for blowing the election and Clinton’s claque needs to acknowledge that it wasn’t her turn.

Welcome to the Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, April 9 to Monday, April 16 (and beyond). This is the full version of the Memo. If you subscribe to the email version of the Memo you get a trim, brief and easy to scan version with plenty of links leading you to the information you want (you can sign up to get that every week here.)

The Assembly's Legislative Black Caucus has strongly opposed SB 122, a supposed crime reform bill that brings us back to the days of harsh penalties, mandatory minimum sentences and hyper-empowered prosecutors. Tell your delegates that it shouldn't get passed in the House.