The General Election is NOVEMBER 6

BUT EARLY VOTING IS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25 TO THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1

DO YOU HAVE A PLAN TO MAKE SURE YOU VOTE?

There are many excellent reasons for Maryland voters to back Ben Jealous, the progressive Democratic candidate for governor, against the GOP incumbent, Larry Hogan. The Washington Post, in today's endorsement of Larry Hogan, delivered some of the most convincing arguments for Jealous.

This Memo appears on a Tuesday because of yesterday’s sort-of national holiday for a native of Genoa who sailed on behalf of genocidal Spanish monarchs. We are "celebrating" the event and its catastrophic consequences with less and less enthusiasm and it is being supplanted in many places by a day to honor those Indigenous Peoples who survived all this Eurocolonialist behavior, and mourn those who did not, by organizing for real equality in our lives and communities.

As Ben Jealous steadily gains recognition and closes in on the Teflon Guv Larry Hogan, the performance of the Democratic political establishment leaves those regular Dems behind the curve of Marylanders' political preferences. As Jay Hutchins pointedly asks here, "Are [Democratic] leaders concerned ...that having a real progressive on the second floor will be a challenge to existing norms and the power structure in Annapolis?"

If Hogan were to win a second term, with no need to appear centrist, the establishment Dems would find his sudden morphing into Maryland's Trump more threatening to their power than any of the progressive reforms Jealous would bring, to say the least.

So the richest man in the world is going to raise (some) of his employees' wages to $15 an hour. So? Amazon's move is obviously positive and a great example, earning praise from Amazon critic Sen. Bernie Sanders. But the disparity between CEO pay and the pay of workers is the persistent scandal of most major US corporations. Sam Pizzigati, at Progressive Breakfast, breaks down the problem and the search for a two-track solution: reducing the gap between CEO pay and that of that corporation's average workers. In Maryland we've had four years of the Hogan administration catering to CEOs at the expense of workers, and the results are clear.

The Ben Jealous campaign plans to be very strong in Prince George’s County this week following President Obama’s endorsement Monday (see it here and here). Highlights: the Saturday evening rally with Dave Chappelle at the UMCP campus and Faith Leaders breakfast Thursday morning in Largo with Michael Eric Dyson. But there’s much more – music in Greenbelt, canvassing to end student debt next door in Silver Spring. Read on:

Turnout is the goal, and voter contact is the path. Most folks are becoming aware that an election is coming up so this is the time to sharpen your community's understanding of how important it is to ELECT BEN JEALOUS governor and send Larry Hogan back to private life. Awareness about all the candidates statewide is critical – a Blue Wave needs to happen to put government at every level back on the side of working families instead of on the side of big business, corporations and uncontrolled development.

Voting is on our minds more and more as November approaches. We know that if even a large fraction of the Marylanders who just didn’t get around to voting in 2014 – and brought us Larry Hogan – will turn out this time for Ben Jealous we can send Hogan home.

So here’s the thing: First, make sure your neighbors get the urgency of this election and get out to say yes to progressive change -- rather than business as usual that routinely benefits business more than workers. Then think about your friends and relatives in states where casting your ballot is tougher for working families and minority communities because of a decades-long right-wing effort to throw up barriers. Make that call, support them and make change in the country, too.

Larry Hogan doesn’t want to debate Ben Jealous – typical for an incumbent who feels (hahaha) as though he is ahead. He only agreed to one debate, which many observers are saying short-changes the people of Maryland.

The debate is tonight (Monday, Sept. 24) and several outfits are setting watch parties (see below) to see Hogan scramble to defend his four years of putting the interests of the wealthy ahead of working families. Ben Jealous is waiting, and so are we...

As Progressive Maryland and other allied groups increasingly focus on the November election – on contact, turnout and movement building – lessons that emerged from this year’s events begin to shape themselves into a narrative of victory and advance. In a recent interview, which appeared in two parts Laurel Wales tries to pull together the threads of street heat and the work of governance, which often seem estranged. Here are excerpts. Wales is People’s Action Deputy Director of Movement Politics.