By Stacey Sauter

MOCO LOCO

While the Montgomery County Council gets drunk on power, we suffer the hangover.

We can all agree that pollution is bad. Regardless of income, education, or political affiliation, most people act on it in varying degrees, perhaps even grudgingly conceding that County-mandated paper straws and a five-cent tax on plastic bags are small, eco-friendly prices to pay for protecting the environment. But make no mistake. Those kinds of seemingly benign acts are just the foothold the Montgomery County Council needed its residents to accept before grabbing the stronghold they’ve truly been aiming for: becoming the first East Coast county to mandate mass electrification as their solution for climate change. Which is exactly what happened on November 29^th, 2022, when the Council unanimously passed Bill 13-22, a.k.a. Comprehensive Buildings Decarbonization. Barring few exceptions, by December 31^st, 2026, this bill will require nearly all new residential and commercial buildings to be built with all electric systems. That’s all electric. No gas. No consumer choice in the matter. And all before the Maryland Public Service Commission (“PSC”) completes a state-mandated study on “the capacity of each [utility’s] gas and electric distribution systems to successfully serve customers under a managed transition to a highly electrified building sector.”

In fact, two of the biggest stakeholders – Pepco and BGE (respectively owned by Exelon), while supportive of cleaner energy, both felt it was premature for the county to enact the law ahead of PSC’s expected September 2023 findings. In its official objections, Pepco stated, “We, respectfully, oppose the legislation, based on the timeline that is set forth, which does not provide an opportunity for a study to be conducted to help inform the goals and outcomes of the proposed legislation.” BGE added to Pepco’s concerns by formally stating, “this legislation would implement a significant change in energy usage, prior to the issuance of a critical electric grid readiness study mandated by state law and without the understanding of the readiness of the electric grid to accommodate such change.”

Why is the supermajority, progressive Council so eager to get ahead of its vaulted all-electric building standards despite genuine concerns by utility providers that our current grid can’t support the measure? The simple answer: it’s not as much about clean power as political power, by which the Council is presently inebriated.

Case in point. Even while the bill’s sponsor, former Councilmember Hans Riemer, touted that Bill 13-22 meant “new construction will be cheaper to build, cheaper to operate and safer for residents,” the County’s own Office of Legislative Oversight (“OLO”) held a different opinion as stated in their Economic Impact Statement on Bill 13-22: “In general, the commercial building sector likely would be negatively impacted due to higher upfront costs and various risks (e.g., uncertain relative energy prices and lower than anticipated energy savings), which would increase the likelihood of certain market actors receiving a net negative return on their investment in building electrification.” If you look at the list of organizations that officially opposed Bill 13-22, you’d clearly see they agreed. The OLO concluded their summary with the warning “that the change in building code has the potential to reduce, both private sector capital investment and the County’s competitiveness in the commercial building sector.”

Translated into simple terms: when it comes to commercial development, we’re going to take a hit. Northern Virginia is already eating our lunch in terms of business development. Consider that three major companies – Amazon, Raytheon, and Boeing – when recently expanding or relocating their businesses to our greater metropolitan area, each bypassed Maryland in favor of Northern Virginia. Already onerous taxes and overbearing regulations are partially to blame. But so is Maryland’s woke culture – the vanguard of which emanates from Montgomery County with its hard, leftist agenda.

For now, your existing gas stoves, gas grills, and furnaces are safe. But the hangover is coming, so take some aspirin and hold on to your wallets my friends. In addition to a strained electric grid, rising energy bills due to less competition, and the passing-on of all-electric building costs, there’s the real possibility that a current Biden Administration push to ban gas stoves will find its way here forcing homeowners to go electric whether they want to or not. If we thought it was hard to attract businesses to move here, existing ones to grow, and new ones to start, wait to see what the super majority in Annapolis likewise does with their aggressive climate activism. Our economy will doubtless suffer with these overly strident climate measures, and Marylanders fed up with the Nanny State and the cost of living here will say adieu. As one famous billboard in Seattle once said, “Will the last person leaving turn out the lights?” In our case, perhaps, the flickering lights.

Your feedback and participation in helping us to fight this and other such measures are truly welcome.

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Stacey Sauter is a Republican former candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates, a REALTOR and member of the Montgomery County Republican Party Communications Committee. She can be reached at [email protected]

Tell us what you think.

Please share your thoughts with us at [email protected].

Huge Lunar New Year Success!

Dennis Melby and Xi Van Fleet

Hundreds of folks, Republicans and their friends, attended the 2023 Lunar New Year event in Gaithersburg. Great food, Chinese Dancers and Singers, commentary from party officials and speeches by Viet Doan, Jenny Zeng, Edward Bartlett and humor from Emcee Dennis Melby kept the night moving. Keynote Speaker Xi Van Fleet received a standing ovation.

The room was packed, the food was great and the entertainment was first class. Make sure you stay up-to-date with our events. Watch for the Spring MCGOP Convention March 25. Details coming soon.

Blue Mash and Black History

By Dennis Melby

You know, they tell us this is Black History Month – but every month should be black history month, and Red History Month, and Asian, and Hispanic, and White, and on and on. We’re a great American experiment, and all our achievers are remembered and honored.

I don’t know if you know but right here, in Gaithersburg and Laytonsville, close by, many of our Republican founders like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass - even Josiah Henson, walked these grounds. Blue Mash was a stop on the underground railroad (that’s how they pronounced the swampland of the blue marsh). The Quakers in Sandy Spring were an integral part of the effort. Before the Republican Party was founded to abolish slavery, counter the Democrats and strive for equality some folks right here in Montgomery County were fighting for it, they won and we honor them.

I’m proud to be a Marylander, I’m proud to be an American, and I’m super proud to be a Republican!

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Dennis Melby is the Vice Chairman of the Montgomery County Maryland Republican Party and can be reached at [email protected]

Potomac Honors Jane Leeson

By Karin Walker

Today it is my great honor and privilege to recognize one of our most exceptional members.  This person is a die-hard PWRC member, a GOP Patriot and a genuine treasure.  We owe her an enormous debt of gratitude!

Mid-County Muster

The Maryland General Assembly is back in session, with a new Democrat Governor at the helm, and a majority democrat-controlled legislature, they see ‘clear sailing’ ahead.  In fact, the first bill put into the hopper, is Senate Bill 1, by Senator Waldstreicher.  This bill would: 

“prohibit a person from knowingly wearing, carrying, or transporting a firearm onto the real property of another unless the other has given certain permission; prohibiting a person from knowingly wearing, carrying, or transporting a firearm within a certain distance of a certain place of public accommodation (read hotel; restaurant -  no mention of a church, or synagogue); and generally relating to restrictions on wearing, carrying, or transporting firearms.”

Why should you care?  At a time, where “we” are “reimagining policing,’ “defunding police’ and watching increasing crime in Montgomery County, which our own Police Chief, Marcus Jones characterized as a ‘disturbing trend,’ the Senator’s bill seeks to deprive and continually erode the rights of law abiding citizens of their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

In a world that is becoming increasingly dangerous, I am reminded of the words from Washington, D.C’s former Chief of Police, Cathy Lanier, when in a situation involving a gunman “ "Your options are to run, hide, or fight," said Lanier. "If you're in a position to try and take the gunman down, to take the gunman out, it's the best option for saving lives before police can get there," she told Anderson Cooper.  It will be at least 8 minutes once the police are called.  Hmmmm and that was in 2015?  I wonder about the 2023 time frame for police response?  

What can you do?  For starters, you can send an email to Senator Waldstreicher, who is Vice Chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. and the rest of the committee who will be hearing this legislation on Tuesday February 7th @1:00 pm.    If that is too much, then send an email, make a call to Chairman Will Smith’s Judicial Proceedings office at 410-841-3623.  

If Senators Waldstreicher, Smith and the rest of the committee does not hear from their constituents, they either think we agree with them, or that we do not care.  We cannot allow for the continued erosion of our Bill of Rights, especially at the hands of a party that seems bent on sacrificing our ability to protect ourselves. 

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S. Alexandra Tuttle is a Member of the Maryland Republican Central Committee for Montgomery County.

Great County Republicans

By Ann Guthrie Hingston

Bob L. Woodson, Sr.

Each month we feature a prominent Montgomery County resident engaged in advancing Conservative ideals.  We commemorate Black History month by showcasing Silver Spring resident and civil rights activist, Robert L. Woodson, Sr. and the work of his Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, renamed the Woodson Center in 2020.

For decades Woodson has promoted liberty, economic opportunity, faith and personal responsibility by helping homegrown community leaders fight poverty and crime. Most recently Robert Woodson has aggressively challenged the false history that America is an oppressive, racist society and blacks are America’s perpetual victims.

He takes on The 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory in his book Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers, essays by black scholars and writers who tell how blacks built a hundred colleges, their own medical schools, hotels, railroads and banking systems when doors were closed to them. There are stories about 20 former slaves who became millionaires. “These accomplishments were made possible by a set of values cherished among the Blacks of the time: self-determination, resiliency, personal virtue, honesty, honor and accountability,” Woodson wrote in The Wall Street Journal. 

To promote virtues of character and honor and to equip students to take charge of their futures, the Woodson Center has developed the 1776 Unites curriculum showcasing blacks who have prospered by embracing America’s founding ideals. The K-12 curriculum has received high marks from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and can be used to supplement history, civics, English and social/emotional learning topics. Free to all it can be downloaded HERE>

Thank you, Robert Woodson.

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William J. Bennett

We kick off 2023 with a new feature focusing each month on a prominent Montgomery County resident engaged in advancing Conservative ideals. We begin with William J. Bennett, a Chevy Chase resident and Gonzaga High School graduate, who is one of the nation's most influential and respected voices on cultural, political, and educational issues. He served as Secretary of Education and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under President Reagan and as the first Drug Czar under President George H.W.Bush.

Bennett is well known for his successful anthology of stories, The Book of Virtues, which he, and his wife Elayne, have reissued with an 30th Anniversary edition. 

AEI's Senior Fellow Robert Pondiscio puts it in perspective in his Op-Ed that appeared in City Journal. READ THE ARTICLE HERE>

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Ann Guthrie Hingston is a Member of the Maryland Republican Central Committee from Montgomery County.

By Stacey Sauter

What do Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Kevin McCarthy have in common? During a seemingly futile battle for Speaker of the House, McCarthy displayed winning characteristics that likewise guided Dr. King: courage, self-confidence, solid determination, plus a willingness to work with allies and, if necessary, one’s opponents to get the job done.

What also recently set McCarthy apart was a badly needed display of humility – something barely existent in today’s hard-core partisan politics. This comes at a particularly crucial time where the seemingly moribund American Dream is concerned. Republicans are now better poised to protect and defend it.

Though the public display of holding his feet to the fire felt scorching to all of us, it actually yielded some truly positive results – most notably greater legislative and financial accountability. No more last minute “You’ll have to read it to see what’s in it” Omnibus Bills that mostly serve as the Democrat’s ATM card – essentially and endlessly swiping away at our personal financial security. Bills hitting the floor must come from and be germane to the respective committees from which they originated. This clearly lends to greater transparency, more focused legislation and, best of all, genuine debate. Those bills will have to be voted on separately as opposed to the “anything goes and everyone else pays” Omnibus monstrosities generated by Nancy Pelosi and company; bills that got rolled out in the dark of night with a mandate to be voted on by dawn two days later.

Proxy voting is now eliminated – Representatives will actually have to show up and do their jobs again. The compromises McCarthy accepted on his path to becoming Speaker offer a renewed, sound approach to legislating. These changes will also help to diminish the overreaching effects of the Administrative State, something that’s grown with inexorable audacity under Democrat control and cost American taxpayers and businesses ungodly sums in burdensome taxes.

To his credit, Kevin McCarthy displayed humility by listening to his critics. He endured some truly hard hits but never gave up. He knows that it takes a team to accomplish great feats, and he demonstrated an ability to bring together disparate, forceful groups in his willingness to take on the often thankless, but highly critical job as Speaker of the House. In essence, he showed he has what it takes to be an effective leader under the toughest of circumstances.

On this day, as we reflect and give thanks to the esteemed Dr. King for his timeless example of unflappable leadership, we should likewise give a quiet nod to all the brave souls who are willing to get in there and fight the good fight against seemingly insurmountable odds

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Stacey Sauter is a Republican former candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates, a REALTOR and member of the Montgomery County Republican Party Communications Committee. She can be reached at [email protected]

Equity is not Equality

By Dennis Melby

The Republican Party was founded to fight for equality, so that people regardless of color would be free to excel for themselves, their family and their community. Today’s far-left WOKE movement pushes something called equity – no matter the effort or circumstance government must provide a guaranteed equal outcome and status for everyone.

It’s called DIE, diversity, inclusion, and equity – and it’s being pushed in schools, business and government. Hard to argue with diversity and inclusion - parents teach that to their kids. But equity and equality are different ideas being pushed as the same with entirely different outcomes.

Cubans are casting themselves in boats to escape the 'equity' of their Communist paradise. Venezuelans are marching through dangerous jungles to reach the US to escape the 'equity' of their “Social Experiment”.  Even North Koreans risk torture and imprisonment to escape the 'equity' of poverty and starvation to reach Communist China (a county that touts equity but doesn’t practice it!)

You’ve even seen it here in Northern Virginia where many Asian kids were not told of their excellent test scores and high-ranking achievement for fear that it would ruin the “equity” for others in the school system. If we can raise some kids up we have to knock some kids down in order to achieve 'equity'. Perhaps you've seen Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears recently calling for those perpetuating this hoax to be fired.

We still stand for equality and hope you do too. And we’ll oppose any efforts to knock down achievers of any color, religion, gender or social status in order to promote societal “equity”.

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Dennis Melby is Vice Chair of the Montgomery County Maryland Republican Party. He can be reached at [email protected]