Community Vision for Takoma 2024 City Council Endorsements
Community Vision for Takoma (CVT) is endorsing the following 2024 candidates for Takoma Park City Council, based in part on the responses to our questionnaire. We encourage you to go to their websites:
- Ward 1 Jessica Landman
- Ward 3 Roger Schlegel
- Ward 4 Tony Kyere
- Ward 6 Ambroise Agosse
Don’t forget to vote in BOTH elections!
On Nov 5th, there are two separate elections, with two separate ballots, and two separate polling places.
- City ballots should be arriving this week.
- You can mail your ballot if it is postmarked by Nov 5th (and it arrives by Nov 12th).
- Or, put it in the yellow drop-boxes in front of police station (7500 Maple Ave) or NH Rec Center, by 8pm on Nov 5th.
- Or, vote in person at 7500 Maple Ave on Nov 5th, 7am to 8pm. No ballot? Bring Photo ID and proof of residency.
- You can vote in the City election if you are 16 or older, even if you are not a U.S. citizen, or have a felony conviction.
- You may register to vote in the City of Takoma Park at any time, up to and including the day of the election.
- Questions? Contact City Clerk Jessie Carpenter, 301-891-7267 or clerk@takomaparkmd.gov.
What About Ranked Choice Voting?
If you live in Ward 3 or Ward 6, there are three candidates in your ward. So, Ranked Choice Voting will come into play if no candidate gets a majority of votes in the first ballot count. In that case, the 2nd choice votes only from the 3rd place candidate ballots will be counted. Here’s what to remember:
- You cannot hurt your 1st choice by listing a 2nd choice. Your 2nd choice will only be counted if your 1st choice comes in 3rd place.
- If you have friends & neighbors committed to another candidate, ask them to list your candidate as their 2nd choice.
And…A Word About CVT
- Who Are We? CVT is an independent, informal network of residents with no formal organizational structure, no membership roll, and no budget. We advocate for Takoma Park’s progressive political values, and to ensure City transparency and accountability. We are the lone progressive community group attending most City Council meetings and reporting out to the community on a regular basis. Our base – those on our email list– is almost 1,000 residents strong.
- What Does CVT Stand For? We seek to advance these critical public interests: Racial equity, social justice, and ecological sustainability; transparency and accountability in our local government; financially sustainable City budgets that prioritize our community’s values; and a public empowered with the information they need to more actively participate in City policymaking.
- Our Record. In the wake of the collapse of local independent media, CVT has been your source, widely distributing information about City politics. And we’ve mobilized residents to work together to protect public land for the public good, preserve our City’s rare stock of deeply affordable housing, prevent the displacement of residents, protect rent stabilization, make our streets safer for everyone including pedestrians and bikers, improve stormwater management, protect our tree canopy, treat our climate emergency with the urgency it demands, save our community grocery (the Co-op) and the jobs it provides to a diverse, unionized workforce, support other locally-owned businesses, and strive for a balanced City budget.
- CVT is Pro-Housing. We recently testified, for example, in favor of new housing on the old hospital site. We are, however, anti-displacement, whether the residents at risk of being priced out of our community are home renters or owners. We support development that supports tenant rights, ecological sustainability, and racial and economic equity. We advocate for preserving, renovating, and expanding affordable housing – and protecting our rent stabilization – because the unusually affordable housing in Takoma Park has made possible our rich racial and economic diversity, which is the heart and soul of our community.
- We Work by Consensus. At our core is a varying group of about 20 residents – including journalists, legal experts, renters and homeowners, and people with decades of experience organizing for social and environmental justice. We meet regularly, organize Town Halls, speak at City Council meetings, build coalitions with other local organizations, and encourage robust resident participation in the City’s democratic process.
