My historic candidacy for District 1 County Council clearly has the establishment, who want to control this seat, running scared. The two incumbents who have held this seat for the last 24 straight years wrote a deceptive editorial alleging that I have wrongly claimed that they have endorsed my campaign. This is false. I have done no such thing. Their very true statements on my website only reflect their positive compliments about my more than a decade of public service, including as a community organizer and Laurel City Council Member. None of that changes simply because they want their chosen candidate to take their place. I have news for them. This election will be decided by the people, not the powerful.
Their editorial also implies that their positive statements about me are “5 years old” as if those positive sentiments ended then. That is also false. In fact, Tom Dernoga himself was an enthusiastic endorser of my 2023 campaign for Laurel Mayor less than 3 years ago.
So why are these entrenched politicians attacking my candidacy, which, if successful, would make me the first African American ever elected to the District 1 seat? Because they’re afraid that I am going to win and they fear the change that I am going to bring. Mr. Dernoga has a tradition of anointing his staff to take his place, like he did last time. This time, the people of Council District 1 will choose change over more of the same.
Revolutionary regards,
Martin
The letter Martin Mitchell is responding to is available here. Streetcar Suburbs publishes letters to the editor from area residents concerning our coverage, in our discretion, and reserves the right to edit them for clarity and brevity.