Ryan Spiegel, Candidate for Maryland House of Delegates, District 17

Official Campaign Kickoff Speech, April 17, 2006

Thank you all so much for coming today. I am honored and humbled by the early outpouring of support for this campaign and by the tremendous enthusiasm of so many people. In particular, I want to thank you for coming out to be here on a day that is both the Monday after a holiday weekend and the deadline for your taxes. But what more appropriate day is there for the 17th District of Maryland than the 17th of the Month? As you may have heard, this is only one of THREE events I am hosting today. It is important to me to let people know that I care about each and every community in District 17 – from Garrett Park, to Rockville, to Gaithersburg.

While I am grateful to many people, there are a few folks I’d like to single out. First and foremost I want to recognize my parents, two very different people who are nevertheless both uncompromising when it comes to providing for their children. My mother, a career Maryland public school teacher, taught me the importance of education. She has been a source of strength and spirituality, and has exemplified persistence and hard work. She has also instilled in me a love for community service and social justice, in the grand tradition of our family and our faith. My father, a small business owner and health care provider, has taught me so much about interacting with people, about the need to sympathize with others, and most importantly about the importance of humor in our lives. I thank them both for their unending love and support.

I also want to thank the rest of my extended family, as well as my teachers and religious leaders, for all they have done to raise and support me, because as we all know, it takes a village. I want to acknowledge my campaign team – Chairperson Sandra Bromley, Treasurer Jason Altman, Campaign Coordinator Noel LaPenna, and all of the volunteers who work so hard. [Thank elected officials in attendance.] I also want to take this opportunity to thank Delegate Michael Gordon, who – after 24 years of honorable service to this District and this State – is retiring from the House of Delegates this year. I consider Mike to be a role model, and I only hope I can be half the delegate he has been. Finally, I have been blessed in life to have many wonderful friends, and I want to recognize them for being my confidantes and my unconditional supporters.

Ever since I was a young child, I felt a calling to serve others by identifying problems in the world around me, and trying my hardest to fix those problems with innovative solutions and with a vision based on a set of strong core values. When I saw an organization falling short of its goals, I would join that organization and push it to do more. When I saw injustices being perpetrated, I gathered people together and worked to overcome those injustices. This is a pattern that has repeated itself often in my life, each time allowing me to guide bigger and more influential institutions – from campus student groups, to local government commissions, to national non-profit organizations.

My experiences over the years have given me a solid foundation for leadership in this next chapter of my life. I have served on the national board of directors for two non-profit groups; I have served as the chairman of Montgomery County’s Victim Services Advisory Board; I am a member of the Gaithersburg Education Committee; I have held several leadership positions with our local Democratic Party, and I have worked on several local and nationwide campaigns. Throughout all of these experiences, I have taken a collaborative approach, working well with others to inspire a shared vision for the future. And those who have worked with me will tell you that I introduce creative new ideas, that I don’t compromise my principles, and that, most importantly, I work hard and I GET THINGS DONE. And I’ll get things done in Annapolis too.

EDUCATION:
I’ll fight for full funding of public education here in District 17, so that our students won’t have to worry about taking their classes in crumbling school buildings or in portable classrooms that are both an eyesore and a possible health risk. I’ll fight for the Geographic Cost of Education Index, which will offset the higher cost of education here in Montgomery County as compared to other, less expensive places to live in Maryland. I’ll fight to keep public colleges and universities in Maryland affordable and accessible to the thousands of students who depend on these institutions of higher education to open the doors of opportunity for them; I was a scholarship student to the University of Maryland and I know first-hand how that education can change a person’s life. Not to mention the fact that my parents, cousins, uncles, grandfather, and even my great-grandmother – who went to college at the age of 85 because she never had the chance when she was a young woman – all went to the University of Maryland. My passion for public education has manifested itself in my service on the Gaithersburg Education Committee and on the University of Maryland’s Student Affairs Alumni Advisory Council.

Public Education is my top priority, and that’s also why I have been such a strong advocate for teacher pension reform. I wrote countless emails and letters, one of which was published in the Gazette a few weeks ago. As the son of a Maryland public school teacher, I understand how bad teacher pensions have been, and I know that we need to drastically improve teacher pensions in order to attract and retain the most qualified teachers for our students. I am proud to report that a good bill passed in the legislature just a week ago. It remains to be seen whether the governor will sign it, but if he doesn’t, you better believe that as a Delegate I will push to ensure that pension reform is enacted.

TRANSPORTATION:
Another of my priorities for District 17 is better transportation and traffic relief. As a commuter, I know how bad it gets on these roads. That’s why I support construction of the ICC to relieve traffic for thousands of commuters and to strengthen businesses by establishing a new transportation artery to Prince George’s County and Baltimore. But we need to build the ICC in a way that is environmentally sensitive – that minimizes the effects on natural resources. We need high-speed bus lanes and HOV lanes. And we need to complement the ICC with other important transportation projects that are efficient, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective – such as the Purple Line for the Metro and the Corridor Cities Transitway. We also need to increase pedestrian and bicycle routes.

ENVIRONMENT:
And we need to balance roads and other transit projects with a renewed attention to environmentalism – because despite what some may say, traffic relief and environmentalism are NOT mutually exclusive. I worked on former Governor Glendening’s Smart Growth initiative when I was an intern in the State’s Department of Planning. As part of that role, I drafted a report on the benefits of open spaces. And as a strong advocate of Project Open Space, which provides state funding to preserve parks, I attended the ground breaking of two new parks in District 17 and opposed Governor Ehrlich when he raided the Open Space Fund. As a Delegate, I will continue to support the environment with legislation that encourages telecommuting and the purchase of alternative energy.

HOUSING:
One of the most sensitive topics in our county is the issue of growth and housing. I support the principles of Smart Growth, which include the preservation of historic small communities, and I testified in favor of a bill that gives municipalities more of a say over growth and development. In light of the problems at the county planning board, this bill is an important curb on unchecked growth in our county. It will give cities and towns a stronger voice when opposing the county planning board's approval of new development. It will also allow cities and towns to place tougher restrictions on so-called "mansionization." This is an important tool for preserving the character of many traditional small communities, and I am glad to have supported this bill.

Smart growth also includes the notion of increased density concentrated near mass transit, and as a resident in the Kentlands, I strongly support focusing growth around Metro stations and densely designed planned communities that provide a high-quality living environment but with less acreage per person. I also support legislation that makes it easier for counties and cities to pass Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances – which are laws requiring new schools and new roads to be built simultaneously with new residential developments, in order to handle the increased capacity created by those developments.
Another critical component of housing has to be affordability. Eight years ago, I presented a research paper to then-Governor Glendening advocating for more mixed-income housing, modeled after Montgomery County’s own MPDU program. Today, as prices have skyrocketed, I continue to support an increase in the affordable housing supply, not only for low-income families but also for middle-income families – teachers, firefighters, police officers – who should be able to live in the communities that they serve. I do so because I’m a homeowner in District 17, and I think others should have the opportunity to own homes in this great District without having to make a six-figure salary.

In that same vein, I am disappointed stalemate over the unconscionable electric utility rate hikes set to occur this summer. Working families can’t afford to spend another 72% on their electricity bills. As a Delegate, I will fight to roll back those hikes.

PUBLIC SAFETY:
Public Safety is another of my priorities for District 17. I subscribe to a broad definition of the term “public safety,” one that includes access to affordable health care for all of our residents, because the prohibitive cost of health care is a threat to the public safety, and I will fight for innovative solutions like the one recently enacted in Massachusetts. Other public health issues – like funding for stem cell research and ensuring that Emergency Contraception is available without a prescription – are also part of ensuring public safety. But I am also tough on crime: I helped prosecute international war criminals in The Hague, and I am the chairman of the county’s Victim Services Advisory Board, and I work closely with law enforcement officials and health providers to ensure that victims of crime – particularly victims of domestic violence and sexual assault – have access to the services they need. Domestic violence is a scourge that crosses socioeconomic boundaries, and we need better treatment and tougher sentences.

I also think we need an innovative approach to the rising gang violence in our area – an approach that balances better tools for law enforcement, like a state version of the federal RICO law, with more outreach and prevention efforts, such as a D.A.R.E. program for ex-gang members and more supervised after-school and weekend activities for children.

We are also a state that borders Washington, DC, which means that we need to focus on terrorism preparedness in our public safety agenda. A congressional committee recently berated regional homeland security officials for not putting together a detailed budget plan for terrorism preparedness in the DC region. We need to do this immediately, and we need to ensure that our local first-responders – our police, firefighters, and EMTs – have the best training and resources in the event of – God forbid – another attack.

Immigration reform is also a public safety issue, because as long as we refuse to provide a sensible way for millions of undocumented immigrants to become legal, we are allowing the continuation of an unregulated and sometimes dangerous labor market as well as relegating a whole segment of our population to second-class status. This is, at best, ignorant and, at worst, blatant racism. Our immigrant population is made up of people who have contributed to our economy and our community and who simply want the same thing we all want: to create a better life for our children. As a descendant of Holocaust refugees who came to America to seek a better life for their families, I am committed to keeping our nation a place that welcomes -- rather than punishes -- those who are "yearning to breathe free." I understand the need for innovative approaches to fix our immigration system and reach out to our immigrant communities, who deserve just as much of an opportunity to pursue the American Dream as the rest of us.

CLEAN GOVERNMENT:
Finally, my priorities include the pursuit of cleaner government. In this post-Abramoff era, we need a more transparent process for legislators and lobbyists. We need to work toward the goal of public financing of campaigns, so legislators can be free to exercise their judgment for the people, not for the special interests. And we need voter-verified paper ballots, because we can’t trust invisible software and inaccessible hardware with our most precious freedom – the freedom to vote. I was sad to see that the paper ballots bill failed this year in Annapolis, but as a Delegate I will proudly support voter-verified paper ballots.

CONCLUSION:
This District needs someone with the skills, the temperament, and the core values to represent us in the House of Delegates – someone with the experience of having accomplished goals in the political and public arenas and of having served the community; someone with the integrity to stand for cleaner government and to do what is right even if it not what is popular; and someone with the passion to fight with tenacity and zealous advocacy for those causes that will make our community and our state better. I have the EXPERIENCE, the INTEGRITY, and the PASSION that District 17 needs. And so, it is with humility and excitement and gratitude that I formally announce my candidacy for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 17.

Thank you so much for coming today. I ask for your support and your vote on September 12th. If you can also volunteer or make a financial contribution to our campaign, we would be very grateful. And please frequent our terrific website: www.ryanspiegel.com. Again, thank you so much. I look forward to hearing about your concerns and priorities, and I hope to see you soon on the campaign trail. Thanks!