What #BLM Question would you ask a candidate for US Senate?

[qwlauren35]

I'm going to be attending a debate between Donna Edwards (black) and Chris Van Hollen (white) in Baltimore where the Freddie Gray incident took place. If they take questions from the floor, I want to ask a question about the BLM movement.

Any suggestions?

[randys1]

1. What specific plan do you have to address the over militarization of our police and their

increasing inability to properly interact with minority communities.

[Number23]

2. Who are Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen?? Are they media or political folks???

I'm curious if people support the development of state wide Police Monitoring Boards that monitor police activity, suggest training and respond to complaints.

If schools have boards that monitor complaints and issues, cops damn sure should too.

[qwlauren35]

3. Who They Are

They are both US Congresscritters from Maryland running for the US Senate. Chris Van Hollen represents a very wealthy county and has LOTS of money. He's a career politician, having moved up from the State Assembly and Senate. So he has LOTS of connections. Donna Edwards, on the other hand, is coming from a lower middle class predominantly black county, and she's a grassroots community organizer who championed the Violence Against Women Act when Clinton was in office, then turned her eye toward Congress.

Edwards has already come out with Police Demilitarization as part of her platform. I haven't been following Van Hollen, although I really should pay more attention to the competition.

In a recent poll, Donna was ahead 42 to 37. I have no doubt that Van Hollen will spend some serious money to turn that around. He can raise over $1 million in a quarter, whereas Donna did well to raise $590K.

It's going to come down to people power and troops on the ground. But we might pull this off. If Donna says the right things, she'll win the black vote in Baltimore. My fingers are crossed.

[Number23]

9. Thanks for that great info. Just saw that Emily's List endorsed Edwards

http://www.emilyslist.org/news/entry/emilys-list-endorses-donna-edwards-for-senate-in-maryland

[kwassa]

5. They are both liberal congresspeople from Maryland, and both good candidates.

I would say Donna is a little further left. She was my congressperson before redistricting.

here is more on Van Hollen, who is the next district over. He has been kind of a mover and shaker in the Congress.

Christopher "Chris" Van Hollen, Jr. (born January 10, 1959) is the U.S. Representative for Maryland's 8th congressional district, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes most of Montgomery County, an affluent suburban county adjacent to Washington, D.C., as well as portions of Carroll and Frederick counties.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi created a new leadership post, Assistant to the Speaker, in 2006 so that Van Hollen could be present at all leadership meetings. After the Democrats regained control of the House in the 2006 elections, Van Hollen became the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fifth-ranking position among House Democrats. In this post, Van Hollen was responsible for leading efforts to get more Democrats elected to Congress.

After the Democratic losses in 2010, Van Hollen did not run for re-election to chair of the DCCC. Van Hollen instead chose to run for the top Democratic spot on the House Budget Committee, which was being vacated by outgoing chairman John Spratt who had been defeated for re-election. Van Hollen was elected as the ranking member on the Budget Committee on November 17, 2010. Pelosi appointed him to the 12-member bipartisan Committee on Deficit Reduction with a mandate for finding major budget reductions by late 2011. On October 17, 2013 Pelosi appointed Van Hollen to serve on the bicameral conference committee.[1] Van Hollen is running for the United States Senate in 2016 in a bid to replace incumbent Senator Barbara Mikulski, who is retiring.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Van_Hollen

[qwlauren35]

6. Undeniable...

Van Hollen is a strong candidate and Edwards is the underdog.

[kwassa]

7. Edwards has surprised before.

She defeated the liberal long-standing congressman Albert Wynn to become a congresswoman in the first place. He had been my representative for a long time. She had actually clerked for him many years before.

if Eric Cantor can get knocked off on the right, so can Van Hollen on the left.

The real problem in Maryland is that we have a wealth of great candidates. This is a very blue state.

[qwlauren35]

10. My surprise

Is that no one else is running. I think it's because you can only run for one thing at a time. Van Hollen AND Edwards are giving up their seats in Congress for this run. No doubt they could win them back in two years, but still. It's a gamble. I think that's why Cummings isn't running.

I've been thinking of all kinds of questions. It should be an interesting debate.

[Starry Messenger]

4. Ask if they think body cameras will be effective to better policing, and if citizen boards will have

access to viewing them, as part of an oversight process.

[lovemydog]

8. Hi qwlauren35.

Let us know how the debate goes. I hope you get to ask your question. I like all the suggestions! Another possibility, ask both candidates:

Last month a group of activists affiliated with Black Lives Matter released a policy platform titled “Campaign Zero.” It lays out specific plans for civilian oversight of police forces and greater use of body cameras. Are you willing to review ALL of the proposals at campaignzero.org and indicate publicly which of these policies you support?

http://www.joincampaignzero.org/