Silverman, Duncan & Subin race-baiting backfired

Race-baiting against critics by failed County Executive candidate Steve Silverman, departing County Executive Doug Duncan, and defeated County Council member Michael Subin backfired.

They had alternately accused critics of their controversial school privatization schemes - handing over public school property to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and plotting to turn Seven Locks Elementary School to developers - of being motivated by racism and anti-Semitism.

Their tactics failed in the September 12 primary election. Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher reported a while back what Silverman had been saying privately - that racism and bigotry motivated the Seven Locks community's opposition to having their school torn down and replaced with high-density housing.

The Seven Locks bigots voted overwhelmingly for Isiah Leggett over Silverman in the primary election, for school board champion Valerie Ervin to the County Council's District 5 seat, and the only other hero on the school board, Nancy Navarro, to her District 5 seat.

Fisher noted in his September 14 piece, "In one contest after another, blacks and whites alike convincingly trashed politicians' cynical belief that voters can be counted on to cast ballots along racial lines."