All Politics Is Local - Maryland
A Podcast to educate and inform a younger generation of voters beyond the ballot box about local civic matters in the state of Maryland and Prince George's County.
All Politics Is Local - Maryland
Interview With Gabriel Njinimbot - Why Good People Don't Run for Public Office
Gabriel Njinimbot, was a candidate for the Prince George's County Council, discusses his background and motivations for running for office. He highlights the need for change in the county and the disconnect between the establishment and ordinary citizens.
The conversation with host Tamara Davis Brown addresses the challenges of running for office, such as the high cost of campaigns and the complexity of land use and zoning issues. It also explores why good people often don't run for office, citing barriers like time, money, and politics. The influence of political machines and the perception of rigged elections further deter potential candidates. The discussion emphasizes the need for transparency, accountability, and public financing in elections to encourage more qualified individuals to run for public offices.
Welcome to another edition of All Politics is Local with me, your host, Tamara Davis Brown. I have the distinct honor and pleasure to bring in another guest for this episode. It's a gentleman that I met on the campaign trail for the special election for the Prince George's County Council at Large seat. And his name is Gabriel Jinnnabot. What impressed me about Mr. Jinnnabot is the fact that one, he was just so gracious and uh such a gentleman during all of our candidates' form. And I'm not gonna steal his thunder, but he said some things about Prince George's County that I think is worth hearing and listening. And I actually had to look it up myself to confirm what he was saying was true about a Latin term, and um and exactly he was, and so we'll we'll get into the meat of it, but Mr. Jinnabot was also a candidate along with myself for the at-large county council seat in this special election. That although the election is over, the ballots are still being counted, and while we don't have the elections officially certified, it is very clear that the council chair will um get this seat, and we'll talk a little bit more about that. But what we're gonna be talking about today is why good people and why good candidates don't run for public office. And that can be not just locally here in Prince George's County or in the state, but nationwide. I've heard a lot of people, you know, that uh talk about their distaste for politics, and I can understand why having run several times and not get to the finish line as the nominee for the Democratic Party to to gain the seat. And there was a lot of trickery going on with all of my races, or with the majority of my races, I would say. And so we're gonna we're gonna delve into that and um we'll tangentially talk about this current race. When I met him, I felt like Gabriel was a very genuine person, a person who really wanted to see change in Prince George's County, and he put himself out there to run. And I applaud anybody having run myself several times. I applaud anyone that puts themselves out there to run for public office and have a genuine ish interest in seeing our quality of life improve. So with that, I'd like to say good morning, Gabriel.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Good morning, Tamara. And let me just say that uh you are an amazing person. Uh even though I've known you for three weeks when you started this whole thing. Uh you're amazing. You are talking about genuine, I think you are really genuine. And you you you you are invested emotionally, financially, and in every way you can look at it to see that something is different in Prince George's County. And I I saw all of this during the primary, I mean, during the special election. And I just wanted to say that out there before we even go on to saying anything about the election about myself and so on. But I want everybody to know how amazing you are. And if there's if there are people out there who are still wondering if if they should be supporting you, I say they should not waste any more time, you know, in any place and anywhere, in any effort they see you putting any time in it.
Tamara Davis Brown:Well, thank you so much for those those kind words. Um I certainly appreciate it. You know, my I definitely will say that my heart is in the right place and I want to do the right thing for the right reason. And I hope that that continues to to to show and to be demonstrated in all that I say and all that I do. But let's let's let's first jump right in. Um tell us about yourself. Uh tell us um where you were born and raised, tell us about your family, tell us how you came to Prince George's County, you know, the whole nine yards. People um want to know who my guest is today.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Well, great. Um I was born originally in a small West African town uh in Cameroon. I don't know, I'm sure many people know about Cameroon. Um I was born in that town. It's about 12 to 14,000 miles away from from Prince George's County. And uh I moved here. Right away, I was raised by parents who weren't that lucky to see even the four walls of an uh elementary school, but believed in all 19 of us, we're 19 to our parents, uh, that we can achieve whatever we want, if we especially if we put our minds to it. Right. Um we walked seven miles each way to school every day. Wow. Yes. Um and in those days, because my parents weren't weren't that weren't educated, they the only way they depended on making any money was working in their farms. And that's how we essentially grew up, walking barefoot sometimes to school and back for months.
Tamara Davis Brown:Wow.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And but because we were they were dedicated and sacrificed everything to see us succeed, they they you know, they pushed us, they paid our fees all the way through college. Uh, and I graduated in 1997 with a second upper class degree in educational administration in Cameroon, and I was fortunate to move to the United States in 1999, where I flew into Chicago knowing nobody with a hundred bucks. I got lost for several hours at the airport because it was so big I didn't know where I was, and that led me to lose uh missing my flight, my connecting flight to Chicago, to um to from Chicago to to Akron, Ohio, where I was going to school uh on a H1, no, on an F1 student visa. Now I got to Chicago uh after I was missing the flight, I met a gentleman who was also kind enough to I was sitting right next to him and he asked where I was from and where I was going, and I explained everything to him, and he asked if I had a ride to the university from the airport, and I said, No. And he was kind enough to drive me from the airport, it was like an almost 45 minutes drive, and when we got to school, the school was closed because it was a Sunday. Okay, and he did not want to take me to his home, obviously, because he didn't know who I was. So he decided to help me pay my bus fare from Akron, Ohio to Washington, DC, and that's how I ended up in Prince George's County.
Tamara Davis Brown:Wait a minute. This the school was in Akron?
Gabriel Njinimbot:Yes, the school was in Akron, Ohio, um, because that's where I had managed to have an admission to go to uh uh to go to um uh college, another college, in the University of Akron. And uh I got to the United States on a Friday evening, missed a flight, then flew out the next morning to Akron, Ohio, which was a Saturday, and there was nobody in school to even receive me as an international student. Okay, and um uh Mr. Nelson was the guy's name was Mr. Nelson. So when we got to school, he was like, Well, there's nobody in school to receive you. Apparently they were waiting for you yesterday, but you never showed up. So I'm uh you know he's anticipating that they'll probably get to receive me the foot on Monday. So he was like, Well, I can't leave you on the streets, I cannot take you to my house. So he asked if I knew anybody in the country. I said, Well, I know people in Maryland, but they don't know I'm here. Oh so uh he was like, Well, well, you're gonna have to let them know you're here because you're gonna have to go somewhere before you come back to Acorn, Ohio. So he gave me 60 bucks. You know, he gave me 60 bucks, took me to Greyhound, and gave me another 20 bucks to eat on my way down here.
Tamara Davis Brown:Wow.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And uh that's how I ended up in in here in DC.
Tamara Davis Brown:Wow. So let me ask you this. Did you, once you got here, you were you able to connect with the people that you knew in Maryland, and did you actually go back to Akron to go to school?
Gabriel Njinimbot:Yes. So when while in Ohio, I connected one of my cousins who was here who knew I was found out I was coming. And so they picked me up at Union Station. Okay. Uh, at a Greyhound station, Union Station in DC. And then um when I and I'm I'm I didn't even realize how complicated and how difficult is it to survive in the United States of America. Uh, because you know, you know, out of America we have this, we have this idea or notion that you know everything is green, uh, there's probably money on the streets. You know, so I went back to Ohio, uh, but I I realized that the tuition was $17,000 a year.
Speaker 3:Right.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And I'm thinking, you know, I did not know that $17,000 was was not easy money to get.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Gabriel Njinimbot:So um I did not go to school that semester because I had to work, which we we're gonna get into that, which I was gonna have to work to raise the money to pay my tuition $17,000, because there was nobody to to help me with that one. Remember, I came in with a hundred bucks.
Speaker 3:Right, right.
Gabriel Njinimbot:If I had a lot, I wouldn't, you know, I would have brought it. But then um I ended up in DC, which I started working to make money at a seafood restaurant right down there in College Park, Maryland.
Tamara Davis Brown:Okay.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Wow.
Tamara Davis Brown:Yeah.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Wow.
Tamara Davis Brown:Okay. Well, that's interesting. That's definitely interesting. That uh something I never knew about you. Obviously, we like you said, we just met three weeks ago when the when the campaign started, and we had some conversations, but definitely have not had any conversations about um your um upbringing or your arrival here. So that is quite interesting. Well, tell us what you're doing now. Do you have family? Um you have children. What's what's what are you doing now?
Gabriel Njinimbot:Fast forward. So right, fast forward, right? Uh just just so you know, I my my story is very interesting to the point where I actually wrote a whole book. Oh, yeah. About 253 pages of my whole story from Cameroon to you know how I was raised to the United States and the things I went through up to a certain point. Um, but while I was here in Prince George's County, uh I got married. I have three children, uh, and all of them went to Prince George's County public schools.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Gabriel Njinimbot:The first one is at Towson University right now, and the other two are still in Prince George's County's public school. One of them is in high school in Laurel, and another one is in elementary school here in Laurel as well. And um, you know, over the years, I worked for Prince George's County uh right there at LIGO. Uh I we ran the information technology department right there on my comic drive for a couple of years, and then I had a job in Baltimore City's mayor's office of information technology, which I worked there for 18 years.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And yeah, and we essentially ran the IT department for the city. Um, the city was was mainframe driven. All city applications were for all city services were all in mainframe. So we had the the duty to migrate everything out of the mainframe system into modern-day technology, which I was the database analyst there for a good number of years. And then subsequently, um I broke out of, well, before I did that, I went to law school. Uh went to law school, I graduated in 2014. I had my law degree in 2014, and I started up a couple of small businesses as well when I left. Um and fast forward, I am just doing my own business right now and doing a little bit of law practice on the side and then running for office.
Tamara Davis Brown:Okay, well, wow. I think we can all write a book, right? We all have a a story to to tell and to you know be an inspiration to some to someone else, and that is incredible. So, what's the name of your book? Well, I have five books actually published. Um, wow, okay.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Yes, and they're all on Amazon. If you look at, if you just search my name, Gabriel Ginimod, all of them will show up. But the first book was titled From Meager Beginnings: The Power of Dedication, Persistence, and Consistency.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Um, and it is to tell you that. Well, and I'm not gonna go into all that, but let me just give you the five books. Uh, so the power of dedication, persistence, and consistency is the first one. And then getting to the top, the secrets is another one. Uh, the other one is be uh the second, the third one is the art of endurance.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And then the other one is be your naysayer's greatest surprise. Uh no, be your last line of defense and your naysayer's greatest surprise.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And then the last one is uh how to turn small resources into big dreams.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Those are the five things I've written. And they're all on Amazon. Self-published, by the way. Uh, and um yeah, you can you can look that up and um they're all very interesting books because they all they all are all real true life experiences of the things I went through to the point where I am today. That's quite interesting.
Tamara Davis Brown:So you moved to Prince George's County in 1999?
Gabriel Njinimbot:Yep, 1999, June 14, 1999, to be precise.
Tamara Davis Brown:Okay, and you live in Laurel, Maryland right now.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Yes. I live in Laurel. I lived in Green Bell for a couple years. I moved to Laurel in 2024. Wait, I did I say 24? Twenty twin two thousand four, sorry.
Tamara Davis Brown:Oh, two thousand four. Okay, not twenty twenty-four. Okay, okay. Gotcha, gotcha. All right. Well, let's pivot a little bit. Um again, very interesting um uh background, upbringing, and uh if you will, survival story. And I definitely will have to pick up a couple of those books and and and hear your story and read your story uh um in more detail. They sound very interesting. But let's put pivot again and as I said at the top of the episode that this episode is dedicated, um, is entitled Why Good People or Why Good Candidates Don't Run for Office. So tell me first, what made you decide to run for public office? And tell us a little bit of history, because what I did learn, and I don't think I knew this in 20, I guess that would have been twenty twenty-two or twenty eighteen, and you can correct me that you ran for the at-large seat previously before this special election. So first tell me what made you decide to run for public office, and then um Yeah, let's start.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Go ahead. Well, you know, uh based on my story, number one, uh I'm grateful for the United States. Uh I came to this country with a hundred bucks, and today I can I can say that my my journey, my success is mostly attributed to the country that I live in. And I feel like it's a responsibility for me to give back to the community that has, or to the country that has made me who I am. Uh, and I owe that to the American people. I owe that to the people who came before me uh and paved the way for me to be free, for me to drive on the roads that I never built, um for me to vote. People who died for me to be here, to be able to vote. Uh, I feel like I owe them. And I would not, I will be doing a great disservice to this community, to the country that has made me who I am, if I don't go out and fight for more justice for the next generation of people who are, you know, still struggling to survive uh in this country today. I feel like we there is still more to be done. And if people like myself and others don't go out there and fight, we would never get to the point where we are supposed to be. Uh and and those those things made me go out and say, you know what, let me go out and fight. That's number one. Number two is that over the decades I've realized that uh the county needs to do more than it is doing. And uh if you look around, you go to our different cities in Prince George's County, Capitol Heights, District Heights, Laurel, Greenbelt, Hydesville, there is a lot of status quo that has remained the same, uh, regardless of who is in that office. And the the common denominator is that a lot of the folks who are in government are well established and are very disconnected with the ordinary guy on Main Street on the streets of Hydesville and Capitol Heights. The people who Mario Cuomo, the late governor of New York, described as people who are not so rich to be worry-free, but not so poor to be on welfare. Uh, those people in Prince George's County need to be represented by folks like you and I. Folks who pick themselves up with their own bootstraps, even when they didn't have boots, and struggle to send their kids to school, take care of their moms and dads, do three jobs, pick up trash, and work uh nighttime as you study nighttime as students and work during the day as workers and earn minimum wage. These little things that are not very visible to the untutored eyes require people like you and I to go out there and fight for them because of the disconnect that exists between the establishment class, the elite class, and the ordinary folks who are who are numb to the daily surviving mode that they're in and they don't get to tell their stories. So for people like us who see some of these things, who see homeless people here and there, who see people at the grocery store go pick up food items and then take it back out because they can pay for it. Uh, who see senior citizens in senior res senior citizens' resident homes with very old mattresses or beds and sometimes have to pay for their own transportation to the hospital, these things make me cringe. And I I mean the list goes on and on and on, but we do need the ordinary guy on the streets to be in government to see some of these things and see how we can change their status quo. And in me digging, that's how I came to find out what's written on our county logo, which is which I'm thinking, how is this a coincidence?
Speaker 3:Right.
Gabriel Njinimbot:That that's what our logo says, however way they intend it, but it somehow has a reflection of what actually happens on the streets of Prince George's County.
Tamara Davis Brown:Right, right, right. Um, very interesting, and I agree. And let's let's tell our listeners what is inscribed on the logo of Prince George's County.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Yeah. Uh you know, I I know some of our listeners have never never had a chance to either see it or they see it, but they don't take the time to look at it or look it up. It's a sim it's a Latin word that says siempre. Siempre, which means everything remains the same. Everything remains the same. Yeah, and it has a whole backstory to that, which we wouldn't go into the whole the whole backstory for the sake of time. Uh, but it essentially says everything, the status quo, always will remain the same. And it's been the same over the decades. Um look that up. And when you look it up, ask yourself what your status has been in the five decades and what the county has done to change your status in the few in the past few decades. And tell me if or how that actually means to you as a Prince George's County resident.
Tamara Davis Brown:You know? Right, right, yeah. It's you know, when you said that at um the your very first candidates forum that we were in person together, I was like, Well, I never paid attention to the Latin phrase on Prince George's County logo, and never knew that that phrase was there and what it means, but the way you broke it down is saying, we're really living up to that creed here in Prince George's County. Everything is staying the same. And you are so right that I hear so many people, including people that are doing quite well. And when I say quite well, you know, they live in beautiful homes, uh, they are professionals in whatever profession it is, they could be, you know, they have their own salons, they may be professionals like as an attorney or a doctor, or here, this, that, and the other. And they always say, you know, it's this is always the same. It never changes. We don't care who gets in office. It's uh, you know, it never it never changes. We always get the same old, you know, whatever it is that they are complaining about, or whatever it is that they're looking for that they don't feel like they're getting here in Prince George's County and they have to go elsewhere. And um so I agree with you that we need to change that logo on on our on our on our seal, but more importantly, we need to live it out by changing it. Um changing that everything stays the same, that no, we need to make progress. And we need to make progress because we need to do more than what we're doing in electing the same people over and over and having musical chairs and expecting different results.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And you know, um I I've spoken to tens of thousands of citizens of Prince George's County. And they they are going through a lot, and they're they're tired of the status quo. And some of them, like you rightly mentioned, they rather just quietly move out. And NBC 4 carried out a an investigation um documentary about Prince George's County, and you can look that up too, and it was titled The Mass Migration.
Tamara Davis Brown:Right, I did see that. I saw that. Yeah, and I actually didn't I actually did an ep uh episode on our politics as local about people moving out of Prince George's County and particularly into Charles County and the millennial generation, which is the whole reason why I created this podcast was to reach a younger generation uh and not you know so much an older generation or generation of people who are my age or even older. And um I'm not sure if it ever got published because we had some audio problems and uh at the time NBC did its story, Washington Post did its story, everybody did a story on um how Prince George's County is losing residence to Charles County and other jurisdictions. Right. Although there's still pe quite a few people moving in, but the majority of the people that are moving in are moving in from either out of state or out of the country. Um but the people who may have grown up here, and the person that I interviewed that was my guess, uh her she grew up in Fort Washington with her parents and went to Prince George's County Public Schools along with her husband. Uh and they made a conscious decision to when they were looking for homes to move to Charles County. Now for them, part of the pro not part of the problem, but part of the rationale was affordability. And I know that that that issue came up during our uh election, and I believe it was one of the Republican candidates, Mr. Tails, who always talked about affordability being one of his platform.
Gabriel Njinimbot:You know what affordability means, right? I can't afford to live in an environment where the crime has gone up 12%. I can't afford to live in a in an environment where uh students are struggling to survive in schools. I can't afford to live in an environment where um the property taxes are so high. I can't afford to live in an environment where and the lease goes on and on and on and on. Right. And that's that's and that's the issue, that's the challenge that the citizens of Prince George's County are facing. And by the way, a lot of these folks who leave Prince George's County, they are hurting when they leave. They don't, especially the ones that were born here and raised here and love it here. Right. Now they can't afford to leave here. That's not necessarily doesn't only mean that they can't afford to buy the homes. They could buy it here, but they can't afford to not be able to walk the streets at all times of the day. They can't afford to not go to a gathering and somebody gets shot. They don't want to live in this kind of an environment. They can't afford to drive in one neighborhood and it doesn't feel like Prince George's County, and into another neighborhood that feels like Hollywood in the same county. It feels like there's two counties in one county, one that is completely neglected and forgotten, and the other one that is living in affluence and wealth and thrive. And it feels like what's going on here? Right. What's going on here? Right. Am I on my own? If you remember on the um one of the forums that we we had with the mayors, the black mayors of Maryland, yes, Mr. Porter. I don't know if you remember Mr. Porter, he essentially painted a picture of the other side of Prince George's County in Prince George's County. Right. Right. Essentially saying, look, this part of Prince George's County, Capitol Heights, District Heights, Heightsville, they have completely been abandoned.
Speaker 3:Right.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And our politicians could say whatever they want. We we are completely forgotten. We are we don't exist in Prince George's County in Alumna.
Tamara Davis Brown:Right. Yeah, and and I remember I remember that question, and then you know, that's our quote unquote inner beltway communities, um, those that border the District of Columbia lines. And I remember answering the question that the unique thing about all of those areas just about is that they all have a metro station. And we've been talking the longest about doing transit-oriented development, but it's never occurred. Now our council chair says, well, most of those are built on floodplains, and it's you know very difficult to to and very expensive to to build on it, but I think that's just an excuse, you know. Even if you know, if you if you wanted to make the investment, you would make the investment in the communities. And I think there needs to be a greater investment in our inner beltway communities. But you're exactly right. We have we definitely have a county that is quite diverse in the sense that we have you know very, very wealthy enclaves, if you will, and then very, very poor enclaves as well. And the question is is is how to represent all the people and bring, you know, you know, rising tides raise all ships, right? And how can we how can we bring that rising tide to the inner beltway communities, to the you know, communities that have been neglected. And I I think that you and I have some great ideas about that. But for whatever reason, you know, the status quo still rema always remains the same. And so let's let's kind of pivot a little bit and and talk about, you know, we can the reason the status quo remains the same is just it's because we have the same people in office, right? It's to me, it's a musical chairs and it's a it's a stepping stone. People, you know, they start off at school board and then they run for county council, then they run for, you know, maybe state delegate or state senator, then they run for county exec, or maybe they are on the central committee and they use the central committee and just wait for an opening. You know, somebody's gonna, you know, we've had so many new delegates and new senators by virtue of the fact that somebody's either stepped down, retired, passed away, what have you, you know, for various reasons. Yeah, and then the person on the central committee, you know, is now elevated to public office. And I guess what disturbs me a little bit about that whole process is that people don't really understand the the jobs of our elected officials. So for example, um most people don't know, and I I had to actually explain this to people not only at the polls but on our candidates forum, is that the Prince George's County Council is an if you are a HOA president, uh citizen, what have you, in leadership, and you think you want to become a Prince George's County council person, you're in for a uh Y widening experience because the Prince George's County Council, 60% of what they do is sit at the as a district council on land use and zoning matters. And land use and zoning matters is not an easy subject or topic to understand. You have to have done this for a while to really understand what the county council does, and they and you're bombarded with it, right? And I don't pr pretend, because I don't practice that type of law, I don't pretend to to know everything about it, but I have been advocating for so long on it that you know I fear that the wrong people get in office if they're not gonna be manipulated and everything remains the same, they're gonna be bamboozled and everything remains the same. Right. Because it's such it's it's so complicated. And I've heard people say, well, I didn't get comfortable in the position of I've heard former council people tell me, and one person called me up to tell me, I didn't get comfortable in the position of county council until after my first term, four years, or I didn't get comfortable and really know how this thing works until I became council chair. And that's a travesty, unfortunately. But we we can get into that a little bit later or at another on another episode. But what we really want to talk about is why good people like yourself and like I would like to say myself don't run for for public office. I have you know put myself out there plenty of times. And number number one, I'm gonna start the conversation, but then I'd like for you to you know pick up on what you think why good people don't run. Number one, it's it's quite expensive to run for office, and the and people wonder why candidates are always asking for money. The flyers that I printed out for this election, so because this was a special election, I had a certain budget in mind and that I was not gonna going to exceed because number one, I knew it was a short turnaround. Number two, I knew people were not paying attention. Number three, the county did a poor job in advertising this election. In other words, letting people know about it, other than sending out the ballots. And number four, um it was really a way for me to continue to keep my name out there as a viable candidate for public office, right? And so people don't realize that, you know, they want, you know, yeah, give me a yard sign, yes, you know, I want to I want a t-shirt or to print all that stuff out, it costs a lot of money. So I used a local, a local printer, uh, Minuteman Press, uh, Miss Latasha Ward, who actually ran for office herself as a state delegate. She opened up a print shop, and so I used her to do my printing. And, you know, I paid a couple of thousand dollars just to print out my little um handouts that I that I gave. And and and you know, she's a union shop, um, so you pay a little bit more for for union union shop, although she didn't put the bug on mine, and I don't know um the union bug on it on my card. Somebody asked me about that at the new Carrollton Candidates Forum why it wasn't there. But in any event, um, you know, you you have to pay for that. You have to pay the the big signs, the the smaller signs, all of those things are very expensive. So I think some people that uh and people don't people there are people, one potential person that was gonna run, she says she doesn't feel comfortable in asking people for money. I have no problem asking for people for money. I will ask you, please donate to my campaign. This costs money, I can't afford it. And you know, that was that was that that was my line at the polls when I was meeting people. I was like, you didn't get anything from me to in the mail. And the reason was was I couldn't afford it. I couldn't afford to mail something out countywide. In a countywide race, it is quite expensive to run. District in a district race is expensive, but certainly a countywide race that you got to get your name out there throughout the county. And it's very expensive. So that's number one. Well uh what's your number one thing why good people don't run for this?
Gabriel Njinimbot:I I run for, and that's that's the correct um what you you talked about in the race I ran. I ran for Congress this past primary three months ago.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Gabriel Njinimbot:And uh before that, I knew what my challenges were gonna be. One is the money. The one thing that has has I want to use the word corrupt, but has has spoiled or ruined politics in our nation, not just in Prince George's County. Financing. Yes, yes, you know, there's there's some numbers out there, and the average congressional raise cost one point five million dollars.
Speaker 3:That's crazy.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Yes. Um and and because of this notion of everything remains the same, you have candidates out here who have other personal interest groups and lobbies and you know, big developers that sponsor their campaigns for their own personal interests, right? That alone, that alone, hearing the numbers 1.5 million dollars or even $500,000 in Ron anyway, was allowed anybody who a well-intentioned or well-intended candidate who is sick and tired of the status quo to even think of filing your initial documents to run. Where the heck are you gonna get a million $1.5 million from unless you have some ties to a special interest group or a lobbyist or some big developer who has uh a greedy interest in some part of George George's county's government or um real estate or something, right? Otherwise, right there, you are just crazy trying to run for any kind of race in the entire county or in the district because you don't have that money. I was fortunate to have a good ground support when I ran for Congress. We raised almost a hundred thousand dollars um and that ran out pretty quick, very quickly. Um and so I think that's your that's the number one reason why uh good people don't run for office. The second reason you think about just yourself what it took for you to run the campaign in just three weeks, right? Much less six months, much less a year, if you intend to run for any kind of office, right? That means you have to either be self-employed, even when you're self-employed, you don't you need money to pay your bills? Yes, you do. Um somebody who is not self-employed has a nine to five because you cannot campaign if you do not have time, right? And you can't have money if you don't have time, right? To do fundraisings and all. You you have to have time and you have to have money. These two factors will stop you from running because you have to go to do a nine-of-five. You have your mortgage to pay, you have your rent to pay, especially if there's uh the rent the landlords can go crazy as they want with the rent, uh you have easy to raise, you have you have your life, right? So if you are not an agent of change, somebody who really is passionate about seeing your county being different, uh being somebody who really wants to see that the county is doing better, or have your county uh eliminate processes that don't work, or make processes that work more efficiently, you're not gonna you're not gonna run. You're not gonna run for a city council because you don't have time, because you don't have the money, because your spouse um you know has to bear the burden of doing everything. You don't have that time, you don't have the money, you don't have the support, you're not gonna run.
Tamara Davis Brown:Right. Well, what let's talk about the elephant in the room because there are people who may have the time and may have the money or can at least raise the money, but they still choose not to run, and that's because of quote unquote politics. And and I think it gets to back to your observation of the fact that our the Latin phrase that is written on at least Prince George's county's logo, and it's probably even though it's not written as a logo on the logo, it's certainly implemented nationwide. And that is, you know, people think that it's it's all for lack of a better term, it's all rigged, it's all set up, it's all you know, you know, it's it's it's all corrupt. What are your thoughts about what are your thoughts about just politics and the fact that people just don't want to get involved in politics? And that's why they don't run.
Gabriel Njinimbot:You know, the the status quo has always been has always been a a roadblock to to a lot of folks because when somebody I I'll give you an example of the Kennedy family, right? A name brand family. In the county we have something where if somebody were to hear that, oh, uh you're trying to run for Congress, we're like, oh, I'll give you my example. When I was running for Congress, I had a I had a ton of people who call me for either personal reasons or not, and tell me, look, man, you're going against the Ivy family, that's the Kennedy family, that's like the Kennedy brand in Prince George's County, uh, you're not gonna make it. You are just crazy, you're you're you're either doing this for for ego reasons, or um, if you're trying to put your name out there, I don't think that's how you should do it because you cannot win against the Ivy family. True or not, but there's a lot of people who would not run for office in Prince George's County because they just feel like it's an uphill fine. Uh you're not gonna win, Mr. Ivy. He's a congressman, uh his wife is in the county council, he's a county council president, he's someone is a state delegate, you know, those types of things, right? And folks who are like, oh you know what, I'm gonna save my money, I'm gonna save my time, I'm gonna save the headache, I'm not gonna do it. Um it does create the impression that regardless of what you do, how much money you spend, somehow you just cannot win. Right. Which you know makes people think that the process is rigged. Right. That no matter what you do, you just cannot win. You just cannot win. Right, right.
Tamara Davis Brown:Yeah, and you know, I've I guess I'm I'm exhibit A. I have run for state delegate in District 27. That was the first time I ran. Now I knew I was kind of like you, I knew initially that I wouldn't rent wouldn't win against that political machine, simply, and it was more so for me to get my name out there the very first time. And 27A, in case you didn't know, is uh used to be the state legislative district of former Senator Mike Miller, who pretty much ran Prince George's County politics. And when I f I actually wanted to run for District 9 County Council even back then, and people said, Well, you need to go talk to Mike Miller. So I went to go talk to him, and he didn't really give me any advice. I, you know, I I I left there kind of dumbfounded, like, why did people tell me to go speak to him when one, he didn't give me any advice, two, he didn't really um you know, show an interest in supporting me. And so rather than running for state, I mean for district nine county council, I decided to run for state delegate instead. And I said, Well, this will be my first run, let me just kind of get my name out there. And what did I do that for? Lord, because that was his district and his delegate, and and I came in a very respectable third, because you have to vote. Um we had two delegates, so there were two seats open, and uh the delegate two delegates were um former delegate James Proctor, who's also um deceased now, and delegate, um former delegate Felario, who is uh ri well, he's n he's no longer a delegate. He decided not to run and quote unquote retire, but he's still practicing criminal defense law and he owns real estate here in Prince George's County and um collects you know good rent from um commercial rent, I should say, and has a big cell tower on his property, so he's making good money from T-Mobiles print, whomever, with some of the cell towers uh on the commercial real estate that he has. But I almost knocked off Valerio. I came within less than five percent, and that was just my very first first run. And so, you know, they they put straw people in the race, you know, somebody who, you know, so you know your your name appears on the ballot alphabetically. So they put somebody whose last name was before Brown to take, because generally voters who don't know who to vote for, they just check the first person's name that comes out the box, and that's five percent. So if that person's name hadn't been there statistically, I could have probably beaten Valerio that very first run. That just made my name mud in the in Mike Miller's eyes, and I got redistrict the very first opportunity that they could do um could do redistrict, and I was gerrymandered out of the district into district twenty six. Then when I ran for when I did run for um county council district nine, I ran against the person who actually resigned from the at-large seat, Mr. Franklin. And yeah, that was that was that was quite interesting because he came to me on his own unsolicited. I don't know who he talked to, but I do know that he talked to some um colleagues of his and they basically said, basically advised him, you know, male, don't run against Tamara, y'all need to agree not to run against each other. And he came to me and said, Okay, well, let's agree not to run against each other. And I said, I agree, but I'm gonna run for District 9 County Council in this next upcoming election cycle, uh, because it'll be an open seat, and the the then councilperson, councilwoman Bland, Marilyn Bland, was term limited. And so, you know, that I had planned to run. Well, he went basically behind my back and you know kissed the ring of Mike Miller and became their golden boy for the seat and got the support of Mike Miller and Wayne Curry, who was the um former county executive and the first black county executive of Prince George's County. And so his name got to be on, you know, all the the sample ballots and all this other stuff. And so, you know, I've I've seen the I've seen the underhand and the dirty hand of of politics and how it's used to keep good people out. And so I think that's another reason that people don't want to run. They they they really do feel like sometimes the elections are rigged or fixed. And I won't say that they're necessarily rigged or fixed. They they can be, but they certainly are, they certainly use tools to keep people out and to to keep people that don't want certain things exposed, because I believe in a government of transparency and accountability and integrity. And because I believe that I spend a good portion of my free time, which I could be doing something else, believe me, trying to educate people on what is actually happening and what's going on, and to open your eyes and say, look, folks, pay attention to what's going on. You know, don't just drive up in your nice BMWs and Lexus's and all this other stuff and pull in your driveway and close the door and enjoy your fancy meals and you know, do all this other stuff and not see what's happening in this county and in this nation and this state of what's happening. And you need you need good people to advocate for you because um, as you say, siempre eatem. It's gonna always remain the same. And so it's it's always gonna remain the same. And so I think good people don't run for public office as well. It's because they don't want to either they don't want to challenge the status quo, they don't want to put themselves out there to risk establishing the status quo, or you know, they just don't have um the fight in them to do so. Yeah. And I and I have the fight. I have the fight. And I, you know, and I I've been I've you know, I've been pushed, pushed out I don't know how many times and kept kept from running. And I, you know, I the last you know, couple of elections with the exception of this special election, and I I'll kind of talk about why I actually ran in this well, I already said it, just really to kind of keep my name out there and you know let people know that I'm you know actively and involved in and trying to to get into office. But you know, people have said, you know, uh Tamara, why don't you just give up? Why don't you stop stop trying? And I just don't have that quit in me. I never I never have you you talked about a couple of titles of your books, and I'm thinking to myself, gosh, that is so me. I am so persistent. You know, I am so if I if there's something that I want to accomplish, I pretty much stop at nothing to get it done. And no has never meant no to me. No has always been not that it's not that time or not that way. So if I look at it as it's not that time, you try again. And if it's not that way, you try a different way. And so, you know, I think good people don't run for public office because, like we said, they don't have the time or the money. And then primarily they don't really want to deal with the politics of what public office. But if we could remove the politics, it's some of the politics that the way that we can remove it, I think I answered this question this way. Some in our last, in our la very last public forum at Reed Temple AME Church, the question was, well, how do we know that you won't, you know, we thought Mr. Franklin was uh up and up guy. How do we know that you won't be, you know, be a person of integrity? And I answered, and and I think that question also came up when we were at the Muslim council as well, Atlanta. And I answered it in two ways. First, I s I I talked about my good name, and one of the reasons why I used my maiden name, Davis, is because my father uh was not blessed to have sons to carry on the Davis name, but I guarantee you there wasn't a day that that there wasn't a day that went by in my household growing up that my father did not emphasize the fact that we were a Davis and it meant A B C X Y Z, and you had to uphold that name. I don't I can't remember, you know, there I there are two things that I can't that that a day pass didn't pass by when my father didn't say or do something. I'm not gonna repeat what the second the second one was, but the first one was was upholding the Davis name and how Davis's react and how Davis's respond and how Davis is, you know, a person of integrity, you gotta uphold the Davis name, which is why I was bold enough even in the Muslim council, you know, to say that I'm a woman of Christian faith and this is what we believe. And I read two scriptures, one from Proverbs and one from Ecclesiastes, about having a good name. But I thought that was the way to for me to answer that question. I probably not that I was thinking that I was gonna gain any votes from that, but I I answered the question earnestly. The second um thing that I do believe that we need to have and that it needs to be a requirement, is that we have to take money out of politics. So I am wholeheartedly supportive of public financing here in Prince George's County for all elections, not just the county council and the county executive, which is what we do have here in Prince George's County, but it has to be financed. They they have to put it in the budget to say we're gonna spend X amount of dollars on our local elections so that candidates can select can uh elect to to um finance their campaigns. But I think we need to go a step further and require that all the fine all campaigns be financed publicly, that nobody everybody has to meet this requirement. You go out, you have to talk to 500 and something can um people and they have to believe in you and give $100, $150, or whatever that threshold is under the campaign finance laws. And everybody has to um subscribe to that. And in that way that the playing field will be level. So we won't get like we had in this special election where two of the candidates sent out four mailers each. One candidate had um a TV ad. I never saw it, but I you know, she said that she had a TV ad was coming. Oh yeah, I never saw, I never saw the ad, but she and two and those same two candidates also had um you know robocalls, had people calling and you know, phone banking and this, that, and the other. And again, you know, pretty much almost had a paid staff. Now, I will say that the mayor, Bowie, you know, he is you know, he's very successful, so he has money to sp spend, if you will. Um, and so you know, he hit his claim, not claim to fame, but his statement during all of the the candidates' form is that, you know, I'm not beholden to anyone. I can it was almost like David Trown, you know, trade David Trohn saying, I can be independent because I'm not bought out by special interests. True, but maybe in order to have a level playing field with everybody, you still have to raise, you know, so much in small dollar campaigns in order to take advantage of public financing, and then you can't raise anything above and beyond that amount. And then that would be a level playing field for everybody, right?
Gabriel Njinimbot:Yeah. Well, you know, I I and I know what I'm about to say is uh uh at the federal level. After Citizens United.
Tamara Davis Brown:Oh yeah, Citizens United just really messed us up, right?
Gabriel Njinimbot:After Citizens United, you know, their playing field will never be playing. It will never be level. Yeah, you're right about that. And you're gonna have folks who always have folks who are well connected somehow to corporations, which is what Citizens United was all about, right? Uh who will run for political office. And you have folks already in these offices who, if such a bill was to come out on the table. It will it will be very, very difficult to pass that bill.
Tamara Davis Brown:Yeah, I I I don't disagree with you on that. But we have to try. We have to start somewhere. Um and you know, I th just like any other Supreme Court case that is can be overturned, just like Roe v. Wade, Citizens United can definitely be overturned as well. If it's the political will of the people. Um and for those of you who don't know, I you know got two lawyers talking to each other, so I guess we should explain that Citizens United was a Supreme Court decision that allowed uh political PAC money, political action committees, um, to one, not only donate to campaigns, but to do so anonymously, and there was no limitation on the number of the amount of money that could be donated um to a PAC, and it has become land, you know, the the law of the land because the Supreme it was a Supreme Court decision, and that basically changed the landscape in terms of having financing by you know billionaires, jillionaires, whatever, to to donate to campaigns anonymously and through PACs, and people will, you know, will never never know who who those packs who are who are the individuals in those PACs. And so I but you know, I I'm I'm hopeful enough to think that just as other Supreme Court decisions like Roe v. Wade have been overturned, the Census United can be overturned if if it's the will of the people, and it's gonna have to be come from a groundswell of from the grassroots up. And you know, you know, you it's not gonna, you know, power concedes nothing without a demand, right? And so it's gonna have to be a demand at the you know, local level all the way up to to overturn something like that.
Gabriel Njinimbot:You know, one of the one of the ways we can change laws, for example, Citizens United is by winning elections. And one of the ways of winning, we can win elections that favor what we're fighting for is having an informed electorate, right? A lot of our electorates don't even know what is Citizens United and how Citizens United actually works. Because through with Citizens United, somebody could give you five billion dollars and give that through a super PAC and fund whatever agenda they have, and nobody would ever find out where this five billion dollars came from. And this has given room for entities to pour in a ton of money into politics holding, you know, making decisions that you and I would have never thought would ever happen. For example, all the judges in the Supreme Court, right, they were able to turn, overturn Roe versus Wade. And all of these was based up based upon how much money was poured into campaigns and through lobbies and special interest groups and stuff like that. So if we were to have uh electorates informed about certain decisions, certain policies that is in place or can be in place if they don't vote for candidates who are funded by super PATs, it would make a lot of difference. And I think that's the responsibility that you and I carry right now is to find ways and means to not just let them know we're running for office, uh by also informing them about things like Citizens United. That if you were to if you were to be in a candidate forum and a question was asked, are any of you, I mean, I think this question was asked actually in one of the one of the forums, are you receiving money from any super PAC or yourself funding your campaign? Or is it a grassroots fund uh funding uh your campaign? A lot of the candidates said, well, we're funding this ourselves, or we're raising money from grassroots um uh grassroots funding. Um, but the candidates who are funded by super PACs, the candidates in Congress who are funded by super PACs, and those and most of these super PACs have foreign influence, have foreign um some, even though it's against the law to have contributions from foreign government, but with Citizens United, money can be funneled funneled through several different ways, which we will never find out, into our campaigns, which puts candidates like you and I who do not have or accept Super PAC money in a position where we would never be able to win elections if we're not getting votes from grassroots folks who uh are not interested in supporting pack candidates. And through pack money, a lot of our candidates are recognized by just by their names, and the ordinary untutored eye or ear in the county votes through name recognition. If they don't know who Tamara Brown Tamara Davis Brown is, they're not gonna vote for you if they don't do some kind of due diligence to find out who Tamara Davis Brown is.
Speaker 3:Right.
Tamara Davis Brown:So Yeah, so yeah, we have that, and then at the local level here in Prince George's County, we have those sample ballots that are paid for by the different campaign committees. Right. Which is which is basically a a smaller version of a super PAC, right? It's your it's it's run by the senators, the state senators, and each candidate has to, you know, pay into it so that they can get their name on this sample ballot. And unfortunately, the people in Prince George's County have been so trained that they take that ballot, that sample ballot as gospel. You know, they just like, okay, well, this is who they told me to vote for, so I'm taking this into the to the um, and it actually says, take this in, take this ballot, this sample ballot, take this ballot into um the uh with you on election day. Take it into your voting booth and check the people that we tell you to check. And it's it's it's a it's a travesty that people don't do their due diligence, they don't do their homework to try to find out who the candidates are, to try to at a minimum.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Part of the part of the reason uh why good people don't run is the the the um the parties committee. If the parties committee were to pick and choose those who they think is their candidate, then they're essentially telling somebody who is not their candidate, even though this person might be an agent of change, not to run. Because you are not recognized. You're not recognized by the campaign committee or the DNC, then you are not a candidate. You're not recognized, you're not talked about in the media, you're not talked about in the news, or um, you know, your name doesn't come up at all. So why would I run? Knowing that you're not you're not recognized. This is part of the reason. And I think that you know we the people, we the people own the we the people own the government. It's not the government that owns the people to decide who should run and who should not run.
Tamara Davis Brown:That's right.
Gabriel Njinimbot:You know, uh, because if if if we were to put ways and means in which it's transparent to the ordinary guy on the street, like look, you guys get to pick and choose who should run to represent your county, your city council, your state delegate, without us put giving our input as to who we think should be the one based on our own criteria, it would be very different. Otherwise, those power those levels that send out, oh, take this with you to the voting booth and pick and vote those who we think should run, should represent you. You know, that influence needs to be removed from politics. Because that's how we get to maintain the status quo, right?
Tamara Davis Brown:That's how we get to uh to live to live out our creed on our logo.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Correct. We do the work, so essentially the parties are doing their due diligence for the citizen. So why should they do one? So uh exactly. This is this is part of the reasons why all this is happening.
Tamara Davis Brown:Yep. Well, this has been quite enlightening. Um, it's been a good conversation. Uh, we might have to pick this back up again. We're already at the a little over hour mark um with with with a little bit of change left. So um I certainly appreciate your time, Gabriel, in joining me for this episode of All Politics as Local. I think we need to invite you back and we we talk a little bit more about politics here in Prince George's County. Um, but one last let one last question and I'm gonna ask you, and then I'm I'm I'll probably answer myself, and that is uh, do you plan to run for office again in 2026?
Gabriel Njinimbot:You know, um I ran two elections back to back, the two-month break. I cannot really tell you, you know, say what's gonna happen two years from now again.
Speaker 3:Right.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Uh all I can tell you is that I'm gonna stay active. Right. I will stay involved. Right. Because these issues that we talk about every day is it's not gonna all of a sudden disappear, right?
Tamara Davis Brown:Exactly.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Um if we do care about the next generation, because the the truth is, you and I at this age, doing this is not for you and I.
Speaker 3:Right.
Gabriel Njinimbot:It is for the next generation.
Tamara Davis Brown:Exactly, right.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Um because somebody's gotta do it.
Tamara Davis Brown:Exactly.
Gabriel Njinimbot:If we do not do it, this status quo will be a siempre Edom. It will always be the same. So I will be very active. I'm not gonna go away. I will be involved, I would stand for rent stabilization, I would fight for those middle class and below middle class folks who, like I said before, Mario Cuomo describes them describes them as those who are not so rich to be worry-free, but not so poor to be on welfare. Right. I will be out here for the for them and see what is in stock in the next two years.
Tamara Davis Brown:Right, right. Okay. Um, that's fair enough, and I think I will agree with you, and I'll I'll say ditto. Um people who have been following me know that I always remain active and involved, and I stay active and involved, and I try to make sure that I educate you and keep you informed on what's going on at the county council level, at the state level, and sometimes at the federal level, and I tr try to break those things down to you in layman's terms so that you can understand and have a greater understanding of what's happening in our local government because an uninformed electorate and an uneducated electorate is one that will allow the status quo to continue to stay the same. So, with that, um well, I look forward to staying engaged with you on a number of issues, and we should definitely keep our dialogue open. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Why Good Candidates Don't Run for Public Office on All Politics is local with me, your host, Tamara Davis Brown.
Gabriel Njinimbot:Thank you, Tamara. It was such a pleasure to be on the show, and I look forward to coming back.
Tamara Davis Brown:Thanks for joining me today on this episode of All Politics is local, the Maryland edition, where we hope to inspire and activate a new generation of informed voters to move beyond the ballot box and take action. Remember, all politics is local.
