Photo: Yeah, boyeeee! Credit: R. Pace/SSP.
A dry, brisk November morning brought out all the fixtures of a Thanksgiving parade — floats, big balloons, and local politicians up for re-election.
Saturday’s march up Georgia Avenue through downtown Silver Spring is an annual thang, streaming with the iridescent colors of Andean-inspired costumes, burgundy and gold from the Redskins marching band, and the black and white of one large, inflatable penguin.
But there was also lots of Democrat blue, delivered by county, state and federal incumbents out to press the flesh. This year’s Thanksgiving parade was the last before the 2010 election, in which all Montgomery County council seats, as well as District 20’s four seats in the state legislature, are up for grabs. Congressional races are also open in Maryland’s fourth and eighth districts.
Laying out some face time was MoCo exec Ike Leggett (D), who strolled with the parade’s first participants. His presence was felt later, as supporters of his proposed pedestrian bridge between the Wayne Avenue garage and Silver Spring’s new library distributed yellow plastic construction hats to the crowd.
US Rep Chris Van Hollen (D-Md 8), who was among the first parade participants out of the starting gate on Sligo Avenue. Just behind him was State Sen Jaimie Raskin (D-20).
Not far behind, immediately before what was the first of myriad Andean dance troupes, were members of the county council: president Phil Andrews (D-3); member Valerie Ervin (D), whose fifth district includes downtown Silver Spring; and member George Leventhal (D-At large), a Takoma Park resident.
It’s unclear whether politicians marched in a certain pecking order (from federal to state, then local, for example), or if their respective placements in the parade line were random.
A few more Andean dance troupes later, State Del Heather Mizeur (D-20), Dem-at-large council member Nancy Floreen (and her small dog), and State Del Tom Hucker (D-20) appeared, either rolling in a top-down convertible or strolling along with campaign supporters.
Bringing up the rear, sandwiched between Boy Scouts pelting the crowd with hard candy and a caravan of fire trucks, were council members Marc Elrich and Duchy Trachtenberg (both at-large Dems).
It’s unknown how many people showed up to watch the parade. Let’s just call it “a lot”.
Photos by R. Pace and J. Deseo/SSP.
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Hehe. Skateboard Mom is in the first slide — and amazingly enough, not having a bad hair day!
I don’t know if this parade follows the same rules, but the Takoma Park 4th of July parade doesn’t allow politicking. This means if you are running for office, and not an incumbent, you can’t be in the parade. However, incumbents can be in the parade because they are “officials.” I think this grossly unfair to challengers and amounts to free advertising for the incumbent.
It does sound unfair. However, it doesn’t seem like the rules don’t allow challengers to campaign for themselves along the sidelines, handing out flyers, etc.
Raskin walking two feet behind Van Hollen was the funniest moment of all. Iwanthisseatthisbad.