B4 bethesda from B1
gomery’s fire-rescue system has shifted from one dominated by volunteers to one largely staffed by career personnel. Volunteers such as Moyer say
the fee is a threat to a way of life. Volunteers in the Bethesda
squad have careers as public school teachers, lawyers and fed- eral officials. Still, they spend their time washing down trucks, cleaning up blood and going door-to-door fundraising for the chance to help the sick and fight fires.Volunteersgetatiny stipend and can, over time, accrue retire- ment benefits. “I don’t see how the county can
say they would charge here,” said Moyer, as tones blared through- out the station Thursday. He rushed a woman to a hospital in one of the high-end Freightliner ambulances bought by the squad. “We own the equipment.We have the manpower. . . . How can you charge for something that I do for nothing?”
Campaign goes to court The county, if voters agree,
would charge insurance compa- nies $400 to $800 depending on the service and, officials said, generate $14 million. The anti-fee forces are led by theMontgomery CountyVolunteer Fire-RescueAs- sociation.
Campaigning has been furious, prompting questions on tactics. Leggett has used the power of
his office to try to sway public opinion. “Nearly every jurisdiction in
the Washington region collects millions of dollars in ambulance reimbursements from insurance companies,Medicare, andMedic- aid — with no adverse effects,” Leggett wrote to a county e-mail list. “Montgomery County should do the same.” On Friday, the volunteer asso-
ciation sued the county to stop what it said was illegal election- eering, including parking rescue vehicles at early-voting sites and having uniformed staff argue for the fee.The suit, set to be heard in a Rockville court Monday morn-
BY KATE LINTHICUM The Internet sometimesmakes
stars out of regular people. That’s what happened to Harry “Pop- Pop” Cooper. A shoe salesman with a broad
JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST Edward Sherburne, chief of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase volunteer firefighter squad, tracks a call.
ing, seeks to block similar efforts ahead of Tuesday’s vote. In a voicemail mistakenly left
with a reporter, Leggett adminis- tration spokesman Patrick Lace- field said that the volunteers filed for an emergency hearing “to try cut off all county activity on this.” “But they screwed up,” Lace-
field said, adding that they “should have done this three weeks ago.” “They’re trying to preempt
Tuesday, basically. . . . We’re just going to go to town over the weekend, and on Monday morn- ing,” Lacefield said. In an inter- viewSaturday, he said that hewas speaking as a longtime partici- pant in campaigns and that his comments reflected the intensity of his feeling that misinformation needs to be countered. “I believe very strongly in what
we’re doing to try to protect pub- lic safety,” Lacefield said. “We expect to win on Monday in court.”
Trading barbs, charges In another campaign dust-up,
one outspoken volunteer medical technician said she felt threat- ened by an e-mail she received after making a prominent break with the volunteer association. Pamela Boe, a stay-at-home
mom from Dickerson, had sharp- ly criticized Eric Bernard, the volunteer association executive director, in a widely-circulated defense of the fee first posted on her Facebook page. In an e-mail response, lawyer
John Bentivoglio, a volunteer firefighter at Bethesda-Chevy Chase who represents the volun- teer association, challenged Boe. “I’d ask you to consider wheth-
er your comments — not your substantive arguments about the fee but the personal attacks—are consistent with the Golden Rule, i.e., treating others as you would like to be treated,” Bentivoglio wrote. Instead, Boe filmed a TV ad
supporting the fee. “I especially took the ‘treating others as you would like to be treated’ as a threat,” she said. Bentivoglio said no threat was
intended. “It’s the exact opposite. It’s just a very polite ask for Eric to be treated civilly,” he said. Efforts to find a quieter solu-
tion have failed. The county offered volunteers
a cut of the fee proceeds if dona- tions dropped off, but the Bethes- dasquadobjected despite signs of receptiveness elsewhere, Leggett said. Bethesda itself was offered a significant grant but declined, Montgomery’s assistant fire chief Scott Graham said. “They are a model of volunteerism,” said Gra- ham, who is a candidate for state delegate. Still, Graham said, they are
battling changes that would help the county as a whole. Bethesda’s volunteers see it dif-
ferently. “They thought they were just
going to run over us,” said the squad’s volunteer chief, Edward G. Sherburne. “They use the word ‘autonomy.’ I’d use the word ‘self- control.’ . . . Here, people see the direct benefit of their contribu- tion.”
larism@washpost.com GOP candidates face a tough sell in blue Maryland maryland from B1
ern Shore, the Washington-Balti- more suburbs have most of the people. And they have been reli- ably Democratic for years. An August 2009 Gallup poll that sur- veyed political leanings found that Maryland ranked third among people who identify as Democrats. The state was behind Massachusetts and Hawaii and ahead of New York and Califor- nia, a reality that makes life for most Democrats fairly safe. “I was surprised to see a politi-
cal ad by Barbara Mikulski, be- cause she doesn’t seem to have a race,” said Carin Robinson, an assistant professor at Hood Col- lege who has studied evangelicals and the political right. She said that BrianMurphy’s primary run against Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) seems to have represented the high-watermarkof the tea party’s influence inMaryland and that it was never really a serious threat. Even places that have been con- servative, such as Frederick County, have seen Democratic Party registrations increasing. “There really isn’t a Christian right here,” Robinson said. Nowhere are the numbers
moredaunting than inMontgom- ery County,PrinceGeorge’s Coun- ty and Baltimore. Here is the
math: PrinceGeorge’s has 401,125 registered Democrats, or 78 per- cent of all registered voters in the county. Only Baltimore City runs slightly bluer in a state where Democrats holdmorethan a 2 to 1 edge over Republicans. In Prince George’s, Democrats outnumber Republicans 9 to 1. “What makes it blue is the
black Democrats,” said Delphine Hall-Anderson, 59, who is black and lives in FortWashington. Adam Sheingate, an associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, said blacks’ allegiance stems partly from the civil rights era, when those opposed to ending segrega- tion flipped from Democrat to Republican, particularly in the South. Even though a large seg- ment of the black community is opposed to gay marriage and abortion, they tend to vote based on socioeconomic reasons articu- lated better by Democrats. “I think for themost part,when
black voters look at both parties, they don’t see the Republican Party as being welcoming to them,” Sheingate said. Ehrlich opened one of the few
statewide Republican fissures in that monolith when he won the governor’s office in 2002, a victo- ry generally attributed to these factors: His opponent was weak
and ran a bad campaign, Republi- cans were near the peak of their popularity nationwide; and Eh- rlich chose a black running mate, Michael Steele, from Prince George’s. Polls show Ehrlich trail- ing in his rematch against Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who defeat- ed Ehrlich four years ago. And Republicans in Prince
George’s are rarer than ever. Mykel Harris, chair of the
Prince George’s County Republi- can Central Committee, said run- ning as a Republican in Prince George’s means putting up with stolen election signs, arguments at social gatherings and ridicule. If anything, it’s only harder as an African American,Harris said. “You’re going to be the only
black Republican in the room,” saidHarris,whois African Ameri- can and serves as the campaign manager for Charles Lollar’s long-shot run againstDemocratic Rep. Steny H. Hoyer in the 5th District. “You’ll get some hoots andcatcalls. But after a while,you get your warrior game on. I tell people, ‘You want to be a Republi- can in Prince George’s County, you’ve got to be a titan.’ ” When Ehrlich stopped by an
IHOP to campaign in Capitol Heights, some of the attendees joked about coming and going in secret.
“There are people who want to
come to this meeting, but not here, because they’re afraid to be seen with [Ehrlich],” said Bruce Branch, 57, a lifelong Democrat and minority business consultant who lives in Prince Frederick and attendedthe Ehrlich rally. “You’ve got to remember, in a place that’s 90 percent Democrat, you can be totally ostracized and ridiculed in your community, the black com- munity, for supporting a Republi- can. Coming over here,my broth- er-in-lawteased me.He calledme a sellout.” At the same time, Branch said
he also attended a GOP fundrais- er in Calvert County, and al- though people shook his hand and said hello, he still felt out of place. “Fundamentally, I didn’t feel welcome,” Branch said. Although politically active
Democrats virtually have to queue up to run on the party ticket, Republicans could not find recruits for about 40 open slots in Prince George’s county. “There’s somewhosay, ‘Noway
will I ever, ever vote for anybody with an ‘R’ beside their name,’ ” said Henderson, whose mother- in-law said she might not be able to vote for a Republican.Hender- son, 35, said she thinks her stint as an airline flight attendant has prepared her for the stress of running a campaign in challeng- ing circumstances. On her second flight after
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training, the tires blewon takeoff to Brazil. For much of the nine- hour haul, the pilot fretted that his crew was so inexperienced and could not speak Portuguese. The plane landed, surrounded by emergency equipment on the runway, without incident. “So when people are stealing
my signs, it’s hurtful, but I’ve dealt with worse,” said Hender- son, who is in a four-way dele- gate’s race for three seats against three Democrats in the 26th Dis- trict. “I’m a minority within a minority.” No wonder that in the time she
greeted voters at the grocery store Saturday, she seldom identified herself as a Republican. Edmondson, the voter who
stopped to talk with her, said one-party politics has been a fact of life for as long as he can remember. “In this state, if you want to
vote in anything, you got to be a registered Democrat,” he said. “But I’m more an independent. I don’t vote the party line. Party is not a big issue with me.” Edmondson, who said he liked
what Henderson had to say, said he did notknowshe was a Repub- lican until someone else told him.
kunklef@washpost.com
smile and modest desires, Mr. Cooper liked to play golf and travel and occasionally sample exotic foods.More than anything, he loved his familyandthe simple Southern California life he built with Barbara “Cutie” Cooper, his wife of 73 years. Two years ago, his grand- daughters bought a video camera and launched a blog. People from all over the world were soon tuning in to
the-OGs.com—short for Original Grandparents — for PopPop and Cutie’s advice onhow to craft a love affair as playful and authentic as theirs. Mr. Cooper, who never seemed
to fully grasp his late-in-life fame, died Oct. 22 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles of heart disease, his granddaughter Kim Cooper said.He was 98. His wife, by his side since they
met in the 1930s on the tennis courts at Poinsettia Park, was bereft but philosophical about his passing. “He was just a good guy,”Mrs.
Cooper, 93, said last week as she looked through photographs of their life together. “He was kind, he was sweet, he didn’t have any affectations.” “He is gone,” she said. “And
that’s okay.” The Coopers teased each other
like sitcom stars — Mr. Cooper used to joke that the secret to a good marriage was the phrase “Yes, dear”—but they were deep- ly romantic. Until Mr. Cooper’s medical problems kept them apart, they shared a single twin bed at Hollenbeck Palms nursing home in BoyleHeights. Their Facebook page, which,
like theirWeb site, is maintained by Kim and her sister, Chinta, has attracted more than 6,000 fans. “You make me believe in love,” one stranger wrote in a digital anniversary card for the Coopers’ 72nd wedding anniversary. The OGs phenomenon was the
subject of a Los Angeles Times article in June. In recent months, Mr. Cooper gave interviews to NPR, CNN and NBC’s “Today Show.” His life began much more
humbly, on April 5, 1912, in Phila- delphia. His mother, a German immigrant, died when he was 5. His father, who had emigrated from Russia, couldn’t care for Harry alone, so the boy was shuf- fled among relatives. After being enraptured by a
EZ SU
KLMNO Duel over ambulance service fee continues
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2010 OBITUARIES HARRY‘POPPOP’COOPER,98
Shoe salesman gained fame on blog
Hawaiian steel guitar band as a teenager in Atlantic City, he signed up for the Army and asked to be shipped to the Pacific. As a private inHawaii in the late 1920s and early ’30s, he learned to play the ukulele and developed a taste for unusual foods (he would im- press friends later in life by eating chocolate-covered ants and spi- ders as a party trick). When he met Cutie in Los
Angeles in 1937, he courted her with stories about island life. “We didn’t have a lot of money, but it didn’t matter,” she said. “Even if we were just sitting in the car, at least we were together.” They married and built a house
on a cul-de-sac in Beverlywood. There was room to raise their daughter, Carol,andson, Jan,and a pool where the neighborhood kids could play.Mr. Cooper ran a chicken farm in Long Beach at one point and sold mayonnaise and pickles to restaurants. Even- tually he settled into the shoe business, selling the previous year’s styles at a discount. He and his wife retired to Ca-
marillo, where they often were visited by Kim, Chinta and their five other grandchildren. Life, asMrs. Cooper sometimes
says, “wasn’t always Skittles and fish.” The couple sank into de- pression after both of their chil- dren died in 2007. But their rela- tionship with each other never faltered. “We respect each other,” Mr. Cooper said one afternoon last spring. “That’s what leads to love.” “People talk about ‘love, love,
love,’ ”Mrs. Cooper said, nodding. “It’s about ‘give, give, give.’ ” Mr. Cooper, it seems, was giv-
ing to the end. A nurse who checked on him at Good Samari- tan Hospital said he smiled and told her, “You are a very good nurse.” Afewminuteslater,hedied.He
wasburied atMount SinaiMemo- rial Park in Hollywood Hills, dressed in a green Hawaiian shirt. It has been hard for Mrs. Coo-
per to imagine life on her own. Over the past week, she said, she has sometimes wondered, “After he’s gone, what difference does it make?” And then she reminds herself
that she still has advice to give. She plans to continue blogging, and her granddaughters are help- ing her write a book about the secrets to a long marriage. Mrs. Cooper pickedupa photo-
graph taken at her wedding. There were tears in her blue eyes. “I don’t cry,” she said. “I really
don’t cry. I am here, I am healthy. Someday, I’ll go meet him.” —Los Angeles Times
COURTESY OF KIM COOPER
Harry “PopPop” Cooper and his wife, Barbara “Cutie” Cooper, were featured in the Los Angeles Times in June.
JanetK.Bungay EDITOR
JanetK.Bungay,67,aneditorin
the African and European depart- ments of the InternationalMone- tary Fund from1987 to 2002, died Oct. 14 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda of complications from biopsy surgery. Mrs. Bungay beganworking at
the IMFin1985 as aminutewriter for the executive board. Earlier in her career, shewas aneditor at the National Cancer Institute and a technical informationspecialistat the National Heart, Lung and BloodInstitute. JanetKarenDuvallwas aBalti-
more native and a 1964 history graduate of George Washington University. ShehadbeenaBethes- da resident since 1973. Her friends called her “Camp-
mother” for planning annual groupvacations. Survivors include her husband
of 43 years, Peter M. Bungay of Bethesda; and a brother, Roy A. Duvall ofVienna. —LaurenWiseman
MarthaDonohue VOLUNTEER
Martha Donohue, 89, the wid-
owofF. Joseph“Jiggs”Donohue, a prominent District lawyer who served in the early 1950s as presi- dent of the Board of Commission- ers, the District’s pre-home-rule governing body, died of respirato- ry failure Oct. 18 at Capital Hos- pice inArlington. Mrs. Donohue did secretarial
work for the FBI during World War II and later did volunteer work with the American Red Cross and was a candy striper at theAndrewsAirForceBasehospi- tal. She was a pastmember of the women’s board at Georgetown UniversityHospital. Martha Vey Apperson was a
nativeWashingtonian and gradu- ate ofWesternHighSchool. Shemarried Donohue in 1948.
They divorced in 1957, only to re- marry several years later.He died in1978. Survivors include her compan-
ion of 30 years, John F. Jones of Washington.
—AdamBernstein
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