Montgomery County At-Large - help me choose

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who will cut spending? No more taxes. Inflation is crushing us. The county wants more and more tax money from income and property.

Our salaries never go up of course. On top of that, they want all this massive housing development junk that is going to ruin neighborhoods by building huge multi hundred room apartment buildings in or around neighborhoods. They want to destroy your SFH you worked your entire life for while increasing your taxes.

Im so done. Tell me who are the candidates who will do exactly opposite of what the current council does. Who do I need to vote in to serve as poison pillss to gum up the entire council? They need to cut jobs, increase county employee contributions to Healthcare and pensions, freeze pay hikes, and even layoff many more staff. Infinite tax increases so that they can increase their salaries while everyone around them are getting laid off is unpalatable.

Well, as a county employee (who's off today for a medical issue, so don't come at me), I agree with much of what you say. We are actually understaffed in many ways. But they do need to stop approving huge union raises (yes, I benefit from them, but they should be more in line with actual cost of living and not MORE). I do think we need to contribute more to our healthcare premiums. That's all pre-tax too, so it's not as painful as it may seem. But MCPS needs to do that too. Why didn't Taylor reopen the contract, pay them all a smaller wage increase, and retain filled positions? All of these political leaders (and honestly the unions too) use employees as pawns in their money grabs and power plays. It's really not about what's best for the county as a whole. It's what's best for the power brokers personally.

[Anonymous]

Don’t vote for Sayles. Baltimore Banner is reporting that she has gone on 11 junkets on taxpayer time during her term, more than any other council member, including a trip to Capetown, South Africa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Erlich is horrible. Just horrible. The fact he will likely be back on the Council is a testament to the ignorance for voters

Maybe, just maybe, you should try to understand why Elrich appeals to so many voters. It has nothing to do with those voters being ignorant.

Can you explain it to me? I’m a lifelong Montgomery County resident and a liberal Democrat and I have never understood it.

[Anonymous]

Don’t vote for anyone endorsed by the YIMBYs, they are just sell outs to developers and could care less about your quality of life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Erlich is horrible. Just horrible. The fact he will likely be back on the Council is a testament to the ignorance for voters

Maybe, just maybe, you should try to understand why Elrich appeals to so many voters. It has nothing to do with those voters being ignorant.

It absolutely does

So get specific. Why do you not like Elrich and what appeals to the “ignorant” people who support him”?

I look at the range of contenders for at-large and other positions. Not a great choice in the bunch. At least Elrich, in my opinion, is grounded in facts and reality and is not pandering (looking at you Fani Gonzalez, Friedson, and Glass) to special interests.

I would need to write a book to describe all the ways in which Elrich is terrible. If you haven't been paying attention I can't help you.

Better Elrich than Karla Silvestre or Laurie Sayles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Erlich is horrible. Just horrible. The fact he will likely be back on the Council is a testament to the ignorance for voters

Maybe, just maybe, you should try to understand why Elrich appeals to so many voters. It has nothing to do with those voters being ignorant.

Can you explain it to me? I’m a lifelong Montgomery County resident and a liberal Democrat and I have never understood it.

Sure. Lots of Montgomery County voters don't want upzoning. Sure, if there's a big empty plot of land near a metro station, go ahead and build an apartment building there (see White Flint). But in neighborhoods full of single family homes, people don't want a bunch of quadplexes and townhouses on their street. And they don't understand how demolishing SFHs that cost $600K, and building townhomes that cost $900K, helps the affordability problem. Finally, they understand that our roads and schools are already stressed, and so we need to be careful about the development that happens.

Just read through Elrich's newsletters, and you'll see that Elrich thoughtfully addresses everything I mentioned above (and much more):
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/news?search=&fromDate=&toDate=&category=&department=&newsType=257&page=0

The YIMBYs can yell, scream and belittle the Elrich supporters all they want. It is not going to change the fact that it's a significant voting block. And no they're not ignorant just because they believe that unchecked development and endless incentives to developers are not good for the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Erlich is horrible. Just horrible. The fact he will likely be back on the Council is a testament to the ignorance for voters

Maybe, just maybe, you should try to understand why Elrich appeals to so many voters. It has nothing to do with those voters being ignorant.

Can you explain it to me? I’m a lifelong Montgomery County resident and a liberal Democrat and I have never understood it.

Sure. Lots of Montgomery County voters don't want upzoning. Sure, if there's a big empty plot of land near a metro station, go ahead and build an apartment building there (see White Flint). But in neighborhoods full of single family homes, people don't want a bunch of quadplexes and townhouses on their street. And they don't understand how demolishing SFHs that cost $600K, and building townhomes that cost $900K, helps the affordability problem. Finally, they understand that our roads and schools are already stressed, and so we need to be careful about the development that happens.

Just read through Elrich's newsletters, and you'll see that Elrich thoughtfully addresses everything I mentioned above (and much more):
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/news?search=&fromDate=&toDate=&category=&department=&newsType=257&page=0

The YIMBYs can yell, scream and belittle the Elrich supporters all they want. It is not going to change the fact that it's a significant voting block. And no they're not ignorant just because they believe that unchecked development and endless incentives to developers are not good for the county.

Nobody wants to voluntarily listen to that bloviator.

[Anonymous]

Prabu Selvam is definitely worth taking a look at. He's my choice or help unseat LAS.

https://prabuselvam.com/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also don't reward Silvestre for the disaster that MCPS BOE was this year.

+1 Silvestre needs to be out of office. She told someone as she wants the council job so she can downsize from having two jobs (Montgomery College and the BOE) to having just one job that has staff.

That is a bad reason to run for public office and the public deserves better.

Can’t stand Silverste. She told a roomful of parents with medically fragile kids that she has to consider the whole county, not just their families (mask mandates early 2022). Whatever you think of masks, she proceeded to tell these families that they should not have met with her because it was already clear how she was going to vote. Won’t forgive her for that

[Anonymous]

Anybody but Sayles

[Anonymous]

McNulty and Goldberg. Silvestre is okay but she and McNulty both likely up for that 4th seat and he’s the better candidate of the two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Erlich is horrible. Just horrible. The fact he will likely be back on the Council is a testament to the ignorance for voters

Maybe, just maybe, you should try to understand why Elrich appeals to so many voters. It has nothing to do with those voters being ignorant.

It absolutely does

So get specific. Why do you not like Elrich and what appeals to the “ignorant” people who support him”?

I look at the range of contenders for at-large and other positions. Not a great choice in the bunch. At least Elrich, in my opinion, is grounded in facts and reality and is not pandering (looking at you Fani Gonzalez, Friedson, and Glass) to special interests.

I would need to write a book to describe all the ways in which Elrich is terrible. If you haven't been paying attention I can't help you.

I have been paying attention. I like Elrich. He’s the adult in the room and not a performative progressive who is all-the-while pandering to developers and special interests à la NFG. So again, please get specific.

NINBY alert! NIMBY alert!

Here’s an Elrich article: https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/05/29/why-cant-elrich-just-shut-up/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t vote for anyone endorsed by the YIMBYs, they are just sell outs to developers and could care less about your quality of life

Don’t vote for anyone endorsed by the NIMBYs; they are championing exclusionary economic policy under the guise of progressivism. (I fixed the comma splice for you!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Erlich is horrible. Just horrible. The fact he will likely be back on the Council is a testament to the ignorance for voters

Maybe, just maybe, you should try to understand why Elrich appeals to so many voters. It has nothing to do with those voters being ignorant.

Can you explain it to me? I’m a lifelong Montgomery County resident and a liberal Democrat and I have never understood it.

Sure. Lots of Montgomery County voters don't want upzoning. Sure, if there's a big empty plot of land near a metro station, go ahead and build an apartment building there (see White Flint). But in neighborhoods full of single family homes, people don't want a bunch of quadplexes and townhouses on their street. And they don't understand how demolishing SFHs that cost $600K, and building townhomes that cost $900K, helps the affordability problem. Finally, they understand that our roads and schools are already stressed, and so we need to be careful about the development that happens.

Just read through Elrich's newsletters, and you'll see that Elrich thoughtfully addresses everything I mentioned above (and much more):
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/news?search=&fromDate=&toDate=&category=&department=&newsType=257&page=0

The YIMBYs can yell, scream and belittle the Elrich supporters all they want. It is not going to change the fact that it's a significant voting block. And no they're not ignorant just because they believe that unchecked development and endless incentives to developers are not good for the county.

This is a common NIMBY talking point. Nobody is actively trying to demolish all single-family housing in the county. The kind of development you mentioned above as good development is development that YIMBYs on the council support and NIMBYs on the council oppose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Erlich is horrible. Just horrible. The fact he will likely be back on the Council is a testament to the ignorance for voters

Maybe, just maybe, you should try to understand why Elrich appeals to so many voters. It has nothing to do with those voters being ignorant.

Can you explain it to me? I’m a lifelong Montgomery County resident and a liberal Democrat and I have never understood it.

Sure. Lots of Montgomery County voters don't want upzoning. Sure, if there's a big empty plot of land near a metro station, go ahead and build an apartment building there (see White Flint). But in neighborhoods full of single family homes, people don't want a bunch of quadplexes and townhouses on their street. And they don't understand how demolishing SFHs that cost $600K, and building townhomes that cost $900K, helps the affordability problem. Finally, they understand that our roads and schools are already stressed, and so we need to be careful about the development that happens.

Just read through Elrich's newsletters, and you'll see that Elrich thoughtfully addresses everything I mentioned above (and much more):
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/news?search=&fromDate=&toDate=&category=&department=&newsType=257&page=0

The YIMBYs can yell, scream and belittle the Elrich supporters all they want. It is not going to change the fact that it's a significant voting block. And no they're not ignorant just because they believe that unchecked development and endless incentives to developers are not good for the county.

Nobody wants to voluntarily listen to that bloviator.

Give him credit now, he's a bloviator with brains.