No good options for MoCo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fixed

Anonymous wrote:And there was a 20% uptick in murders last year, up to 24 in 2025 from 20 in 2024.

Fairfax had 12 murders in 2025 and a 15% decrease since 2024.

DC had 127 murders in 2025 and a
32% decrease since 2024.

Arlington had 1 - yes 1 - homicide in 2025.

So please forgive me if I call BS on claims that crime is down.

I don't know... maybe all the killers moved to MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Election day is coming soon in MoCo. I have my ballot mostly down, including niche positions like sheriff and registrar of wills. Yet, I still don't know who to choose for County Exec. Jawando seems like a career politician and the whole scandal with the Board of Elections puts me off. Friedson chose not to take public financing, which seems scummy, and attacks his opponents without having much policy besides not raising taxes. I'm leaning Evan but I'm not entirely sure if I should.

Evans is smart, and he shows up for the community - unlike Jawando, who lacked the executive function to organize a functioning office. Friedson hasn't been east of Conn. Aver, to my knowledge.

Not sure what your hesitancy is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you say Friedson is least likely to raise taxes?

Personally, I would not say that. They all have basically the same record on the topic. Friedson made a political decision in the middle of a campaign and made it seem like more than it was.

If raising taxes is your main concern, that rules out Jawando by a hair. It doesn't break a tie between the other two. Need to move to second most important issue to you....

By a hair? Jawando will definitely raise taxes. His "plan" to not raise taxes was full of errors, in violation of labor agreements, and in some cases, part os his plan were against set rules. Jawando isn't into details - he will say whatever is expedient to advance his own political advancement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am going with Jawando. He listens to residents more than either of the other two candidates. He has some ideological tunnel vision on policing that I don’t like, but he’s mostly in step with a majority of the council so there won’t be changes on policing. Based on how Jawando has handled subsidies, land use, and the budget this year, he seems to be considerably smarter and more willing to consider differing views than the other candidates.

It says something to me that Jawando was endorsed by most of the Somerset elected officials even though Friedson is their district rep. Glass has also done a good job working with municipal officials, and he’s my second choice. I would choose Peter James over Friedson because I’d rather give autonomous vehicles a chance than watch Friedson waive all the taxes developers pay.

Jawando is the most likely to raise taxes.

The only council member who proposed keeping tax rates the same and keeping the ITOC is the one most likely to raise taxes? OK.

Jawando's plan was rife with error.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am going with Jawando. He listens to residents more than either of the other two candidates. He has some ideological tunnel vision on policing that I don’t like, but he’s mostly in step with a majority of the council so there won’t be changes on policing. Based on how Jawando has handled subsidies, land use, and the budget this year, he seems to be considerably smarter and more willing to consider differing views than the other candidates.

It says something to me that Jawando was endorsed by most of the Somerset elected officials even though Friedson is their district rep. Glass has also done a good job working with municipal officials, and he’s my second choice. I would choose Peter James over Friedson because I’d rather give autonomous vehicles a chance than watch Friedson waive all the taxes developers pay.

Jawando is the most likely to raise taxes.

The only council member who proposed keeping tax rates the same and keeping the ITOC is the one most likely to raise taxes? OK.

Jawando's plan was rife with error.

The council president praised Jawando’s plan and then criticized Friedson for not engaging on the budget and lying about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am going with Jawando. He listens to residents more than either of the other two candidates. He has some ideological tunnel vision on policing that I don’t like, but he’s mostly in step with a majority of the council so there won’t be changes on policing. Based on how Jawando has handled subsidies, land use, and the budget this year, he seems to be considerably smarter and more willing to consider differing views than the other candidates.

It says something to me that Jawando was endorsed by most of the Somerset elected officials even though Friedson is their district rep. Glass has also done a good job working with municipal officials, and he’s my second choice. I would choose Peter James over Friedson because I’d rather give autonomous vehicles a chance than watch Friedson waive all the taxes developers pay.

Jawando is the most likely to raise taxes.

The only council member who proposed keeping tax rates the same and keeping the ITOC is the one most likely to raise taxes? OK.

Jawando's plan was rife with error.

The council president praised Jawando’s plan and then criticized Friedson for not engaging on the budget and lying about it.

No. She praised him for bringing options forward for consideration. Not trying to substance of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am going with Jawando. He listens to residents more than either of the other two candidates. He has some ideological tunnel vision on policing that I don’t like, but he’s mostly in step with a majority of the council so there won’t be changes on policing. Based on how Jawando has handled subsidies, land use, and the budget this year, he seems to be considerably smarter and more willing to consider differing views than the other candidates.

It says something to me that Jawando was endorsed by most of the Somerset elected officials even though Friedson is their district rep. Glass has also done a good job working with municipal officials, and he’s my second choice. I would choose Peter James over Friedson because I’d rather give autonomous vehicles a chance than watch Friedson waive all the taxes developers pay.

Jawando is the most likely to raise taxes.

The only council member who proposed keeping tax rates the same and keeping the ITOC is the one most likely to raise taxes? OK.

Jawando's plan was rife with error.

The council president praised Jawando’s plan and then criticized Friedson for not engaging on the budget and lying about it.

No. She praised him for bringing options forward for consideration. *Not trying to substance of them.

*not the substance of them.

[Anonymous]

Jawando seems kind of unprincipled, but on the other hand, Glass and Friedson are principled but in all the wrong ways. So I think it's going to be Jawando for me.

[Anonymous]

Like 25% of registered voters in MoCo, I don't have a party affiliation, so I can't choose a county exec in the primary, even though my taxpayer money is funding their campaigns (via public financing).

Jawando was endorsed by Elrich so if you like that trajectory, he's your man. I view Glass and Friedson as more moderate, and Friedson seems to have a better understanding of budgets.

My prediction is the moderate vote will be split between Glass and Friedson, so Jawando will win among the more fringe crowd, which is enough to win overall. This is how Elrich won in past elections -- he courted specific groups (e.g. unions), and the moderate vote was split across 2-3 good candidates. In both primaries with Elrich, he won by around 100 votes over the runner up each time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am going with Jawando. He listens to residents more than either of the other two candidates. He has some ideological tunnel vision on policing that I don’t like, but he’s mostly in step with a majority of the council so there won’t be changes on policing. Based on how Jawando has handled subsidies, land use, and the budget this year, he seems to be considerably smarter and more willing to consider differing views than the other candidates.

It says something to me that Jawando was endorsed by most of the Somerset elected officials even though Friedson is their district rep. Glass has also done a good job working with municipal officials, and he’s my second choice. I would choose Peter James over Friedson because I’d rather give autonomous vehicles a chance than watch Friedson waive all the taxes developers pay.

Jawando is the most likely to raise taxes.

The only council member who proposed keeping tax rates the same and keeping the ITOC is the one most likely to raise taxes? OK.

Jawando's plan was rife with error.

The council president praised Jawando’s plan and then criticized Friedson for not engaging on the budget and lying about it.

No. She praised him for bringing options forward for consideration. Not trying to substance of them.

I still would have preferred the Jawando budget to Friedson’s pleas to keep funding the green bank, kid museum, and other pet projects. For claiming to be such a tax hawk, Friedson sure does like to spend money.

[Anonymous]

Which option will help turn moco into a hollowed out shell fastest? Anyone know? That’s who I’ll be voting for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which option will help turn moco into a hollowed out shell fastest? Anyone know? That’s who I’ll be voting for.

Any one of three you will get that.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County needs to attract more large businesses and corporate HQs -- because that will generate more business tax revenue to the county.

Hilton seriously looked at putting its HQ in MoCo. Once Hilton did the math and also looked at the overall business environment, they put their new HQ in Fairfax County instead.

Until the business environment gets fixed, taxes on residents will keep going up.

Not sure which candidate cares about fixing this - maybe none of them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am going with Jawando. He listens to residents more than either of the other two candidates. He has some ideological tunnel vision on policing that I don’t like, but he’s mostly in step with a majority of the council so there won’t be changes on policing. Based on how Jawando has handled subsidies, land use, and the budget this year, he seems to be considerably smarter and more willing to consider differing views than the other candidates.

It says something to me that Jawando was endorsed by most of the Somerset elected officials even though Friedson is their district rep. Glass has also done a good job working with municipal officials, and he’s my second choice. I would choose Peter James over Friedson because I’d rather give autonomous vehicles a chance than watch Friedson waive all the taxes developers pay.

Jawando is the most likely to raise taxes.

The only council member who proposed keeping tax rates the same and keeping the ITOC is the one most likely to raise taxes? OK.

Jawando's plan was rife with error.

The council president praised Jawando’s plan and then criticized Friedson for not engaging on the budget and lying about it.

No. She praised him for bringing options forward for consideration. Not trying to substance of them.

I still would have preferred the Jawando budget to Friedson’s pleas to keep funding the green bank, kid museum, and other pet projects. For claiming to be such a tax hawk, Friedson sure does like to spend money.

The kid museum needs to lose its funding yesterday but which candidate has actually advocated for n honest review of all of the random grants? None. They all have their pet projects.

[Anonymous]

I agree, there are no good options. We have three candidates for county executive that are similar enough that for me I’m going to pick the lesser of three evils. Which to me is not Jwando or Glass. Of the three and Friedson seems to be the most levelheaded and the one who’s least likely to dig us deeper in a hole as much as the other two.