BOE Candidates for 2026 election

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will be a huge loss. Julie is the only good member of the BOE.

The fact that she's the best on the BOE says a lot about the BOE. I think Julie is going to have a hard time winning her council seat.

Why do you think this? People seem to respect her.

Who respects her? She has failed on so many levels. For some of us, it has directly impacted our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will be a huge loss. Julie is the only good member of the BOE.

The fact that she's the best on the BOE says a lot about the BOE. I think Julie is going to have a hard time winning her council seat.

Why do you think this? People seem to respect her.

Who respects her? She has failed on so many levels. For some of us, it has directly impacted our kids.

Julie used to be decent and respectable as a BOE member. As Board president she has been an absolute disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will be a huge loss. Julie is the only good member of the BOE.

The fact that she's the best on the BOE says a lot about the BOE. I think Julie is going to have a hard time winning her council seat.

Why do you think this? People seem to respect her.

Who respects her? She has failed on so many levels. For some of us, it has directly impacted our kids.

Julie used to be decent and respectable as a BOE member. As Board president she has been an absolute disappointment.

Her leadership is abysmal.

She cares more about timekeeping than she does about getting answers to important questions.

She is rude and dismissive to Rita Montoya and Laura Stewart, who are the only two asking any questions.

I don't know what happens to people who run for the board once they are elected but they change. They get sucked into the groupthink of everyone needing to agree on everything, they get so cautious about saying something wrong, they don't say anything publicly, and promises of accountability evaporate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will be a huge loss. Julie is the only good member of the BOE.

The fact that she's the best on the BOE says a lot about the BOE. I think Julie is going to have a hard time winning her council seat.

Why do you think this? People seem to respect her.

Who respects her? She has failed on so many levels. For some of us, it has directly impacted our kids.

Julie used to be decent and respectable as a BOE member. As Board president she has been an absolute disappointment.

Her leadership is abysmal.

She cares more about timekeeping than she does about getting answers to important questions.

She is rude and dismissive to Rita Montoya and Laura Stewart, who are the only two asking any questions.

I don't know what happens to people who run for the board once they are elected but they change. They get sucked into the groupthink of everyone needing to agree on everything, they get so cautious about saying something wrong, they don't say anything publicly, and promises of accountability evaporate.

+100

I have been trying to figure this out myself. What on earth could they be getting in exchange for a full-time job that masquerades as a part-time job with a $25,000 stipend that is worth selling their integrity and soul for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will be a huge loss. Julie is the only good member of the BOE.

The fact that she's the best on the BOE says a lot about the BOE. I think Julie is going to have a hard time winning her council seat.

Why do you think this? People seem to respect her.

Who respects her? She has failed on so many levels. For some of us, it has directly impacted our kids.

Julie used to be decent and respectable as a BOE member. As Board president she has been an absolute disappointment.

Her leadership is abysmal.

She cares more about timekeeping than she does about getting answers to important questions.

She is rude and dismissive to Rita Montoya and Laura Stewart, who are the only two asking any questions.

I don't know what happens to people who run for the board once they are elected but they change. They get sucked into the groupthink of everyone needing to agree on everything, they get so cautious about saying something wrong, they don't say anything publicly, and promises of accountability evaporate.

Yes. I've only watched 1 or 2 BOE meetings, but I definitely saw this.

[Anonymous]

For those in County Council District 1 who don't want to vote for Yang, Drew Morrison is another candidate running:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2025/08/14/drew-morrison-announces-for-council-district-1/

Don't know anything about him, but I don't think Yang has the chops for County Council from what I've seen at BOE meetings, if I were in her district I'd be looking at the other candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those in County Council District 1 who don't want to vote for Yang, Drew Morrison is another candidate running:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2025/08/14/drew-morrison-announces-for-council-district-1/

Don't know anything about him, but I don't think Yang has the chops for County Council from what I've seen at BOE meetings, if I were in her district I'd be looking at the other candidates.

Drew seems to have kept a very low profile since announcing his candidacy.....his background is typical wealthy, white Bethesda though, so many he'll succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will be a huge loss. Julie is the only good member of the BOE.

The fact that she's the best on the BOE says a lot about the BOE. I think Julie is going to have a hard time winning her council seat.

Why do you think this? People seem to respect her.

Who respects her? She has failed on so many levels. For some of us, it has directly impacted our kids.

Julie used to be decent and respectable as a BOE member. As Board president she has been an absolute disappointment.

Her leadership is abysmal.

She cares more about timekeeping than she does about getting answers to important questions.

She is rude and dismissive to Rita Montoya and Laura Stewart, who are the only two asking any questions.

I don't know what happens to people who run for the board once they are elected but they change. They get sucked into the groupthink of everyone needing to agree on everything, they get so cautious about saying something wrong, they don't say anything publicly, and promises of accountability evaporate.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those in County Council District 1 who don't want to vote for Yang, Drew Morrison is another candidate running:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2025/08/14/drew-morrison-announces-for-council-district-1/

Don't know anything about him, but I don't think Yang has the chops for County Council from what I've seen at BOE meetings, if I were in her district I'd be looking at the other candidates.

Drew seems to have kept a very low profile since announcing his candidacy.....his background is typical wealthy, white Bethesda though, so many he'll succeed.

I want to see more than that.

[Anonymous]

Could we please keep this thread about 2026 BOE candidates and have discussions of county council candidates in the local politics forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will be a huge loss. Julie is the only good member of the BOE.

The fact that she's the best on the BOE says a lot about the BOE. I think Julie is going to have a hard time winning her council seat.

Why do you think this? People seem to respect her.

Julie is the only BoE person I’ve ever met. She takes the time to come to school meetings/events. I would vote for her on that basis because the rest of the BoE are invisible to me

Huh, weird. I've never met her... meanwhile see Laura Stewart at things constantly. Maybe Julie only cares about showing up in certain parts of the county, despite being BOE president?

Julie only shows up if it can help her county council campaign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based only on a smattering of meetings..

I've been disappointed with Zimmerman. Clearly capable from her campaign appearances, where she outshone other candidates on panels with her well organized answers, I haven't seen much of the expected incisive probing from her. It's as if she's part of the machine.

Wolff, too, in that regard. Rivera-Oven a bit better, but each only seem to wake up and become more probative around a subset of subjects.

Stewart is missing a lot of the data clarity that she brought to the table when testifying for MCPS. It's not so much her tendency to ramble, which I think is one way some people use to think through things newly presented (and lots of it is just dumped on them at meetings), it's that there are angles she should know, given her background, but chooses not to pursue, focusing narrowly, now, like others.

Both Montoya and Yang have provided some better questioning. Montoya has seemed harried, though, like she is trying to do two other things at the same time as the BOE meeting, and Yang seems to rush everyone along, trying, as President, to keep things moving at the expense of enough Q & A on many topics.

Silvestre seems spent, with some of her more incisive moments well in the past.

None seems to do as good a job as the SMOB, even as that high school senior can, at times, show their relative inexperience.

Stewart, Montoya and Zimmerman will have their next election cycle in 2028. We'll see which of the others run for re-election this go round.

I agree, particularly about Stewart, Silvestre, and Montoya.

Stewart has a particular cutesy thing that makes me want to grab her and say "You are a grown adult woman with a serious responsibilities. Stop acting like a 3rd grader afraid to ask to use the restroom."

Montoya looks like I do when I'm on a work call I don't want to be on, or when my kids keep bugging me while I'm on Zoom. The Board comes with a childcare stipend, so I wish she would use it.

I don't know what's going on with Silvestre, except that I hope she's okay.

There is no stipend. Other electeds get stipends, not the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That will be a huge loss. Julie is the only good member of the BOE.

+1 I'm not sure if she's the only good member of the BOE, but she's the only BoE member I've met, and she makes an effort to attend events at various schools. After I met her at one of those events, I emailed her to ask if she could help with an issue at my kid's school, and within a few hours she sent a super-helpful response and helped to get a response from the central office.

we found julie's campaign manager's comment

[Anonymous]

Wylea Chase has now officially filed for the at large seat.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/11/19/black-and-brown-coalition-former-director-files-school-board/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wylea Chase has now officially filed for the at large seat.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/11/19/black-and-brown-coalition-former-director-files-school-board/

Not loving that all of the candidates thus far are for the at-large seat. We need people running in Brenda and Julie's districts...