Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for him.

Why? Blair has zero government experience. He's a rich business executive who can throw money away on a vanity campaign. Kinda like . . . oh, yeah -- that guy who is now our "former president". That worked out well.

1. not every non political person is Trump like, plus this is a county executive election, not a presidential one.
2. Elrich has mismanaged the county
3. Blair has been in the trenches, both as a business person and working with charities and non profits.
4. When was the last real world, non political experience Elrich had?

What has he done exactly and how would it apply to leadership in government? The name of his non-profit "The Council for Advocacy and Policy Solutions" says it all -- total word-salad without any actual substance. Advocacy toward what end? Solutions for which problems?

Blair's more like Trump than you think -- inexperienced and arrogant in thinking that you don't need to have actual experience and knowledge to be a leader in government and politics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for him.

Why? Blair has zero government experience. He's a rich business executive who can throw money away on a vanity campaign. Kinda like . . . oh, yeah -- that guy who is now our "former president". That worked out well.

Hello Hans Reimer. You suck. What have you done for our county? Please run and split votes with Elrich.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't underestimate the pro-Elrich vote. His base consists of the following:

1. Labor unions
2. Socialists
3. Opponents to development (From the right and from the left, NIMBYs and tree huggers)
4. Various social justice warriors and civic activists, Takoma Park types
and now a fifth component:
Covid Karens, the "shelter forever" types who complain on Nextdoor about runners not wearing masks

Sadly I see this making up a strong plurality of the vote.

Not to direct this only at you, but this thread could be a great place to discuss reasons to vote FOR Blair — not just against Elrich. When I voted, I didn’t have the sense that Blair reached out to me with good reasons why someone like me should vote for him or for someone like him. It was great to meet him on Election Day — but by then, I had already voted.

So: Why Blair? I’d genuinely like to know, and I’m probably not the only one.

I am voting for Blair because we need someone that has new ideas on how to fix the sinking ship that is Montgomery County. I checked out his platform and it looks good to me. The big question is what has Marc Elrich done to Montgomery County? We cannot tax our way out this mess.

Elrich was a teacher for crying out loud and he has already proven how he leads. I hope that and the state of MoCo are enough to deter people from voting for him again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for him.

Why? Blair has zero government experience. He's a rich business executive who can throw money away on a vanity campaign. Kinda like . . . oh, yeah -- that guy who is now our "former president". That worked out well.

1. not every non political person is Trump like, plus this is a county executive election, not a presidential one.
2. Elrich has mismanaged the county
3. Blair has been in the trenches, both as a business person and working with charities and non profits.
4. When was the last real world, non political experience Elrich had?

At this point, I might consider Trump. At least he'll do nothing with COVID vs. the sh@t show we have now and caving in to businesses and a few parents tantruming over schools being closed.

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for my elderly dog over Elrich, and she shits in the house when it rains.

I'll vote for your dog too and I hate dogs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for him.

Why? Blair has zero government experience. He's a rich business executive who can throw money away on a vanity campaign. Kinda like . . . oh, yeah -- that guy who is now our "former president". That worked out well.

Fundamental difference. Blair was a successful businessman; Orange Man was not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for him.

Why? Blair has zero government experience. He's a rich business executive who can throw money away on a vanity campaign. Kinda like . . . oh, yeah -- that guy who is now our "former president". That worked out well.

Not understanding how the federal government works is not equivalent to understanding a local county government.

In addition, what exactly is so great about MoCo's government other than creating barriers for small businesses and stagnant job growth? I think Blair's experience as a local business owner would actually be beneficial to job creation in the County, particularly for small businesses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for him.

Why? Blair has zero government experience. He's a rich business executive who can throw money away on a vanity campaign. Kinda like . . . oh, yeah -- that guy who is now our "former president". That worked out well.

1. not every non political person is Trump like, plus this is a county executive election, not a presidential one.
2. Elrich has mismanaged the county
3. Blair has been in the trenches, both as a business person and working with charities and non profits.
4. When was the last real world, non political experience Elrich had?

#4 is spot-on. I don't think people appreciate the difference between sitting on the council and being the exec.

This guy went from being a teacher, to sitting on a council to suddenly being the executive in charge of the entire county, with thousands of employees and a billion dollar budget.

Even if we put his politics aside, he's in over his head. He can't execute an organization this big, regardless of what the mission is

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for him.

Why? Blair has zero government experience. He's a rich business executive who can throw money away on a vanity campaign. Kinda like . . . oh, yeah -- that guy who is now our "former president". That worked out well.

1. not every non political person is Trump like, plus this is a county executive election, not a presidential one.
2. Elrich has mismanaged the county
3. Blair has been in the trenches, both as a business person and working with charities and non profits.
4. When was the last real world, non political experience Elrich had?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't underestimate the pro-Elrich vote. His base consists of the following:

1. Labor unions
2. Socialists
3. Opponents to development (From the right and from the left, NIMBYs and tree huggers)
4. Various social justice warriors and civic activists, Takoma Park types
and now a fifth component:
Covid Karens, the "shelter forever" types who complain on Nextdoor about runners not wearing masks

Sadly I see this making up a strong plurality of the vote.

Not to direct this only at you, but this thread could be a great place to discuss reasons to vote FOR Blair — not just against Elrich. When I voted, I didn’t have the sense that Blair reached out to me with good reasons why someone like me should vote for him or for someone like him. It was great to meet him on Election Day — but by then, I had already voted.

So: Why Blair? I’d genuinely like to know, and I’m probably not the only one.

You're not the only one! I'm pretty undecided.

These are fair questions.

And he definitely needs to answer them.

But as a liberal, I understand the focus on equity. But there's also not a blank checkbook. And our county is basically staying flat when it comes to jobs. But even worse, high paying job are leaving the county, replaced by low wage jobs. So you have to view business as the platform on which equity initiatives can be done. And that platform is currently not holding the weight of the equity initiatives

I've worked for VERY large technology firms, and owned a small business. MoCo is not a friendly place for either of them. We can't keep robbing from Peter to pay Paul without addressing the underlying issue of why our county attract businesses that pay good salaries. There's a good reason almost all of the large federal outsourcing/tech firms are in Virginia.

Anonymous wrote:I'd vote for him.

Why? Blair has zero government experience. He's a rich business executive who can throw money away on a vanity campaign. Kinda like . . . oh, yeah -- that guy who is now our "former president". That worked out well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't underestimate the pro-Elrich vote. His base consists of the following:

1. Labor unions
2. Socialists
3. Opponents to development (From the right and from the left, NIMBYs and tree huggers)
4. Various social justice warriors and civic activists, Takoma Park types
and now a fifth component:
Covid Karens, the "shelter forever" types who complain on Nextdoor about runners not wearing masks

Sadly I see this making up a strong plurality of the vote.

Yes, landslide is probably overstating.

Elrich will get a large share of the votes. the question is, has Elrich screwed up enough to lose the 77 votes that he won by? I think that's an overwhelming yes

That, and how many people will split the vote. Also, will independents be more inclined to register as a D simply to have a meaningful vote given that the primary is the election. I didn't last time, but probably will this time.

The union wasn't a fan or ol Marc until they got the best of him with the emergency pay that was supposed to only last 12 weeks then it lasted almost a year and ended with the union getting their members a raise. So they are a big fan and anti business anti Blair.

Their problem is most of their members do not live in Montgomery county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as those idiots on the county council (looking at you, Hans) stay out of the way, this should be a landslide for Blair.

This. JFC please no crowded field like last time.

It will be. Various council members are term-limited so next step is county exec. Riemer will run for sure. Maybe Jawando and Rice too.

I'm an unaffiliated by I may have to register as a D just to vote for Blair.

I’m an independent but will have to bite the bullet and register as a D to vote for reasonable people in the primary. I wish we had open primaries