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.

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Anonymous wrote:We have 17 people running for 4 slots and it is a struggle to find 4 I like AND I think can be in the top 4.

If you’re far left/NIMBY: Elrich, Sayles, Caballero, maybe Barrie?
If you’re center-left/YIMBY: Goldberg, Pope, Silvestre, McNulty

Obviously not all candidates are the same, but these seem to be the general camps they fall into. The former camp is generally endorsed by MCEA, while the latter camp is generally endorsed by GGWash. Sierra Club endorsements are a little all over the place.

Anonymous wrote:We have 17 people running for 4 slots and it is a struggle to find 4 I like AND I think can be in the top 4.

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Anonymous wrote: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.

Curious why you think that. I'm looking for level-headed, but concluded that Glass most fit that bill.

I'm not PP, and don't know what their opinion is based on, but I work with Council and agree with this take. Friedson is the most practical/realistic of the three. For what it's worth.

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Anonymous wrote: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.

Curious why you think that. I'm looking for level-headed, but concluded that Glass most fit that bill.

I'm not PP, and don't know what their opinion is based on, but I work with Council and agree with this take. Friedson is the most practical/realistic of the three. For what it's worth.

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Anonymous wrote: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.

Curious why you think that. I'm looking for level-headed, but concluded that Glass most fit that bill.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone making a decision on executive based on whether or not they will raise taxes is misguided. The County Council sets the tax rates, not the County Executive.

Just look at what happened over the past month. Elrich asked for a property tax increase to cover things like the school budget, but the council dismissed that, cut the ITOC instead and instituted the slightly progressive income tax with the one-tenth higher top rate, with the net effect of less revenue overall and not enough funding to cover the schools.

How effectively the non-school portion of the budget gets implemented is where an Executive comes in, but that can be undermined or assisted by other actions that the Council takes.

I think Glass would have the hardest time, there, as I see his strength (or weakness, if you don't like his positions) as more of a wonk.

Jawando could have Elrich-type difficulty in being at odds with some of the Council, though we're only talking on a few issues, since there really isn't much daylight, there. However, I think he'd have a more organized group of people with him in appointed positions.

Friedson might have the best chance of being "effective," since he'll have that entourage ready to go, but how you see that really depends on what you want him to be effective about. He really hasn't shown he can be effective independent of the inputs of his donors, and I expect he'd continue to be effective for them, and anti-effective, then, if there is such a term, for much of the rest of the county, just as he has been on the Council.

I can't support that, so, Glass or Jawando. Hard to pick a poison.

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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.

Well, Jawando was performative and not substantive. I am surprised after 8 years on the Council, he isn't more familiar with how the budget works. Friedson knows how the budget works but was protecting his constituent interests. There is no doubt. Neither is perfect.

One wants to raise taxes and the other doesn't.
One doesn't know how to cut spending and the other doesn't seem to have the will to cut spending.
It likely comes down to whether they can appoint competent department directors AND whether they will actually listen to them.

For that, the best chance is Friedson. Jawando is just like Elrich in that regard. He knows everything and he is fine with increasing taxes to pay for sloppy budgets.

Anonymous wrote: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.

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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 wrote: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 wrote: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.