Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running a business has no relationship whatsoever to being a county executive who has to negotiate with and persuade county councilmembers who do not answer to the county executive and who have their own agendas and political bases. Similarly, running a business with workers who are not in unions has no relationship to running a county government and negotiating with with big and powerful unions. Blair has no experience with enacting legislation or working with unions. If you want to elect a rookie who stands for nothing and has tons of support from developers -- go for it.

So by this logic, nobody without past political experience should ever run for political office?

DP: Nope. Although it might suggest that people who work their way up through the ranks might have more appropriate and possibly more appealing skill sets.

Through what ranks? County council? A lot of being county exec is actually managing people and money, just because someone has served on the council does not mean they will be a good manager. In fact, from what I observed of Elrich while he was in the council, I thought he was poorly suited to the country ty exec position due to his lack of both leadership skills and ability to work with others. And he’s proved to be an incompetent manager.

I think the moderate wing of the Democrats needs to consider how amenable people will be to the "I'm a rich businessman and can therefore run government well" argument in the post Trump era. It's 100% a turnoff for me. Blair just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Between Blair and Elrich I will vote for Elrich even though I think he's seriously stumbled as a manager. Between Elrich, Rice, Blair and Riemer I would vote for Rice.[b]

Absolutely -- I'd love to see Rice or Jawando get in the race.

I’m telling you right now that if Jawando is on the ticket I will vote for Flicker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running a business has no relationship whatsoever to being a county executive who has to negotiate with and persuade county councilmembers who do not answer to the county executive and who have their own agendas and political bases. Similarly, running a business with workers who are not in unions has no relationship to running a county government and negotiating with with big and powerful unions. Blair has no experience with enacting legislation or working with unions. If you want to elect a rookie who stands for nothing and has tons of support from developers -- go for it.

So by this logic, nobody without past political experience should ever run for political office?

DP: Nope. Although it might suggest that people who work their way up through the ranks might have more appropriate and possibly more appealing skill sets.

Through what ranks? County council? A lot of being county exec is actually managing people and money, just because someone has served on the council does not mean they will be a good manager. In fact, from what I observed of Elrich while he was in the council, I thought he was poorly suited to the country ty exec position due to his lack of both leadership skills and ability to work with others. And he’s proved to be an incompetent manager.

I think the moderate wing of the Democrats needs to consider how amenable people will be to the "I'm a rich businessman and can therefore run government well" argument in the post Trump era. It's 100% a turnoff for me. Blair just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Between Blair and Elrich I will vote for Elrich even though I think he's seriously stumbled as a manager. Between Elrich, Rice, Blair and Riemer I would vote for Rice.[b]

Absolutely -- I'd love to see Rice or Jawando get in the race.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elrich is the unions' meal ticket. Their mudslinging has started. I don't know if MoCo residents will ever wake up to local politics.

Almost none of the actual union members live in the county. I don't know how they have so much pull locally.

Nice try. Union employees' salaries are public information. They make plenty of money to live in MoCo and their pensions and benefits are what is decimating the county budget. 90% of MCPS's $3 Billion annual budget goes towards salaries and benefits. That is ludicrous. And that alone is 50% of the county's budget.

Hardly any police, fire, or jail guards live in the county.

+1 the vast majority of county employees make between $50k-$79k. Now many of them do get extra for overtime, but cutting that won't be a savings because they would just have to hire more people. I don't know how you expect to retain people if you significantly cut compensation (which will never happen).

Government is in the service industry. The main cost is personnel. That's always going to be true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elrich is the unions' meal ticket. Their mudslinging has started. I don't know if MoCo residents will ever wake up to local politics.

Almost none of the actual union members live in the county. I don't know how they have so much pull locally.

Nice try. Union employees' salaries are public information. They make plenty of money to live in MoCo and their pensions and benefits are what is decimating the county budget. 90% of MCPS's $3 Billion annual budget goes towards salaries and benefits. That is ludicrous. And that alone is 50% of the county's budget.

Hardly any police, fire, or jail guards live in the county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running a business has no relationship whatsoever to being a county executive who has to negotiate with and persuade county councilmembers who do not answer to the county executive and who have their own agendas and political bases. Similarly, running a business with workers who are not in unions has no relationship to running a county government and negotiating with with big and powerful unions. Blair has no experience with enacting legislation or working with unions. If you want to elect a rookie who stands for nothing and has tons of support from developers -- go for it.

So by this logic, nobody without past political experience should ever run for political office?

DP: Nope. Although it might suggest that people who work their way up through the ranks might have more appropriate and possibly more appealing skill sets.

Through what ranks? County council? A lot of being county exec is actually managing people and money, just because someone has served on the council does not mean they will be a good manager. In fact, from what I observed of Elrich while he was in the council, I thought he was poorly suited to the country ty exec position due to his lack of both leadership skills and ability to work with others. And he’s proved to be an incompetent manager.

I think the moderate wing of the Democrats needs to consider how amenable people will be to the "I'm a rich businessman and can therefore run government well" argument in the post Trump era. It's 100% a turnoff for me. Blair just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Between Blair and Elrich I will vote for Elrich even though I think he's seriously stumbled as a manager. Between Elrich, Rice, Blair and Riemer I would vote for Rice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running a business has no relationship whatsoever to being a county executive who has to negotiate with and persuade county councilmembers who do not answer to the county executive and who have their own agendas and political bases. Similarly, running a business with workers who are not in unions has no relationship to running a county government and negotiating with with big and powerful unions. Blair has no experience with enacting legislation or working with unions. If you want to elect a rookie who stands for nothing and has tons of support from developers -- go for it.

So by this logic, nobody without past political experience should ever run for political office?

DP: Nope. Although it might suggest that people who work their way up through the ranks might have more appropriate and possibly more appealing skill sets.

Through what ranks? County council? A lot of being county exec is actually managing people and money, just because someone has served on the council does not mean they will be a good manager. In fact, from what I observed of Elrich while he was in the council, I thought he was poorly suited to the country ty exec position due to his lack of both leadership skills and ability to work with others. And he’s proved to be an incompetent manager.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running a business has no relationship whatsoever to being a county executive who has to negotiate with and persuade county councilmembers who do not answer to the county executive and who have their own agendas and political bases. Similarly, running a business with workers who are not in unions has no relationship to running a county government and negotiating with with big and powerful unions. Blair has no experience with enacting legislation or working with unions. If you want to elect a rookie who stands for nothing and has tons of support from developers -- go for it.

So by this logic, nobody without past political experience should ever run for political office?

DP: Nope. Although it might suggest that people who work their way up through the ranks might have more appropriate and possibly more appealing skill sets.

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.

Also, don't forget people who aren't paying much attention and will just vote for the incumbent. But I think Elrich's chances really depends on who else runs in the primary. Last time, too much of the anti-Elrich vote got split up, probably mostly between Blair and Krasnow. Blair was probably also suffering at the time from the "Trump effect" of people not wanting some rich business man running things. I can almost guarantee Riemer will run this time, but don't know if he would pull more votes from Blair or Elrich. Maybe someone can convince Jawando to run, he'd probably pull enough votes away from the Elrich contingency (particularly group 4 and 5).

Anonymous wrote:Running a business has no relationship whatsoever to being a county executive who has to negotiate with and persuade county councilmembers who do not answer to the county executive and who have their own agendas and political bases. Similarly, running a business with workers who are not in unions has no relationship to running a county government and negotiating with with big and powerful unions. Blair has no experience with enacting legislation or working with unions. If you want to elect a rookie who stands for nothing and has tons of support from developers -- go for it.

I disagree. Executive skills transfer across industry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're screwed. There are still people in this county, and even this thread that somehow think Marc Elrich is doing a good job and the county is on the right track. Incredible.

It's the Takoma Park cabal.

The cabal needs to find real jobs!

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You certainly can disagree with Blair. But there is nothing in common between Blair and Trump. Nothing.

Anonymous wrote:DH and I will both be giving up our unaffiliated status to vote for Blair.

+100. I know of many people doing the same. Dems who didn’t show up in the primary will show up. Also there unlikely won’t be a split between a long list of Primary candidates like last time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elrich is the unions' meal ticket. Their mudslinging has started. I don't know if MoCo residents will ever wake up to local politics.

Almost none of the actual union members live in the county. I don't know how they have so much pull locally.

Nice try. Union employees' salaries are public information. They make plenty of money to live in MoCo and their pensions and benefits are what is decimating the county budget. 90% of MCPS's $3 Billion annual budget goes towards salaries and benefits. That is ludicrous. And that alone is 50% of the county's budget.

Anonymous wrote:Running a business has no relationship whatsoever to being a county executive who has to negotiate with and persuade county councilmembers who do not answer to the county executive and who have their own agendas and political bases. Similarly, running a business with workers who are not in unions has no relationship to running a county government and negotiating with with big and powerful unions. Blair has no experience with enacting legislation or working with unions. If you want to elect a rookie who stands for nothing and has tons of support from developers -- go for it.

Elrich hates the Council and the Council hate Elrich. Same when Elrich was ON the Council. I can't see how Blair could do any worse.

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.

He might help repair the damage done to the police department.

He will help make this county more business-friendly.

He likely won't raise taxes.