This post focuses on county offices. For information on what happened in state legislative races in Montgomery County, see my previous post.
County Executive
The big news is that David Blair looks likely to win the county executive race after a night in which the count remained very close. Right now, he leads incumbent Marc Elrich by 1.5% or 1062 votes. My guess is that’s too much for Elrich to make up in mail ballots. Hans Riemer trailed with 21% after running a strong campaign.
Looks like the dog has caught the car and will now have a lot of promises to fulfill. It also means that very rich people will now hold two of the three most prominent offices in the county (i.e. County Exec and Congress). Like Rep. David Trone, Blair will have won on the second try after pouring eight figures into his campaign. Rep. John Delaney who preceded Trone was also a very wealthy businessman. Rep. Jamie Raskin remains the exception.
County Council
In the at-large races, incumbents Evan Glass, Will Jawando and Gabe Albornoz easily won renomination. It looks like they’ll be joined by Gaithersburg Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles. Incumbent District 5 Councilmember Tom Hucker trailed not just Sayles but also former MCDCC Member Scott Goldberg.
Marilyn Balcombe easily won the Democratic nomination in District 2 with 47%. Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart won the nomination in District 4 with 45%. In District 5, Kristin Mink won easily with 40%. Former Planning Board Member Natali Fani-Gonazalez easily won District 6 with 54% of the vote. Finally, Dawn Luedtke looks set to take the nomination in District 7 with just 32% of the vote.
Incumbents Andrew Friedson (District 1) and Sidney Katz (District 3) also are set to win the Democratic nomination and return to the Council.
Assuming all the Democrats win, as usual, a majority of six of the eleven councilmembers will be new. The new council will also have a majority of women as Sayles, Balcombe, Stewart, Mink, Fani-Gonzalez, and Luedtke are set to become new councilmembers. Outgoing Councilmember Nancy Navarro is the only woman on the current council.
The new Council will continue to have two African American and two Latino members. Perhaps in the most significant breakthrough, the Council will finally have its first Asian American member in Chinese-American Kristin Mink. The Council will also have three Jewish members (Friedson, Glass and Katz) and one openly gay member (Glass).
Courthouse Races
State’s Attorney John McCarthy easily turned back challenges from three opponents and won renomination with 48%. His nearest challenger, Bernice Mireku-North won 21%. Chief Deputy Sheriff Maxwell Uy looks set to become the new sheriff. He won the Democratic nomination with 54%.
