By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 13, 2006; GZ01
The five candidates for Montgomery county executive include a former chairman of Maryland's Democratic Party and a former clerk for a Giant grocery store.
The crowded field of candidates for the nine County Council seats is just as eclectic: There is a 22-year-old intelligence analyst, a 68-year-old businessman, a church pastor and an electrical contractor.
But all 36 men and women hoping to become the county's next leaders have one thing in common: They have vowed to better manage growth.
"I think we're at a tipping point," said Marc Elrich, 56, a county school teacher and member of the Takoma Park City Council running at large for a County Council seat. "We're either going to decide we're going to be more serious in how we grow or this thing will run away and we'll be back in a place buried in traffic ."
The primary is Sept. 12, and the general election will be Nov. 7.
In the race for county executive, the two front-runners, both Democrats, are presenting themselves as moderates on growth.
In his two terms as a County Council member, Steven A. Silverman has championed the "smart growth" strategy, which encourages development around Metro stations. This year, for instance, he pushed for the construction of more than 6,000 housing units around the Shady Grove station. But his critics say he has too often sought to place housing in neighborhoods that could not sustain it. They also criticize him for accepting campaign donations from developers.
Former council member and former Maryland Democratic Party chairman Isiah "Ike" Leggett was often viewed as a moderate on growth during his 16 years on the council. He voted against the Friendship Heights master plan in 1998 because he believed it would bring too much housing. In Silver Spring, he opposed the construction of a megamall because he believed it would bring too many cars.
But there were times he made what some consider pro-growth decisions. In 1999, for example, he joined Silverman in voting against the elimination of a policy known as "pay and go" that allowed developers to pay a fee to build projects even in areas under a growth moratorium.
As the primary nears, Silverman has sought to blur the line between himself and Leggett.
"The record clearly reflects that there isn't a dime's worth of difference between Ike and me in our voting records on growth," Silverman said in a recent interview.
Leggett, meanwhile, is marketing himself as a slower growth alternative to Silverman. Take the Shady Grove master plan. In a recent interview, he said he would have preferred 4,000 or 5,000 housing units around the Shady Grove Metro station.
"My philosophy is not an aggressive growth policy," Leggett said. "We grow strategically." The council recently approved about 6,000 units for the area.
On other issues, it is sometimes hard to tell the two apart. Both call for more affordable housing, safer streets and less crowded schools.
Voters have other choices for county executive. Leggett and Silverman will face Robert Fustero, a former grocery store clerk who ran for governor four years ago and managed to capture 20 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary against Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Charles R. Floyd, 56, a former State Department employee known for his affiliation with the Minuteman Project, a national anti-illegal-immigration group. Running as an independent is perennial candidate and anti-tax-activist Robin Ficker, a 63-year-old lawyer. Both candidates are trying to appeal to voters frustrated with county leaders' failures in the northern Montgomery community of Clarksburg, where houses were built too high and too close to the street.
An investigation ensued, and the county's once nationally renowned planning department was chided for bad oversight.
Clarksburg has also cast a shadow on the council race. There are 31 candidates running for nine seats. More than half -- 18 -- are running for one of four at-large seats. Many of the challengers are pointing to the Clarksburg controversy as proof that the county needs a change in leadership.
"It was as if no one was minding the store and developers could build how and where they wished," said Sharon Dooley, a 64-year-old health-care consultant who is vying for Democrat Michael Knapp's District 2 seat, representing the upcounty area.
Incumbent George L. Leventhal (D-At Large), the 43-year-old council president, said the answer to the county's problems is not slowing growth but making sure the infrastructure catches up. He said the council has made significant contributions to transportation improvements and school construction.
"Saying that we're going to slow growth, I think it is in part a hollow promise," he said.
He also pointed out that Montgomery is not growing as fast as other counties in the region. From 2000 to 2005, the population increased 6.2 percent in Montgomery, compared with 50.7 percent in Loudoun County, according to census figures.
"I am not going to say voters' concerns are not real, and I don't want to minimize voters' concerns and toss them aside," he said. "But I think it's important to look at the actual statistics. We're not growing as much as our neighbors."
Seven of the nine incumbents are seeking reelection, guaranteeing at least two new faces on the council. Each incumbent is facing at least one challenger in either the primary or general election.
"There could be a tremendous amount of change if voters choose to do it," said council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), who is seeking reelection.