Elections To Bring Change At the Top

By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 31, 2006

Montgomery County residents will have more than 100 candidates to choose from in races as hotly contested as the one for county executive and as low-key as the one for register of wills when they head to the polls for the Sept. 12 primary.

Whatever the outcome, residents are sure to see a major shift in leadership for the first time in years.

A top position to be filled is that of county executive, a job that has belonged to Douglas M. Duncan (D) for the past 12 years. Duncan recently dropped his bid to become governor to pursue treatment for depression.

The two leading candidates to succeed him are County Council member Steven Silverman (D-At Large) and former council member Isiah "Ike" Leggett (D), who also is a past chairman of the state Democratic Party. They are running in the most expensive county executive race to date. Silverman has raised $1.9 million, while Leggett has collected $770,000.

Both candidates say their priorities are reducing traffic congestion, providing more affordable housing and maintaining good schools. They differ most in their views on growth, which has become one of the most important issues in the campaign, with many residents complaining that the county has become overdeveloped and overburdened with traffic.

Leggett believes the county should slow construction to unclog roads and relieve crowding in schools. He has questioned the county's ability to manage growth and rein in developers, pointing to the discovery of building violations in the northern Montgomery town of Clarksburg last year.

"You have to in my opinion address the transportation needs and, more importantly, fund them, and you also have to slow the rate of growth," he said.

In recent weeks, Silverman, who chairs the council committee in charge of land-use policies, has tried to steer the debate away from the issue. Much like Duncan, Silverman has always been business-friendly and pro-development. While acknowledging voters' concerns that the county has grown too much, Silverman argues that building fewer homes will not reduce traffic. Building more roads and mass transit will, he said.

"I think people in this county are fundamentally against traffic," Silverman said. "They're not against job opportunities and housing for families. People in downtown Silver Spring are thrilled about the new housing opportunities for young people, the new retail and shops that are there. They just want to make sure they can get around."

Joining Silverman and Leggett in the Democratic primary is Robert Raymond 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 proceed to the Nov. 7 general election, where he will face Republican Chuck Floyd, a former State Department employee best 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 lawyer. Both candidates say they want to change the status quo, which they describe as a culture of coziness between elected officials and developers.

Many of the 33 candidates for County Council are sounding similar themes. All nine seats are up for grabs, with seven of the nine council members seeking reelection.

The most-contested races are for the four at-large seats. Nineteen people -- including incumbents Nancy Floreen, Michael L. Subin and George L. Leventhal, all Democrats -- are running. Two of the candidates, one Green and one independent, will appear only on the November ballot.

All of the County Council incumbents in the district races face challengers in either the primary or general election. Howard A. Denis, the only Republican on the council, will try to hold on to his District 1 seat representing the Potomac-Bethesda area against Roger Berliner, a Potomac lawyer. In the Democratic primary in District 2, which comprises most of northern Montgomery, Mike Knapp faces Sharon Dooley, a health-care consultant.

The District 3 Democratic primary is a rematch between Rockville City Council member Bob Dorsey and incumbent Phil Andrews, considered the County Council's most adamant proponent of slow growth. Dorsey tried to win the seat, which represents Rockville and Gaithersburg, four years ago with the support of Duncan, who was pushing several largely pro-development candidates.

Four seats are up for grabs on the seven-member school board. Two incumbents -- Charles Haughey (At Large) and Gabe Romero (Gaithersburg) -- chose not to run for reelection, but two other incumbents -- Patricia O'Neill (Bethesda) and Nancy Navarro (Northeastern County) -- hope to hold on to their seats.

O'Neill faces no opposition. Navarro has two challengers. Five people are competing to win the at-large seat held by Haughey, and two people are running to succeed Romero.

The new board will have many issues to deal with in the coming school year. Negotiations will take place on contracts for teachers, administrators, classroom aides and other school workers. Superintendent Jerry D. Weast's contract, also set to expire next year, has been the subject of much discussion. And despite the school system's stellar reputation, recent test scores showed that some middle school students are lagging.

Montgomery voters will hand over the state's attorney's office to either a newcomer to the Rockville legal scene or a veteran prosecutor who's currently third in command.

Daniel M. Fox, a Bethesda lawyer who worked as a gang prosecutor in Riverside, Calif., says he has better management skills than his opponent, Deputy State's Attorney John McCarthy. McCarthy says that the office is the best-run state's attorney's office in Maryland and that he has the skills to build on the work of his boss, State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler, a Democrat who is running for attorney general.

Voters also will turn their attention to the Maryland General Assembly. Nearly 80 candidates are running for the 24 House of Delegates seats and eight Senate seats in Montgomery's eight General Assembly districts.

District 20's high-profile Democratic primary is a matchup between Senate president pro tem Ida G. Ruben and newcomer Jamie Raskin, an American University law professor.

In Districts 18 and 19, decisions by incumbent delegates to seek higher offices have created a flood of candidates. The opening created by the retirement of Del. Michael R. Gordon (D), first elected in 1982, has attracted 10 candidates for three spots.

Democrats are running unopposed for the Senate in Districts 17 and 39, and neither party has a primary contest for Senate in Districts 14, 15, 16 and 18.

Frederick County voters will also head to the polls Sept. 12. Most of the contested primary races in the conservative county are between Republicans.

Both incumbent Republican state senators are running for reelection. The race in District 3, where Sen. Alex X. Mooney faces Tim Brooks and Hugh M. Warner in the Republican primary, has drawn the most attention. Mooney has had great success in raising money -- he has more than $200,000 in his campaign chest, over 20 times as much as his two opponents combined -- but has been criticized by opponents for receiving contributions in 2002 from the notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Mooney has said that he did not have a personal relationship with Abramoff.)

Another Frederick race that has interested some political observers is the contest for state's attorney, where incumbent Scott L. Rolle (R) is running on the Republican ticket for Maryland attorney general, leaving the position vacant. The contest on the Republican side is between Rolle's deputy, Charlie Smith, and well-known local lawyer Dino E. Flores Jr.

Six candidates have filed in the race for three seats as judges on the Orphans' Court.

Staff writers Lori Aratani, Ernesto Londoño, Nelson Hernandez and Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.