Blacks Increasing Political Presence in Diversifying County

Leggett Says Broad Support Shows Voters Have 'Moved Beyond the Question of Race'

Isiah "Ike" Leggett, who won broad support throughout Montgomery in the Democratic primary for county executive, says that, in some respects, the county's voters "have moved beyond the question of race." (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

In Montgomery County, where African Americans make up about one in seven residents, Isiah "Ike" Leggett is positioned to become one of the few black politicians elected to lead a large, majority-white suburban county.

Leggett won the Democratic nomination for county executive in the Sept. 12 primary by capturing convincing majorities in areas from exclusive Potomac and rural Damascus to urbanized, racially diverse downtown Silver Spring. In some respects, he said, the county's voters "have moved beyond the question of race."

Also on the ballot in November, Democrat Valerie Ervin could become the first African American woman elected to the County Council in heavily Democratic Montgomery.

Their primary victories are the high points so far in a pivotal political year for African Americans in the county, where the predominantly white leadership has long failed to reflect an increasingly multi-hued population.

The county is 44.5 percent minority, according to a 2005 census update survey conducted by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, up from 33.7 percent in 1997.

But the five county executives who have served since Montgomery's government was reorganized in 1968 have all been white men. And only two non-whites, Leggett and Dominican American council member Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring), have been elected to the council, a nine-member panel that was expanded from seven members in 1990.

"We're finally seeing this profusion of people of color, of varying ethnicities, really engage in the political process," said Hugh Bailey, one of four African American candidates who ran unsuccessfully this year for the Democratic nomination for an at-large seat on the council.

This year marked the first time more than a couple African Americans sought council seats, much less the county executive's job. In the Sept. 12 primary, seven African Americans sought Democratic nominations for those offices: Leggett and Ervin, the four at-large candidates, and Rockville City Council member Robert E. Dorsey, who ran unsuccessfully in the district that represents Rockville and Gaithersburg. Adol T. Owen-Williams II won a Republican nomination for an at-large seat but dropped out of the race to make room for a white candidate who party leaders say has a better chance of winning in November.

Leggett said the campaign for the Democratic nomination for county executive was race-neutral because the other candidates, principally council member Steven A. Silverman (D-At Large), "didn't play to" race and because of the maturity of the county's electorate. Leggett is seen as a strong favorite over GOP candidate Chuck Floyd and independent Robin Ficker in the November general election.

Leggett won all but six of the approximately 90 precincts where the voting-age population is more than 75 percent non-Hispanic white, according to an analysis of primary results correlated with census data provided by his campaign. The analysis showed that Leggett also won all of the approximately 30 precincts where the voting-age population is more than 25 percent non-Hispanic black. Demographic data were not available for all precincts.

Ron Walters, director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, said the tone and the results of the campaign might say less about the county and more about Leggett, "who has been able to build a nonracial record in Montgomery County."

In 1985, when Leggett first ran for council, he didn't include pictures of himself in his campaign literature for the first six months of the campaign so voters would concentrate on his qualifications for office rather than his skin color. Even today, he says the county executive job appeals to him because Montgomery remains a majority-white jurisdiction, arguing that the challenge for minority politicians is to win power in constituencies that are not dominated by their racial or ethnic groups.