3 Candidates Campaign Aggressively In Race to Be Next County Executive

Left-Leaning Montgomery Voters Hear Gamut of Views on Taxes and Growth

Robin Ficker, who recently switched from the Republican Party to become an independent, said he wants to provide property-tax relief. (By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)

In a jurisdiction where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1, former Montgomery County Council member and onetime state Democratic Party chief Isiah Leggett would seem to have an edge over his opponents in the county executive race.

But Leggett's challengers -- Republican Chuck Floyd and independent Robin Ficker -- have not let that stop them from campaigning vigorously in TV ads, debates, blogs and at Metro stations.

Floyd says he wants to control growth; fight gangs; lower property, cellphone and energy taxes; and stop the county's funding of employment centers for predominantly immigrant day laborers. Ficker, a lawyer who switched his affiliation to independent this year after entering the race as a Republican, says he, too, wants to provide property-tax relief and reduce traffic while making county government more accessible to residents.

Both men have gone on the offensive against Leggett. They say that he would raise property taxes and do little to solve the county's traffic problems or increase the supply of affordable housing. They say voters should pick them because they would change the status quo.

"A vote for Ike Leggett is a vote to raise your own taxes," Ficker said at a forum last week.

"You don't need another retired politician coming in as your next county executive," Floyd, a border security consultant and former State Department employee who has never held public office, told an audience last week.

But Leggett's reputation as a good-natured consensus-builder will be difficult to overcome, political observers said. During his 16 years on the County Council, he successfully pushed for a smoking ban in restaurants and a living-wage law. He pushed for the creation of the office of the inspector general, which investigates government waste. As county executive, he said he will slow development, reduce traffic congestion and increase the availability of affordable housing.

Leggett dismissed his opponents' efforts to paint him as a tax-and-spend politician. He calls their promises to cut taxes premature. He would review the annual budget before he reaches a decision on raising or lowering property taxes, he said.

"To make hard and fast promises about what your tax policy would be vis-a-vis guaranteeing to citizens that you will never raise taxes, is a tired statement that many have touted that is not viable or practical," he said.

A more contentious race is the one for the District 1 seat on the County Council.

The council's sole Republican, Howard A. Denis, faces stiff competition from Democrat Roger Berliner, a Potomac lawyer, for the chance to represent the Potomac-Bethesda area.

Berliner has taken a cue from fellow Democrats across the country and tried to turn Denis's Republican Party affiliation into his biggest liability. Denis, a lawyer, is on leave from his job as staff director for U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.).