I’ll be attending a rally at Astrolab brewing tonight for Councilmember Hans Riemer to celebrate his endorsement for Montgomery County executive by former Governor Glendening. The event starts in an hour from 4:30 to 7:00 pm at Astrolab brewing in Silver Spring.
I’ve long been a support of Hans thanks to his championing of the Purple Line going back to his critical first Council race. However, while that’s my top issue, I think his larger vision that “It’s time we say yes” for a prosperous and progressive Montgomery County is the right agenda and temperament for this moment that could turn to recovery or fall to malaise.
Here’s three examples of how he differentiates himself from our current executive:
* Addressing the housing crunch by building 40,000 new housing units, including allowing for a duplexes and other forms of multifamily housing where the transportation infrastructure supports. This is on top of Hans support for affordable housing measures.
* Moving to clean energy including allowing rural property owners to build solar. I support the county’s agricultural reserve, both to limit sprawl and allow for local food. Allowing our rural areas to build more concentrated solar arrays is compatible with the spirit of that initiative and is the kind of work that can be done at the county level to counter climate change.
* Pushing for universal vaccination for county employees, this is a bit backward looking, but I was impressed by Hans takes on pandemic response as I thought he was willing to fight for the most effective policies while still taking learning loss for our schools very seriously.
Hans knows policy and implementation. He has has years of leadership experience on the County Council where his ability to build coalitions was reflected in his getting the most votes of any of the at-large candidates in the last election. I think these are not strengths of our current executive and it does the county the most harm on housing issues and economic growth. It’s not that I don’t think Hans will make mistakes or that I’ll agree with every compromise he cuts, but I trust that he has a larger vision of a successful growing county with widespread benefits and a willingness to listen to data that will use new tax revenue where it will make the biggest positive difference.
Finally, on a pragmatic note, the County Executive race is now a three person one between Marc Elrich, David Blair, and Hans Riemer. I don’t have polling access, but I’m sharing this today because I think the departure of Councilmember Hucker from the race and the endorsement by Gov. Glendening makes this a great time to tune into the race and give Hans a closer look. In general, your vote and voice carry a lot more weight than in national election. The last county executive primary came down to less than a hundred votes. Hans is also running with public financing that means that in county donations are have a 6x match. So if you look and like what you see, even a modest donation will go long way.
Image credit: David Asche Photography from Hans’s website, because I really need to organize my photos better for people searches.
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