Greg’s Montgomery County election picks for those not voting early

The Maryland primary is tomorrow and while I know many of my friends have voted early, apparently only 3% of voters have done so. So if you haven’t voted, haven’t completely decided, and find value in my opinions, here’s my key calls.

I’m going to stick with the races I feel strongly about. For them and the rest I  recommend the League of Women Voters Voter’s Guide at vote411.org which answers from each of the candidates. I also rely some on the Action Committee for Transit’s transit scorecard (I don’t agree with all of the scorecards classifications, but I found the survey answers valuable in their own  right).

Governor: Tom Perez

This one got simpler for me when Rushern Baker dropped out. I chose to prioritize fighting beltway expansion. I think it’s a bad idea on environmental ground and I think the public-private partnership is uncompetitive and based on implausible claims of no risk to Maryland. Comptroller Franchot shouldn’t have let that pass the Board of Public Works as protecting Maryland from bad deals is core to his job. Meanwhile, I’ve liked Perez from his early MoCo days, he has executive experience as Labor Sec., and I think his positions are good in general. From what I’ve read of the polling (including this fascinating ranked choice poll by Maryland Matters) I think he’s got the best chance to beat Franchot. Honestly, I’m not sure who would do best against the Republican candidate, but I think Perez doesn’t have any major liabilities and he’s quite experienced in electoral politics. This is definitely voting with my head, if I went for alignment on every issue I might end up with John King, but I will feel good if Perez wins so it’s an easy strategic vote.

County Exec: Hans Reimer

I explain my logic in greater depth here, but in County races I prioritize affordable housing. I think Hans’ approach will strengthen Montgomery as a city on the hill that can provide refuge to those in other parts of an increasingly divided country and raise enough revenue to provide robust services. Meanwhile, I think County Executive Elrich is all talk and even when it comes to talk he opposed even setting higher goals for affordable housing. It’d be one thing if he was an effective administrator, but there’s a reason he was never Council President and my favorite part of his agenda, an expanded bus rapid transit network, has made little progress. This is a vote from heart, I have friends that are going Blair because he may have a better shot and he gave good answers one-on-one to the Sierra Club. But I volunteered this morning for Hans and will do so the evening of  the election because I believe not he’s the one who is our best choice of leader for these times.

County Council:
At large: Tom Hucker, Evan Glass, Will Jawando, Scott Goldberg
District 4: Amy Ginsburg

Sticking with ACT here. Not in love with the absence of any women in the at large, of the rest Sayles is my pick as I know a few people that vouch for her and her other answers are pretty good, but on affordable housing she isn’t doing anything to stick her neck out for building more housing.