By Adam Pagnucco.
While the results have not been finalized, early returns suggest a stark reality for Montgomery County Republicans – this is likely the fifth straight gubernatorial cycle in which the GOP has been totally shut out in partisan races for offices entirely within the county. This is obviously bad for them. It also may not be so great for the Democrats.
Republicans have long been a minority in the county but their electoral extinction is a relatively new phenomenon. In past cycles, they tended to win elections in the county’s west and north and even won a quarter of all partisan elections here in 1994. But their fortunes took a nosedive afterwards and by 2006, with the defeats of District 1 Council Member Howie Denis and District 15 Delegate Jean Cryor, they were gone.
The era of MoCo elected Republicans is receding so far into the past that we now have at least one generation of county political activists who have no memory of them. Folks I know who have worked with Congresswoman Connie Morella, District 1 Council Member Betty Ann Krahnke, District 2 Council Member Nancy Dacek as well as Denis and Cryor describe them as honorable public servants. As a group, they may have been slightly more fiscally conservative than Democrats and some of them were a bit more skeptical of land development. But they sometimes rivaled the leftward tilt of the Democrats. Denis, for example, was tight with labor and in his final 2006 race was endorsed by all of the county’s most influential unions. (He lost to Democrat Roger Berliner.) Cryor was endorsed that same year by the teachers union and Progressive Maryland but still lost to Democrat Craig Rice.
Robin Ficker is the cartoon character who has long been used by Democrats as a bogeyman to scare voters but not all local Republicans follow his model. Bill Day (who ran for delegate in 2018) and Rose Li (who ran for delegate in 2014) struck me as rational adults. Tom Ferleman, who ran for Council District 2 in 2018, once wrote a guest blog series for me that bore no resemblance to the rantings of Ficker and Donald Trump. But none of them could break through.
Trump, Ted Cruz and Ficker – kryptonite for the county’s GOP.
In the absence of an effective opposition party, it’s debatable whether anything can stop the Democrats’ race to the left – and that may not end well for them. For example, the 8.7% property tax hike of 2016 led directly to the overwhelming passage of Ficker’s term limits amendment months later. And Governor Martin O’Malley’s many tax hikes led to the victory of his GOP successor, Larry Hogan. One wonders whether history will repeat itself.
Democrats are now in complete control of county government but they should be wary of a check on their power: ballot questions. The county’s charter permits two kinds of them: referendums to repeal some (but not all) bills passed by the county council, and amendments to the charter that do not conflict with state law. During my time in county politics, I have seen Ficker, the police union, the volunteer fire fighters and a group advocating for nine county council districts all successfully put questions on the ballot, and both the volunteers and Ficker (twice) have actually won.
Now what of county Republicans? It’s unlikely that they can win office here as long as their national party is overrun by fascists, racists, xenophobes, election deniers, Putin fans and Trumpies. Until the distant day when their party might rid itself of such influences, the local GOP’s path to relevance goes through the ballot question process. They should identify Democratic excesses, test which of them are least popular with the general electorate, craft legally sound remedies and conduct petition drives for ballot placement. That may deter some of the more unwise proposals coming from county government, and even if not, open up decision-making to a larger group than the Democratic establishment. That’s a legitimate role for an opposition party and may even offer a contribution of merit to Montgomery County.