By Adam Pagnucco.
Part One explained how this survey was conducted. Parts Two, Three, Four, Five and Six listed elected officials. Parts Seven and Eight listed influential non-elected people. Let’s continue with them today.
All comments are from my sources except for those specifically made by me.
13. Former Council Member Steve Silverman (9 votes)
Works for more groups than anyone else with business in front of the county council and can unlock sizable amounts of campaign funds if you want to spend 4, 8, or 12 years in Rockville.
Love him or hate him, he is the county’s top lobbyist by a mile, and is referenced in every policy discussion.
Still very engaged and represents a number of clients that have influence.
Pagnucco: Bridges the worlds of politics and business like no one else. His tag team with Charlie Nulsen has a sizeable impact on ballot questions and county elections.
11 (tie). Washington Property Company President Charlie Nulsen (10 votes)
Has impacted our county politics, often in hidden ways.
His financial contributions have a mixed win-loss record and one day he’ll figure out he needs to hire one of the few MoCo based consultants and give them free reign to execute his vision, but no one wants to run against $250K+ of ads.
His money has had significant influence on ballot measures and elections.
Pagnucco: Along with his advisor Steve Silverman, Charlie is doing more than anyone else to keep the business community – or at least its real estate segment – politically relevant. If you cross his industry, get ready for six digits of cash to drop in your race during the next election.
11 (tie). Former School Board Member Jill Ortman-Fouse (10 votes)
Knows literally everybody and influences them all.
Jill is much more behind the scenes than she was 4 years ago or as a member of the Board of Education, but she knows everyone and is part of a lot of conversations.
Pagnucco: We call her JOF; she needs no other name. Yes, her background is in MCPS and she is a former school board member, so she is heavily influential in that world. But her reach goes further as she has spawned a group of successor-JOFs to carry on her legacy. When will she be back in county government?
10. Planning Board Chair Artie Harris (11 votes)
Planning Board has some big things happening. He has been a little less bombastic compared to his predecessor, but has started off with some big policy changes.
Growth/no-growth is once again, and forever, the biggest political issue in Montgomery County.
Chair of the Planning Board, he’s brought a calmness to the organization, while still being aggressive on their goals.
Pagnucco: Harris is still pretty new and is not as visible as his famous predecessor, which hurt his placement on the list. But check out Park and Planning’s attainable housing strategies initiative and you will see that, from a policy perspective, Harris’s agency is still headed in the same direction that it has been for years.
9. Term Limits Leader Reardon Sullivan (12 votes)
He lost the election to Elrich but will still unseat him when the ballot amendment passes.
If he becomes Robin Ficker without all the baggage, that could be the most significant development in county politics in decades, especially with an absurdly low signature threshold for ballot initiatives under state law.
The new Ficker? Lead for the 2T Ballot Initiative.
Might not like the term limit idea, but he got the signatures he needed and will shake things up. In a place dominated by Dems, he’s packing a punch.
His term limits effort will likely do what money and other candidates were unable to do. He has the support of not only Republicans but Democrats and Independents.
As much as I disagree with everything about him, he is delivering the signatures for a term-limit amendment that will shake up county politics for the second time in a decade.
Disagree but has taken up the Ficker mantle to influence county politics through ballot initiatives.
I chose Reardon Sullivan because the best thing he and the GOP of Montgomery County have done is to use the ballot to effect positive changes for the county.
Pagnucco: He has made the county GOP relevant again. Hey Sully, after whatever happens with term limits, what’s next for you and your party?
More to come next!