By Adam Pagnucco.
Silver Spring attorney Fatmata Barrie, who finished second to Kristin Mink in the 2022 Council District 5 primary, is running again for county council. This time, she is seeking an at-large seat.
Barrie has run her own law firm since 2008. In 2019-21, she was a senior legislative aide for Council Member Will Jawando. In February 2023, she was named executive director of the Montgomery County Police Accountability Board and the Administrative Charging Committee, which review police officer conduct. She held that position through April 2024.
This is the third time Barrie has run for state or county office. In 2018, Barrie finished fifth of seven candidates in the District 20 Delegate Democratic primary. In 2022, she finished second to Mink in the Council District 5 Democratic primary. In the latter race, Barrie collected endorsements from MCEA, SEIU Local 500, Casa in Action, Progressive Maryland and LIUNA but Mink still defeated her by 18 points. I profiled that race later that year.
A screenshot from Barrie’s 2022 website.
This year, Barrie is running for an at-large seat as many believe there will be at least one vacancy among the four seats. She filed a new public financing committee on February 28. She joins fellow 2022 candidates Scott Goldberg and Jeremiah Pope as well as (potentially) current County Executive Marc Elrich in the race. (The incumbents are Gabe Albornoz, Evan Glass, Will Jawando and Laurie-Anne Sayles.)
This is good news for Mink. Barrie and Pope were her only two rivals to break double digits in the 2022 primary. Mink will probably lock up every progressive endorsement to be had and so potential opponents are headed to likely at-large openings. That’s rational because it’s hard to beat incumbents. We shall see how many at-large seats come open and how many candidates get into the race to acquire one of them.