By Adam Pagnucco.
Former council candidate Sharif Hidayat has established a traditional campaign committee to run in Council District 7. He is targeting incumbent Dawn Luedtke, who is running for a second term.
Hidayat is a former Montgomery County police officer who has previously run unsuccessfully for Council District 7 in 2022, Mayor of Laytonsville in 2023 and school board in 2024. Three years ago, I profiled the last District 7 race in which Luedtke won and Hidayat finished fifth of seven candidates.
I asked Hidayat for a statement on his campaign. He told me the following:
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I’m running for District 7 County Council. We ran four years ago for the same seat. Four years later, we still have the same traffic issues in District 7 that have gone unaddressed. We still have wasteful spending at MCPS. We still have politicians that give handouts to wealthy developers at the expense of the middle class. We still have disgruntled teachers. We still have mold in our schools. We still have politicians using tax dollars to take care of their cronies. District 7 residents deserve a leader who isn’t going to promote Mickey Mouse legislation like banning gas powered leaf blowers. District 7 residents deserve a leader who recognizes that up-county residents aren’t getting an equitable voice at the table when it comes to budget decisions. These are only but a few of the reasons why I have decided to run again. We are not going to accept any special interest monies and plan on donating our entire county council salary to youth development in District 7.
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So Dawn Luedtke has a challenger. Game on!