By Adam Pagnucco.
As he has previously stated, County Executive Marc Elrich has established a campaign committee to run for a county council at-large seat. Elrich is finishing his second term and is prevented from running for reelection to the executive’s office by term limits. The treasurer of his committee, which uses public campaign financing, is Dale Tibbitts, one of his special assistants and his former council chief of staff. Elrich set up the committee on September 4.
I expect Elrich to be a strong candidate. First, he has by far the best name recognition of any county-level elected official here owing to his two terms as executive and his three terms on the council before that. Second, he finished first in his last two council at-large primaries (2010 and 2014). Third, he received the maximum allowable amount of public matching funds in his two executive races so he should have no problem getting it in a council race. Fourth, he will get the endorsement of nearly every progressive group in the county.
As if that’s not enough, the dynamics of a council at-large race favor someone like Elrich. Because the top four vote-getters win, Elrich doesn’t have to be a voter’s top favorite to get a vote. He could get a vote as the second, third or fourth choice of a voter, something that benefits a candidate with high name recognition. And with only one at-large incumbent currently running (Laurie-Anne Sayles), Elrich could even finish first.
For all of his detractors, there is no reason to believe that Elrich’s three-headed base – progressives, union members and development opponents – has deserted him. Unless he does zero campaigning and/or something crazy happens, I believe it will be hard to stop him from returning to the council building. I hope the folks there have a warm welcome for him in store!