By Adam Pagnucco.
When public financing was passed in 2014, it was supposed to take interest group money out of our elections. Well, that has not happened.
There are now four Super PACs spending money to support or oppose MoCo candidates. Consider what we have seen so far from my prior articles:
April 27: The CASA in Action PAC reports spending $116,918 on behalf of Will Jawando, who is running for executive, and county council candidates Izola Shaw, Fatmata Barrie, Josie Caballero, Marc Elrich and Laurie-Anne Sayles.
May 2: The Greater Capital Area Association of REALTORS MD IEC reports spending $376,800 on behalf of Andrew Friedson, who is running for executive, and county council candidates Drew Morrison, Scott Goldberg, Jim McNulty and Karla Silvestre.
May 14: The Affordable Maryland PAC, which is financed by the real estate industry, assembles $1.2 million in funding and makes an initial $232,000 TV buy for a negative ad against Jawando.
Now the Progressive Maryland Liberation Alliance PAC, which raised at least $100,000 from unions and other groups to go negative against county executive candidate David Blair in 2018, has started spending again in MoCo. The total amount so far spent on MoCo candidates is minimal: $2,679. $1,540 is going to printing and campaign materials and $1,139 is going to salaries for campaign staff. The beneficiaries are Jawando and Shaw ($893 each) and Barrie, Caballero, Elrich and Sayles ($223 each).
These are tiny amounts indeed, but given this Super PAC’s past activities in MoCo and elsewhere, it can clearly spend more if it wishes.
Add up the above Super PAC money and it totals close to $1.7 million, mostly from the real estate industry. And there could very well be more.
Public financing or not, interest group political activity is every bit as intense in our elections as it was 20 years ago when I began writing about Montgomery County.
The Progressive Maryland Liberation Alliance PAC’s two new reports can be downloaded below.
Progressive Maryland Liberation Alliance PAC 48 Hour Report 5-15-26
Progressive Maryland Liberation Alliance PAC 48 Hour Report 2 5-15-26