By Adam Pagnucco.
Council Member Andrew Friedson, who is running for county executive, has sent out his fifth mailer. And it’s generating blowback from one of his opponents, Evan Glass.
First, let’s examine the mailer below. It contrasts the tax records of Friedson, Glass and fellow Council Member Will Jawando, who is also running for executive.
Note the comment that the mailer makes about both Glass and Council Member Will Jawando: “He just voted for a budget that includes a $692 property tax hike on all homeowners and an income tax increase.”
After the mailer was sent, Glass sent out the press release below calling the mailer dishonest.
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Statement from Evan Glass on Andrew Friedson’s dishonest mailer
Montgomery County, MD — Councilmember Evan Glass issued the following statement in response to Andrew Friedson’s campaign mailer titled “Affordability Voter Guide.”
“As a former CNN journalist, I can say this is the most dishonest piece of mail I have seen in a long time.
Andrew Friedson has to choose: did he increase taxes in 2023 or not?
Here are the facts. In 2023, Friedson voted against a 4.7% property tax increase, but then voted for the final budget, which included the property tax increase. In 2026, I voted against every tax increase and every tax change — then voted for the final budget, exactly as Friedson did in 2023.
Now he is claiming that I raised taxes in 2026. By Friedson’s own logic, he raised taxes in 2023. He can’t pretend his own record doesn’t exist.
This is just the latest misinformation in a campaign built on distorting the facts.
So to answer the question: Yes, Andrew Friedson raised taxes in 2023.
Montgomery County voters want honesty, not hypocrisy.”
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I asked Friedson’s campaign for a response, which is shown below.
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The facts don’t lie, and official voting records speak for themselves. Everything in the ‘Affordability Guide’ is true and no amount of campaign spin can change how councilmembers voted.
For Evan Glass to suggest that he ‘voted against every tax increase and every tax change’ in 2026 is simply not true. Just last week, on May 21, 2026, both Evan Glass and Will Jawando voted to eliminate the Income Tax Offset Credit (ITOC), which directly raises every single Montgomery County homeowner’s property tax bill by $692. That was Item 21 on the agenda. The voting record couldn’t be any clearer.
By contrast, during the 2023 budget, Andrew Friedson consistently voted against the 4.7% property tax rate increase that Evan Glass oversaw as Council President. Andrew opposed the property tax hike in both the initial straw votes and the final vote on the tax resolution.
Andrew has a clear, unyielding record of pushing back against constant tax increases to protect families who are already stretched too thin. The official council records are public, clear, and unambiguous. Votes matter, and the records speak for themselves.
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So who is right?
First, this year’s budget did not include a net income tax increase. The council reduced overall income tax revenues by introducing progressive income tax brackets and paid for it by repealing a tax credit received by most homeowners. Because the revenue raised by repealing the tax credit exceeded the revenue lost from the new brackets, it’s a net tax increase, but it can’t be characterized as an income tax increase. Most residents will pay less income taxes except those who are making more than $600,000 per year, who will pay more. The loss of the tax credit will show up on most homeowners’ property tax bills in a few months.
Now let’s talk about straw votes and votes on budget resolutions. The purpose of straw votes is to shape the budget resolutions that are then drafted by council staff. The council then votes on the budget resolutions themselves, which implement the budgets into law.
Let’s discuss what the council did last month. As I have previously reported, when the county council held a straw vote on a plan to introduce progressive income tax brackets and pay for it by repealing the $692 Income Tax Offset Credit (ITOC) – a net $102 million tax increase on homeowners – Friedson, Glass and Jawando were among the five council members who voted no. (The other two were Kristin Mink and Laurie-Anne Sayles.)
However, on May 21, the council voted on budget resolution 20-1143, which formally set the ITOC to zero, effectively raising taxes on homeowners who received it. The council’s 2026 summary shows that only Friedson and Dawn Luedtke voted against this resolution and the rest of the council (including Glass and Jawando) voted for it. See the screenshot below.
So Glass and Jawando at first voted against the tax increase but then later voted for it. (So did Mink and Sayles.) Friedson voted against it both times.
Confusing, right?
But that’s not the end of the story. Remember, Glass raised what happened in 2023, when the council took both straw votes and budget resolution votes on a 4.7% increase in property taxes. As I wrote at the time, Friedson and Jawando both cast straw votes against this tax increase (although Jawando did so because he wanted it to be higher) while Glass voted yes.
The screenshot below shows the budget resolution votes from that year from the council summary. Once again, Friedson and Jawando voted against budget resolution 20-193, which set the property tax rate (for different reasons), while Glass voted for it. But as Glass said, both Friedson and Jawando voted in favor of the agency spending supported by the tax increase. (Friedson abstained from voting on a contract for an organization on whose board he served.)
So the bottom line is that both Glass and Friedson scored legit hits on each other. I bet Jawando is happy to let them slug it out while he fights corporate Super PAC spending.
And now it’s your call. Who got the better of this exchange? And does it really matter as you prepare to cast your vote?