By Adam Pagnucco.
Just like in 2014, every single Montgomery County incumbent at the state and county levels who ran for reelection to his or her current office won. In most instances, those incumbents faced no opposition or nominal opposition, resulting in blowouts. From an analytical perspective, blowouts are boring even though they are quite satisfying to the victors. This post will have a few odds and ends from these yawners before we move on to the real elections.
Governor
Wes Moore won the state’s Democratic primary for governor by 2.4 points over Tom Perez statewide, but Perez beat Moore 48%-20% in MoCo. In our county, Perez beat Moore in every state legislative district, every county council district and every local area casting a thousand or more votes. Perez’s highest percentages were in Washington Grove (62%), Takoma Park (58%), Cabin John (58%), Chevy Chase (56%), the Democratic Crescent (55%), State District 16 (55%), Council District 4 (55%), Kensington (55%) and the county’s top 25 White precincts (55%). (Check my methodology post for definitions of these terms.) Despite Perez’s success in MoCo, Moore’s wins in Baltimore City and Prince George’s, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties put him over the top.
Comptroller
Brooke Lierman beat Tim Adams in MoCo by 80%-20%. She also beat him in the county’s top 25 Black precincts 71%-29%. Nuff said.
Council District 1
Andrew Friedson wants you to know that he won 100% of the votes cast for the Council District 1 seat. Who cares that there was no opponent? 100 percent is 100 percent baby! Fun fact: this is the first time a Democratic incumbent in this district had no opponent in the primary since the current council structure was established in 1990.
Council District 3
Sidney Katz, running in his third and final race for the Council District 3 seat, won 37 of the district’s 38 precincts. That’s almost as good as Friedson’s performance. Five of the county’s 25 top Asian precincts are located in this district. In those precincts, Katz led Rob Wu 63%-29%.
Council District 6
Natali Fani-Gonzalez won all 33 precincts in this district even though her opponents included a former state delegate and an owner of one of Wheaton’s best-known restaurants. Friedson, are you reading this?
Almost all of the county’s incumbent state senators and delegates won in cakewalks. The only drama occurred in the District 18 state senate race and the District 39 house race. We will move on to the real elections soon enough!