By Adam Pagnucco.
Here are a few things to know about Scott Goldberg. First, he might be the funniest politician in the county other than Kumar Barve, Bill Frick and George Leventhal. Second, he is one of a tiny number of people who have worked on campaigns for both Ike Leggett and David Blair. (He ran Leggett’s 2014 county executive campaign and ran Blair’s ballot issue campaigns in 2020.) And third, he doesn’t just talk about jobs – he has created a bunch of them through his 16-year-old property management business. (Scott doesn’t look old enough to be running a business for that long.) He would have been an interesting county council member. But it was not meant to be.
Like Laurie-Anne Sayles, Goldberg has a long resume in MoCo politics because he started young. In addition to the above, he has been an officer of the county Democratic Party, a member of the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board and a candidate for District 16 delegate in 2010 (in which he finished 9th of 13). Goldberg’s experience on the western side of the Democratic Crescent as well as the eastern side (he now lives near Four Corners) was a useful asset to bring to the council at-large race.
In this cycle, Goldberg raised $270,189 in public campaign financing, which ranked 6th of 8 candidates but ahead of Sayles. Goldberg’s endorsements included the Washington Post, the police union, the volunteer fire fighters and the realtors. The developer group Progressives for Progress promoted him through numerous mailers. Goldberg and Sayles – as well as the incumbents – were chagrined to see Tom Hucker drop down from the county executive race to their race, but it’s not clear exactly who was impacted the most by Hucker’s entry. In any event, Goldberg finished fifth, coming in 8,518 votes behind Sayles and 2,972 votes ahead of Hucker.
The chart below shows Goldberg’s vote percentage by local area and region. Bars in green show a ranking of 3rd, bars in light green show a ranking of 4th, bars in yellow show a ranking of 5th and bars in white show a ranking of 6th or lower.
Goldberg’s best finish was in Potomac, where he ranked third behind Evan Glass and Gabe Albornoz. On the other end were Burtonsville, Dickerson, Germantown, Glenmont/Norbeck, Silver Spring East County and Takoma Park, where Goldberg finished seventh.
The chart below shows how Goldberg did in the county’s racially concentrated precincts. (See my methodology post for definitions.) Bars in light green show a ranking of 4th, bars in yellow show a ranking of 5th and bars in white show a ranking of 6th or lower.
Goldberg’s best performance was in the heavily White precincts, where he finished fourth behind Glass, Albornoz and Jawando. He finished fifth in the Asian precincts and seventh in the Black and Latino precincts.
Overall, Goldberg’s results contained some of the largest differentiations of geography and race of any candidate. If it were up to White Democrats, Goldberg might have been elected. But his performance in Black and brown precincts, East County, Silver Spring Downtown, Takoma Park and diverse parts of Upcounty prevented him from winning. He definitely showed some skills as a candidate, but if he wants to win an elected office, his future may lie in the western part of the county.