By Adam Pagnucco.
Recently, I wrote about 2023 fundraising by county elected officials and there was only one story worth mentioning: the titanic total raised by Council Member Andrew Friedson. Let’s explore his campaign money.
Friedson is a MoCo native. He is a graduate of Winston Churchill High School and, at least in county politics, is the favorite son of Potomac. Shortly after graduating from the University of Maryland, he went to work for Comptroller Peter Franchot, where he apprenticed under the brilliant strategist Len Foxwell, and went on to advise David Trone in his first congressional race. Friedson started running for the council district 1 seat in the summer of 2017 and won a crowded primary by 7 points. Even though Friedson received just 28% of the vote in 2018, he had no opponent in either the primary or the general in 2022. That was pretty amazing since every other race in the district since 1990 has seen opposition.
Because Friedson’s district contains Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Potomac – the wealthiest areas in Maryland – he would be expected to raise good money. Howie Denis and Roger Berliner, his predecessors, certainly did. But Friedson takes it to another level. Since it was established in 2017, Friedson’s campaign account has recorded $1,313,759 in receipts. The chart below shows his annual fundraising numbers.
With the partial exception of 2019, when he was a first-year council member, Friedson has never taken a year off. His best year was in 2022, when he had no opponents. Most politicians would have taken it easy that year. Not Friedson.
As good as he was in prior years, Friedson went into overdrive last month. For the 24 days from December 18 through January 10, he raised $163,986. That’s more than $6,800 a day. He was aided by a packed bad weather birthday fundraiser on January 6, but it was more than that one event. The steady intake of contributions over the entire period suggests intense call time.
Where does Friedson’s money come from? Since 2017, 82% of his contributions have come from individuals and 17% have come from business entities (including corporations and PACs). That understates his business community support as many business owners and managers contribute as individuals.
Speaking of individuals, the pie chart below shows individual contribution amounts by major geographic category. Zip code data were used to determine localities.
57% of Friedson’s individual contributions came from Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Potomac. Those are the three major parts of his district and they all have money. He also gets a lot of contributions from outside his district, especially D.C. and Rockville. The latter is interesting because his district barely bumps up against the southern edge of Rockville but he pulls a lot of money from there anyway. He has also raked in more than $10,000 each from individuals in Downtown Silver Spring, Kensington and Glenmont/Norbeck.
In totality, 21% of Friedson’s money comes from individuals in Bethesda, 20% from individuals in Potomac, 8% from individuals in Rockville, 5% from individuals in Chevy Chase, 17% from business entities and nearly all the rest from individuals elsewhere. His wealthy district, close ties to the business community, ability to raise money from areas he does not represent and relentless work ethic account for his success. Friedson’s fundraising prowess is one reason why he is frequently mentioned as a possible future county executive.