By Adam Pagnucco.
The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi is where regional politicians go to break news and it happened again on Friday, when Council Member Will Jawando appeared on the show. After discussing the county council’s recently passed bill providing 20-year property tax breaks to developers of many office-to-residential projects, Jawando had this exchange with analyst Tom Sherwood.
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Sherwood: Let me ask before we run out of time on this, the politics of this, since this is the Politics Hour, is that people running for county executive… Marc Elrich can’t now, he’s term limited, he says he’s going to run at-large for a council seat, Evan Glass said he’s running for county executive, what are you doing? Because this seems to me, this would be a prime issue. I’d campaign every day outside the Geico office. [Note from Pagnucco: Jawando mentioned the redevelopment of Geico’s Friendship Heights headquarters in discussing the tax abatement bill.]
Jawando: Well, I am certainly concerned about our community. A lot of people have asked me about county executive. I’m trying to get through this budget and pass the education budget. But I am thinking about it and I’ll have an announcement on that soon.
Sherwood: Soon meaning this fall or like July?
Jawando: Soon as in after the budget’s done. Sometime between now…
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Kojo then changed the subject (I wished he hadn’t!) but you get the gist.
In my series on the Next County Executive last November, my sources picked Council Member Andrew Friedson, Glass and Jawando as the three most likely people to win that race. I could make a case for or against any of the three. Here’s a prediction: by this summer, that contest will be on like Donkey Kong! Here is hoping that Kojo and Tom Sherwood ask every MoCo politician who appears on their show whether they too will join in.