By Adam Pagnucco.
When you’re sizing up election races, some factors naturally rise to the top: incumbency, money, endorsements, candidate work ethic and more. Here is an important one that belongs in the mix:
Did a candidate finish strong but lose last time? If so, that candidate may very well come back and win.
MoCo political history is full of comeback kids – losers who become winners. Here are just a few of them in recent years.
Marc Elrich
Elrich is the poster boy for persistence. First elected to the Takoma Park City Council in 1987, he lost four straight county council races (District 5 in 1990 and 1998 and at-large in 1994 and 2002) before finally winning an at-large seat in 2006. He is now a three-term council member and a two-term county executive who is probably headed back to the council next year. That’s pretty good for a “loser!”
An Elrich mailer from 1994.
Hans Riemer
In 2006, Riemer was the new boy in county politics. He ran for the District 5 council seat and was blown out by school board member Valerie Ervin. But he never went away, and four years later, he finished second and knocked out an incumbent in the council at-large primary. Riemer went on to chair the council’s planning committee and became one of the county’s greatest champions of new housing before losing the 2022 executive race to Elrich. If he ever decides to run for office again, he would be hard to stop. (Disclosure: I was his first chief of staff.)
A Riemer mailer from 2006.
Will Jawando
A former Obama administration staffer, Jawando lost in the 2014 District 20 delegate primary and the 2016 Congressional District 8 primary before surging back to win a council at-large seat in 2018. He is now arguably the top progressive leader in county politics and might be the next county executive.
Jawando’s website as it appeared during his 2014 delegate race.
Evan Glass
Glass had assembled a jam-packed resume as a civic activist before losing the 2014 District 5 Council race to Delegate Tom Hucker by a single percentage point. Four years later, he won a council at-large seat and in 2022, he put on one of the best reelection performances by an at-large council member ever. Like Jawando, he could be the next county executive.
A Glass campaign event flyer from 2014.
Marilyn Balcombe
In the 2018 Democratic primary, Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce CEO Marilyn Balcombe finished fifth in a huge field of council at-large candidates, barely missing out on a seat. Nevertheless, Balcombe ran a strong race and everyone knew it. Four years later, she came back to win 31 of District 2’s 34 precincts and snagged almost half the votes in a 3-candidate primary. Right now, her only opponent to continued reelection is term limits.
A Balcombe mailer in 2018.
Natali Fani-Gonzalez
In 2014, business owner and former SEIU and CASA staffer Natali Fani-Gonzalez finished 6th of 7 candidates in the District 18 delegate primary. With a result like that, she must have been done, right? Nope! Months after the primary, she was appointed to the Planning Board and became its vice chair five years later. Then in 2022, she won all 33 precincts in Council District 6, blowing out a quality field. Few people if any in MoCo politics can outwork Fani-Gonzalez, so when she runs for higher office, watch out!
Fani-Gonzalez appears on MCM in 2014.
Laurie-Anne Sayles
In 2014, Sayles finished 5th in a 6-candidate field for District 17 Delegate. That didn’t stop her from getting elected to the Gaithersburg City Council in 2017 and winning a council at-large seat in 2022. As the only incumbent in her four-seat race this time, she has a great chance to be reelected.
Sayles appears on MCM in 2014.
Emily Shetty
If I were going to advise a losing candidate who wants to come back later and win, I would tell them to follow Emily Shetty’s example. Shetty finished a respectable fourth in the 2014 District 18 delegate primary running against a slate of incumbents. In the following four years, she was everywhere in county politics. She joined the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee, co-founded a civic association, served on the boards of Action Committee for Transit and the Montgomery County Young Democrats and volunteered with the Women’s Democratic Club. (I know I may be missing a few things, but isn’t that enough?) By the time she ran again in 2018 when the district had two open seats, she was a much better known candidate and got a solid win. She is now in her second term and is cruising towards a third one.
Shetty’s website as it appeared in 2014.
The lesson from Shetty’s comeback is this: learn from your loss and don’t quit. Keep serving the community even if you’re not actively running for office. Then when the next opportunity comes, you will be in a good position to seize it.
I could name a LOT more comeback candidates (Cheryl Kagan, Ben Kramer, Steve Silverman, Phil Andrews, Ana Sol Gutierrez…), but do you folks really need another five-part series? Give a blogger a break!
So besides a fun trip down memory lane, why is this post relevant now? Consider Scott Goldberg and Jeremiah Pope, both of whom are running for council at-large seats. Goldberg finished fifth in the 2022 council at-large primary and Pope finished third in the 2022 Council District 5 primary. Both were good fundraisers, both earned the Washington Post endorsement, both are raising solid money this time and both stayed involved in county politics after they lost. To me, Goldberg and Pope most resemble the comeback kids listed above. That’s no guarantee that they will win this time – Elrich lost four straight times before winning, after all – but if history is any judge, we should all keep an eye on them as we head into the next election.