Election for a seat on the County Council

There is a special primary election next week to fill a vacancy on the Montgomery County (Maryland) Council. Last night I attended a forum to hear nine of the candidates for the job.

Clearly the key issue for the county is how to deal with increasing budget demands at a time that the economy is in recession, and especially how to deal with the decrease in county income that will result from the foreclosures and decreasing value of the property (and thus reduced property taxes). The question was asked, as to the second priority. I suppose that the issue is being faced all over the country.

This is a county that has the possibility of considerable economic growth in the future if it can translate its leadership in the biomedical sciences to the development of new high technology industries. Thus one priority should be to make the investments, even in a poor economy, that will help achieve that end -- education, appropriate infrastructure, zoning and other efforts to attract innovators and help them succeed when they are here.

This is also a county with a lot of people who are already suffering and who are especially vulnerable to the economic downturn, including the elderly, the poor, and indeed a large immigrant population. Ours is a liberal population, and clearly the protection of the most vulnerable is a priority for government.

It seems to me that the key issue is how to balance these two priorities.

I suspect we will have few voters in an election with no federal or state-wide offices at stake. On the other hand, there was a good turnout at the forum. We have some good candidates, and I hope the electorate chooses the best of them!

I suspect that I will follow the endorsements of my Congresswoman, Donna Edwards, the Sierra Club, and my union and vote for Nancy Navarro.