Steve Burns
WMAL.com

ROCKVILLE – (WMAL) The race to replace Ike Leggett as Montgomery County’s next County Executive gets going in earnest today, as current Council President Roger Berliner is set to join the race at an event this evening. He will find two of his colleagues already in alongside him, Councilmembers Marc Elrich and George Leventhal. With Primary Day still over a year away in Maryland, the race now will be defined by how effectively the three can separate themselves.

All three fashion themselves as progressive Democrats, so the debate promises to be more issue-filled than voters may be used to seeing recently. American University professor David Lublin sees economic development as a key question out of the gate.

“Montgomery County needs to expand its tax base if it’s to continue to provide the array of excellent services for which it’s known,” Lublin told WMAL. “Taxes are perceived as pretty high already, in terms of both the income tax and the property tax.”

Another big issue that could differentiate the three, Lublin said, is the future of the County’s Department of Liquor Control.

A few different lanes are already opening up in the race. Elrich can claim the progressive crown, along with being mostly anti-development, according to Lublin. Berliner’s candidacy looks to be more business- and environment-focused.

“Part of (Berliner’s) argument will end up being, ‘Well, Marc has a lot of good ideas, but I’m better at working with people, that’s why I’ve become Chairman of the Council and he has not.'”

Leventhal faces more of an uphill battle, Lublin said, as his flip-flop on a minimum wage increase and generally abrasive personality has alienated many voter blocs.

There is less to discuss on the Republican side as the party only has one major name in the race: serial candidate Robin Ficker.

“Ficker, to me, is a symptom of the problem, not the solution,” Lublin said. “The fact that he’s as good as they can present is a real problem.” Lublin said any moderate Republican looking to win over moderate Democrats in deep-blue Montgomery County would need to overcome what Democrats see as the poisoning of the brand on the national level. He suggested creating a third party-label instead.

Still, Ficker’s term limits crusade was a success last fall, which may indicate an appetite for a more outsider candidate, Lublin said. Total Wine and More owner David Trone, coming off an unsuccessful run for Congress last year in which he far outspent his competition, has been rumored to be thinking about entering the County Executive race.

“I think he presents the biggest threat to someone like Berliner, because he would come straight out of the business community,” Lublin said. He could still be presented as a Trump-like businessman who has been far too involved in politics already, Lublin said, through his massive political donations through the years.

The extent of anger at the status quo of county politics remains to be seen.

“There’s a lot of people who are fed up with the entire political class, as we saw in the 2016 election,” Lublin said. “The one thing that will be interesting to see is to what extent does that extend to Montgomery County?”

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