Montgomery County Councilmember Hans Riemer (D) has passed the $1 million fundraising mark in the race for County Executive, his campaign announced this morning. The million-dollar haul caps a week of good news for Riemer. A Data for Progress poll last week found that, while incumbent Marc Elrich (D) had the most support at 33%, Riemer is tied for second with businessman David Blair at 14%. Blair is self-funding his campaign, and spent $5.7 million in his 2018 bid for the same office; he can't be pleased to find he is tied with a candidate who is using public financing with $250 maximum individual contributions.
Riemer's campaign noted that his fundraising total of $1.04 million through June 12 now exceeds the amount spent by Elrich, Roger Berliner, Rose Krasnow, George Leventhal, and Bill Frick in the 2018 Democratic primary race for executive. He also holds the new record for most individual contributions in a campaign for County Executive in a primary in the past decade.
"This report puts numbers behind what I see everyday on the campaign trail -- our supporters are fired up to bring new leadership to Montgomery County,” Riemer said in a statement this morning. “Enthusiasm determines who wins and loses primaries,” Riemer campaign manager Aziz Yakub said. “With this fundraising milestone, we will have the resources to reach voters with a powerful media campaign. Although we’ll keep raising, I am confident that we’ll have enough to win despite what any other candidate may spend."
Blair has hit the airwaves with a barrage of ads on local broadcast TV stations over the last week, showing what his budget will allow. That will put pressure on Riemer, Elrich and businessman Peter James (D) to boost media exposure in the final weeks before the July 19 primary. Republicans Shelly Skolnick and Reardon Sullivan are also running for executive, as is Devin Battley for the Green Party.
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