Woke Doug Duncan calls out Montgomery County cartel

Former Montgomery County Executive and Rockville mayor Douglas M. Duncan is the first prominent political figure to acknowledge, and call out, the political cartel that has seized control of the County over the last two decades. Over that same period since they first won a majority of the seats on the County Council in 2002 - and now control every single seat in 2019, the County has plunged to rock bottom in all relevant regional economic development categories. As a result of their high-tax and anti-business policies, the County economy has become moribund, the ultra-wealthy have fled in great numbers to lower-tax jurisdictions, and the County has failed to attract a major corporate headquarters in over twenty years. While high profile voices like The Washington Post, Washington Business Journal and Sage Policy Group have finally joined me in declaring Montgomery County moribund, no prominent figure has previously identified that a political cabal has seized control of the local Democratic party and County government. Until now.

A day after the County's elected officials held another clueless meeting on the stagnant County economy, repeating the same mantras and problems without endorsing actual solutions we know will solve them, it's worth examining what Doug Duncan recently said regarding the cartel. One of the key reasons we are struggling to attract jobs and economic growth is that cartel-controlled officials are anti-highway and anti-car. That is because the most dominant players in the cartel are developers who specialize in developments that require traffic congestion to remain high, in order to justify their density. So it's not surprising that the County Council's predictable opposition to Gov. Larry Hogan's Express Lanes plan for the Beltway and I-270 frustrated a common-sense leader like Duncan.

"You don't often see a governor saying, 'I want to put billions of dollars into your infrastructure,'" Duncan told the Post. "For Montgomery County to say no right off the bat without saying let's look at this is the result of who's controlling the Democratic Party now."

Those elected officials have not only blocked and canceled critical highway projects, but have also pursued the anti-business course that their developer sugar daddies in the cartel have demanded behind closed doors. Developers want the valuable land in Rock Spring and along I-270 where existing office parks could be used to lure defense, aerospace and tech firms that need large, secure campuses. They want those office zones to remain vacant and struggling, so that they can acquire the land and redevelop it as residential. This is why you see the Council continuing to refuse to take the steps needed to turn the economy around, and to block economic growth.

Duncan addressed that, too, in his remarks to the Post. He told the newspaper "the County's Democratic leadership of 'no-growthers' is out of step with residents."

This is a breakthrough in the public debate. Duncan is as liberal a Democrat as they come, but he's also remembered for being pro-business while in office until he ran for governor in 2006. Duncan lost his bid to return as County Executive in 2014, when the cartel threw its weight behind incumbent Ike Leggett. He may now wish he had run in 2018, when pro-business candidate David Blair lost to Marc Elrich by a literal whisker in the Democratic primary. If the County remains on this road to bankruptcy, we likely haven't heard the last of Duncan and Blair in the political arena.

To be first to acknowledge the local Democratic Party and our elected offices have indeed been hijacked by a cartel, cabal or whatever you want to call it, is indeed a shot across the bow by Duncan. These words need to be heard and taken seriously, if we are to resolve this fiscal crisis, and become the major economic development player we once were in the region.

TASTEE DINER ENDORSES DOUG GANSLER FOR GOVERNOR IN BETHESDA (PHOTOS)

The venerable Tastee Diner has made another very public endorsement in the 2014 county elections. If your first name is Doug, you may have a leg up on receiving the popular diner's endorsement.

After posting a sign last year touting former County Executive Doug Duncan (who is currently running for that office again versus incumbent Ike Leggett, and fellow challenger Phil Andrews [one of whom will face Republican Jim Shalleck in November]), the diner recently posted a second sign - for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Doug Gansler.

Gansler is one of two Montgomery County residents (Del. Heather Mizeur is the other) running for governor against Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.

Duncan's sign remains in the diner window, as well. Both Gansler and Duncan were political fixtures in the county seat of Rockville over the last two decades.

The Doug Duncan sign remains
in place, making this the
All-Doug slate

DOUG DUNCAN RUNNING FOR COUNTY EXECUTIVE - WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLITICS?

Game. Set. Match. Doug Duncan.

In what may have been the shortest political campaign in Montgomery County history, former county executive Douglas M. Duncan confirmed he would seek that office again yesterday.

The former Rockville mayor and multi-term county executive is virtually assured of victory in 2014.  Duncan is incredibly popular with developers, newspaper editorial boards, and the county's political establishment.

His announcement provides confidence to that establishment.  But it sends the rest of county politics into utter turmoil.

One drawback to the total Democratic domination of Montgomery County is that the ease of winning office has generated a very deep bench of politicians, with many more currently in the "minor leagues" in municipal offices, and the State House.

As current elected officials have chosen to run and run for the same easy offices over and over again, they've created a logjam as bad as the county's traffic.

Just as many impatient Democrats of the next generations were beginning to openly jockey for position in the 2014 election, Duncan delivered a death blow to such aspirations with yesterday's announcement.

Who are the casualties?

George Leventhal and Phil Andrews had already announced campaigns for county executive, and Nancy Floreen, Marc Elrich and Valerie Ervin had been publicly considering entering the race.

All now have little choice but to run for their same council seats again, or exit politics altogether.  To a person, they will almost certainly do the former. 

Ben Kramer, whose father was a well-respected past county executive, was well-positioned as the dark horse in the race.  He's gone, too, now.

Duncan surely plans to make this a two-term deal. Meaning that all of the above contenders are literally stuck until 2022. 

By that time, another whole generation of Democrats will be growing bored in the minor leagues, and begin to challenge the old guard.

Would Ben Kramer challenge for a council seat? Unlikely, as he'd have to take on incumbents in every one, including Nancy Navarro, who outmaneuvered Kramer for that 4th District seat in the first place.

Can they go to Washington?

Not until Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin end their careers in the Senate.  Chris Van Hollen, John Delaney, Donna Edwards and John Sarbanes are all in a similar pickle in their Senate aspirations.

How about running for governor? Nope. Democrats have a full slate of contenders already, and at least two are from Montgomery County.

Aside from all of this fallout, Duncan's only political challenge ahead is the national economy. If we are really entering a recovery, Duncan is in the same position he was in 1994, when the country was emerging from the 1990 recession. Should things turn south, however, it's worth noting that Duncan has never led during bad economic times.

The county still faces a structural deficit, poor job numbers and traffic gridlock.

In regards to the last two, Duncan might offer a slight improvement over Leggett, in that Duncan has been working with a transportation group led by Richard Parsons. My impression of the group is that they recognize the need for multimodal transportation improvements, rather than the Fantasy Island approach of transit-only.  Should Parsons and Duncan be open to studying an Outer Beltway and new Potomac River crossing, the jobs and traffic picture would almost immediately improve.

Can I make one more prediction? You can almost certainly expect the concept of an elected Council President position to be put back on the table now.  That is one way frustrated politicians could create a new, fairly-powerful office for themselves to wait out the Duncan years.

How about the Republicans?

Doug Rosenfeld made the most respectable showing of a Republican executive candidate in eons in 2010. Expect him to run again.

The only other Republican who could make a solid run won't run against Duncan:  another former Rockville mayor, Larry Giammo.  And it's not clear if he's even a Republican anymore.

Connie Morella would have instant credibility as a candidate, but seems to have no interest in elected office since her gerrymandered defeat in 2002.  Another very-well-qualified Republican would be Amy Presley, but she is more likely to run for the council before executive. She currently serves on the county Planning Board, a traditional springboard to elected office.

In short, while we don't know for sure if another Duncan term would benefit the average county resident, there was little joy among Democrats who consider themselves his worthy successor after yesterday's announcement.