Update: the primary election is tomorrow, Tuesday June 23! Get out there and vote if you haven't already. I will be voting in the morning before work.
Polls are open
7:00 AM to 8:00 PM and you can
look up your polling place here by street address.
This article today about Takoma Park development makes me question my stance on voting for Heather Mizeur and Elrich, but it strengthens my desire to vote for Hans Reimer.
So for Council that would be Reimer and Leventhal for sure. Maybe I'll also vote for Malloy since her staffer was kind enough to read and comment on this post.
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If you want to check out the historic Wheaton Rec Center building before it is demolished, take the opportunity to vote there early for the June 24 election!
Early Voting will be June 12-19, 10 AM - 8 PM at the rec center. I will vote there early to avoid having to figure out how to get to my official polling place, which is far from the metro.
Regarding County Council, 4 at-large council members are up for reelection and there are 2 new challengers for the 4 seats.
I won't be voting for Beth Daly.
She is 1 of 2 non-incumbents running and seems to be the anti-public transit/biking/walking/metro-centric
growth candidate. She is described as having views just
like Marc Elrich, which makes me wonder about him, and lives way up by Sugarloaf Mountain. How is
that area even
part of the same county as Wheaton? The area is much too large and I
don't think someone who lives up there really identifies with the
urbanites of Wheaton. She obviously doesn't share my values according
to her answers on this
questionnaire on transit issues.
I'm not sure about incumbent Nancy Floreen. In
this Post article, Nancy Floreen said she likes suburbia and wants to preserve
bedroom communities. I'd rather have mixed use with people walking to
places they need to be. Bedroom communities are like deserts with
nothing you want or need nearby, and recipes for car-dependent obesity
if you ask me. However, the WaPo endorses her and her Twitter feed links to some articles that I support wholeheartedly, like
this recent one on why walking in Scandinavia is so much nicer than in the US. I want to put their principles into practice. I'm also not sure about challenger Vivian Malloy. It looks like she lives in Olney, which is a pretty non-urban place, so I'm leaning against voting for her. The WaPo article didn't mention her at all for some reason.
The other 3 candidates look fine... I like Hans Reimer because he focuses on young people, bicycling and
walking-friendly communities. I like George Leventhal because he wants to
bring fresh food into the schools and improve services for homeless
people (and he's advertizing
on Pandora!).
Marc Elrich lives in Takoma Park and the WaPo likes him because he is
the only current member of council who stands up to real estate
developers. I think developers need to really make a case why their new
buildings are needed to avoid wasteful development.
Regarding the MoCo state delegate race for District 18,
I have met Emily Shetty twice
so far (at Taste of Wheaton and in the Wheaton metro station). She is also the only candidate who lives in
Wheaton, so may be a good pick to get more attention to our local
issues. I also met Rick Kessler, but wasn't impressed with him overall -- he gave off the impression of a smooth talking politician.
For governor, I'll probably for
Heather Mizeur, even though she is
an underdog. She has a good plan to lower income taxes for people who aren't super high income, plus the other two candidates have things that make me not want to vote for them. For Brown it is the horrible waste of money on the Maryland health exchanges, of which he was in charge. For Gansler it is his abuses of police power as attorney general; that stuff will just increase as a person gets more power.
Here's a flier that someone handed me June 9 outside the Silver Spring Metro Station with more info about early voting. Get out and vote!!
I would like to invite you to join the website "Nextdoor." It is like a neighborhood listserv but in website form. More like message boards for each neighborhood with nearby neighbors being able to view the boards from other areas nearby.
If your area isn't covered, you can create a neighborhood group yourself easily! 
