Welcome the Mayor and Council for 2019-2023
Congratulations to Bridget Donnell Newton, Monique Ashton, Beryl L. Feinberg, David Myles and Mark Pierzchala, who were elected as Rockville’s Mayor and Council for 2019-2023. Ashton and Myles will bring new perspectives to the Council, both being under 50 years old and people of color.
Just as important is the tremendous turnout for the election. A total of 12,213 ballots were cast in this election, versus 6,468 cast in 2015. The number of votes cast increased by 88.82% between 2015 and 2019. It validates the efforts by the Mayor and Council and the Board of Supervisors of Elections (BOSE) to increase turnout and reverse the downward trend of previous elections by adopting vote-by-mail. Although used in many other states, this is the first time this type of voting has been adopted in Maryland, so I’m sure many other jurisdictions will be asking Rockville for more information. A big thanks to BOSE, the City Clerk’s office, and the city’s Communications department for planning and executing this complex project.
An inauguration ceremony for the new Mayor and Council will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 17 at F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, 603 Edmonston Drive. The inauguration is free and open to the public.
The first meeting of the new Mayor and Council is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, November 18 at City Hall, 111 Maryland Ave.
Congratulations to Rockville’s New Mayor and Council
If you stayed up until 11:00 pm last night to watch the election returns for Rockville, you know that Bridget Newton was elected Mayor and Julie Palakovich Carr, Virginia Onley, Tom Moore, and Beryl L. Feinberg were elected to City Council. Congratulations to each of them and I wish them all much success and wisdom as they lead Rockville during the next two years.
Although Mark Pierzchala was not elected Mayor, he created Team Rockville, “to ensure that voters would have diverse choices for their next Mayor and Council” and that Rockville would have “elected officials with experience and knowledge about the issues facing the City.” Most importantly, it would “lead the City in a transparent, respectful, and inclusive manner.” With four Team Rockville candidates elected, these values will be carried into the Council chambers and hopefully create a less divisive and argumentative atmosphere than we’ve had under Phyllis Marcuccio.
So where does that leave Bridget Newton, our new Mayor? Continue reading →
Zip Code 20850 Major Source of Campaign Funding–Again
The second campaign finance reports for the Rockville Mayor and Council elections for the period October 1-27, 2013 were recently submitted and they reveal that Zip Code 20850 (includes Fallsgrove, West End, New Mark Commons, East Rockville, Lincoln Park, College Gardens, King Farm) still dominates the contributions and even increased their giving by 5 percent compared to September. The other Rockville Zip Codes fell far in the distance at 10 percent for 20854 (Horizon Hill, Fallsmead, Potomac Woods); 6 percent for 20851 (Twinbrook); and 5 percent for 20852 (Hungerford, Montrose, North Farm). For the entire election season, 20850 is tops at 63 percent, contributions outside the city come in at 21 percent, and the other three Zips stand at about 5 percent. Again, that roughly mimics the voting records for those regions and perhaps how much they Continue reading →
Zip Code 20850 Dominates Rockville Campaign
The first campaign finance reports for the Rockville Mayor and Council elections for the period ending September30, 2013 were recently submitted and they reveal that Zip Code 20850 (includes Fallsgrove, West End, New Mark Commons, East Rockville, Lincoln Park, College Gardens, King Farm) provides more than 60 percent of the funds, with other Rockville Zip Codes 20851 (Twinbrook), 20852 (Hungerford, Montrose, North Farm), and 20854 (Horizon Hill, Fallsmead, Potomac Woods) falling far in the distance with an average of 5 percent. That roughly mimics the voting records for those regions and perhaps how much they feel engaged with the larger Rockville community. For individual campaigns, the breakdown varies considerably and can signal how much a candidate has engaged with or is subject to influence by a particular neighborhood.
New candidates often have to rely on support from themselves, family, or friends and that’s the pattern seen with Hadley, Palakovich Carr, and Whittaker. Feinberg, on the other hand, has been able to obtain more than 95 percent of her supporters within Rockville, an impressive achievement for an experienced candidate and extraordinary for a newcomer. The mayoral candidates of Newton and Pierzchala, both current councilmembers, are relying heavily on residents within 20850 and from outsiders–donors outside of Rockville exceed 25 percent for both candidates. Feinberg and Palakovich Carr have gathered the broadest representation of supporters across Rockville’s four zip codes.
The number of donors seems to fall in three groups. Newtown and Pierzchala lead with about 80 supporters each, Feinberg and Palakovich Carr in the second batch with about Continue reading →
Candidate Forum Schedule
Rockville Candidate Forum, 2011.
The election season is upon us and with it come a series of Forums hosted by various community groups around the city. Voters are welcome to attend any of the Forums, as well as meet the candidates and pick up their literature. Each Forum is different so attending one doesn’t mean you’ve seen them all. The hosting community groups are independent and nonpartisan, do not endorse candidates, choose the moderator and format, and determine the questions.
Rockville Channel 11, the City’s cable television station, will air three of the Forums live in October on cable on Rockville Channel 11 or online at www.rockvillemd.gov/rockville11. They will also make them available on the City’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/cityofrockville.
- Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. – Rockville Community Coalition at the Social Hall at Civic Center Park, 603 Edmonston Dr. (televised by Rockville Channel 11)
- Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m. – King Farm at the Saddle Ridge Community Center
- Thursday, Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. – Twinbrook Citizens Association at Twinbrook Community Recreation Center, 12920 Twinbrook Pkwy. (televised by Rockville Channel 11)
- Tuesday, Oct. 15 – West End Citizens Association, time and location tbd.
- Thursday, Oct. 17 at 5:30 p.m. – Chamber of Commerce at Montgomery County Media, 7548 Standish Place. Mayoral debate at 6 p.m.; Council debate at 7 p.m.
- Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 7:00 p.m. – League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, Maryland at Thomas Farm Community Recreation Center, 700 Fallsgrove Dr. (televised by Rockville Channel 11)
- Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 1:00 p.m. – Senior Forum at the Senior Center in the Woodley Gardens neighborhood.
This is the best information I have available and is subject to change. Please confirm with the hosting organization for last minute changes (the televised Forums are confirmed because of the equipment required; the others are less certain). If you are aware of changes or corrections, you’re welcome to post them in the comments below.
City of Rockville elections are held every two years, at which time the mayor and four council seats are up for election. There are two candidates running for Mayor and six candidates running for four Council seats. The November 5 ballot will also include three advisory questions on changes to the election cycle, council seats, and council terms.
Candidates for Mayor:
- Bridget Newton
- Mark Pierzchala
Candidates for Council:
- Beryl L. Feinberg
- Don Hadley
- Tom Moore
- Virginia Onley
- Julie Palakovich Carr
- Claire Marcuccio Whitaker
8 Candidates for Rockville City Council in 2013
Although the signatures still need to be certified, Claire Whitaker and Don Hadley submitted their petitions for candidacy for Rockville City Council by the filing deadline last Friday, September 6. Let’s assume their petitions are certified, the ballot on November 5 would look like:
Mayor
- Bridget Newton
- Mark Pierzchala
Council
- Beryl L. Feinberg
- Don Hadley
- Tom Moore
- Virginia Onley
- Julie Palakovich Carr
- Claire Whitaker
That’s eight candidates, which is one or two persons fewer than previous years (there were 11 candidates on the ballot in 2011, although one withdrew before the election but his name remained). Given how late in the game the last two candidates entered the race, it does cause me to pause whether the City Council should be increased from 5 to 7 persons, a question that also comes on November’s ballot.
Residency of Rockville City Council candidates, 2013.
I’ll be exploring various aspects of the election in the next two months, but one that’s quite obvious is that four of the eight candidates are from the West End neighborhood, indeed two live so close to each other they could hit each other’s homes with a baseball. The map shows the location of each candidate’s homes (click the map to enlarge: mayoral candidates in blue, council candidates in red). It also means that four of the five seats on the City Council could be captured by the West End, which has been one of the most politically vocal and active neighborhoods in Rockville. But it’s also been one of the city’s most divided neighborhoods with strong feelings on both sides (perhaps you heard about the rancor at their last election), so it’s unclear how these West End candidates represent this neighborhood.
Max for Rockville 