Residents of Montgomery County are gathering signatures to get a question on the November 2024 election ballot that, if passed, would limit the County Executive to only two consecutive terms in office, not the current three.
Under the current MoCo charter, a County Executive can serve three consecutive terms, which spans twelve years. This would move to restrict it to just eight, matching many jurisdictions with Executive positions as well as the presidency.
Because Montgomery County local / chair elections (elections for local county council and executive) occur every “off presidential” election year (aka mid-term years), candidates for County Executive generally navigate a lackluster voter turnout and in recent cycles, they’ve relied wholly on special interest “support” to get re-elected. This kind of “base turnout” model relying on just narrow special interest votes would likely be less successful in a heavier presidential election year but alas, that’s the current election calendar.
The current Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has been in public office in either Takoma Park or Montgomery County since the 1980s. He has been the County Executive since 2019. Montgomery County residents have experienced several tax hikes or tax hike proposals under his “rule”.
Residents seemed eager to sign up at Olney Days, a community event in Olney held each year at the end of April.
“Where do I sign up?” asked a man who explained he was “tired of how smug this current fella [Elrich] is”.
“Sign early and often” joked another attendee of the community fest, who added their name (one time of course) to the citizen petition.
More to come on this effort and others.
