Democratic candidates for Montgomery County’s top job make pitches at forum

As the June 23 primary approaches, the five Democrats seeking to become Montgomery County executive are appearing together at numerous candidate forums – sometimes at the rate of two a day.

Wednesday was one of those days, as all five took the stage to face a few dozen residents at the Riderwood Village senior community in Silver Spring in the afternoon before meeting again at a scheduled appearance in Bethesda with the two Republicans in the race.

Part of the 90-minute forum hosted by the Riderwood Democratic Club focused on the $8 billion fiscal 2027 budget proposed for the county by outgoing County Executive Marc Elrich (D). Elrich is seeking a 6.3-cent increase in the property tax and a 0.1% income tax increase to pay for the budget, which would fully fund the county’s 160,000-student public school system, the largest in the state.

Three of the candidates for executive – Andrew Friedson, Evan Glass and Will Jawando – serve on the County Council that must decide on that budget. Elrich, who is term-limited as executive, is now running for an at-large seat on the 11-member council.

“I will not be supporting the tax increases that the county executive has proposed, but I will continue looking at the budget and finding ways to make it more efficient and finding reductions when necessary,” said Glass, an at-large councilmember.

Friedson, who repr...