First Candidate's Forum -- Yay. This was Productive as Well as Instructive

We had all of the candidates for Montgomery County Council, District 4, all under one roof and in front of the microphones for perhaps 75 or so people. The meeting was sponsored by the Aspen Hill Civic Association, Inc,. as well as the Republican Club of Leisure World, Men's Republican Club, Young Democrats, etc. As this meeting was held in the downstairs meeting room of the Aspen Hill Library, the room was pretty well packed with standing room only.

The various candidates held forth on their views, and I must admit that despite most of the people having rather different focuses and coming from different places, everyone had at least one or two points with which I could agree. Not too many had any points with which I totally disagreed, and I don't think that too many could have had significant disagreements with my own points. Of course, convincing the other candidates to vote for you isn't the real point. You have to convince the voters that it is you who will best represent them, and that it is you -- and not the other candidates -- who will have not only the best intentions but the greatest capacity to deliver the goods. In the case of Montgomery voters, "the goods" consists of a dizzying array of taxpayer funded programs and initiatives. I personally intend to focus mostly on "core competencies" such as delivery of effective public safety (law-enforcement and fire-rescue) and efficient and effective public education.

Aside from Nancy Navarro, a common thread from almost all of the candidates was how to make do with declining tax revenues. My fellow Republicans and myself all took the tack that efficiency was good and that increasing taxes was not good, and even the Democrat candidates -- most of them -- were well aware of the financial crisis unfolding around us, and how that was likely to impact County revenues.

All in all, this was a productive meeting, and informative as we all got a fairly good idea of what were each others' positions on a variety of matters.

Coming as soon as possible, a better summary of what we heard -- if I can manage to sort out my notes and maintain my recollections -- and some links to the websites of my fellow candidates.