The Primary Election for Montgomery County is Tuesday, June 24.
If you want some choice in who will represent you on County Council, as County Executive, in the Maryland General Assembly, now is the time to engage. If you think it doesn’t matter much, these are the people who make land use decisions, decide what to do with county property, who set tax rates, who decide how much money will go to schools, who control services that affect traffic and many other things that affect quality of life more than anything that happens at a national level.
State Delegates and Senators
Potomac is split between District 15 and 16. (See map on page 2.) Each resident is represented by one state senator and three state delegates from their district. District 16 includes Bethesda, Chevy Chase and parts of Potomac. District 15 includes parts of Potomac and the upcounty.
Longtime Sen. Brian Frosh (D-16) is running for Attorney General, and Del. Susan Lee (D-16) is running against Hugh Hill and J'aime Drayton in the Democratic primary. (J'aime Drayton did not respond to multiple requests for information.)
There are seven candidates vying for the three delegate seats in District 16.
In District 15, former delegate now State Sen. Brian Feldman is unopposed in the primary and will face Robin Ficker (R) in November.
Four candidates are seeking the three seats for Delegate in District 15.
Important Dates
- June 12-19: early voting starts on the Thursday, June 12 and runs for eight days through the Thursday before the election. Montgomery County offers nine early voting centers. Voting hours each day at all locations will be from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The closest site to Potomac is at the Executive Office Building, 101 Monroe Street, Rockville, MD 20850.
- June 24, Election Day, voting places open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Hugh Hill
Hugh Hill is a physician, attorney, and professional educator with extensive experience with civic organizations and activism in Montgomery County, as well as experience at the Federal level in policy and law making.
After med school in Richmond and a JD from the University of Virginia, Hugh and his wife Sandy moved to Montgomery County in 1979. He is an emergency physician, has served in 10 ERs in our state, including Suburban and the National Naval Medical Center where he was the first civilian director.
For the Feds, Hugh worked in DOD at the AFIP. After working in the first Clinton campaign, he was co-chair of a panel helping to craft “Hillary Care” and later served in HHS in policy positions for Medicare, including coverage and fraud-fighting. He currently teaches Emergency Medicine at Hopkins.
Dr. Hill has been deeply involved in the life of our county and is a recognized health activist. For 20 years, Hugh served as a volunteer physician for Mobile Medical Care, our county’s oldest and largest clinic for the most needy, was on the board, and became president. Hugh is currently on the Board of the International Psychotherapy Institute. He was the medical director for Montgomery Hospice and the first chair of the Montgomery Cares Advisory Board.
Why my candidacy matters: This election should not be about whose turn it is or who is entitled to the seat. When Sandy and I moved our family here, Montgomery was always on every top 10 list of counties to live in — but no more. We had a net loss of jobs last year. The state continues to treat us as their ATM. 17 percent of our school budget comes from the state versus 43-35 percent for other jurisdictions. We get back less than 20 cents on our state tax dollars. Yes, we are fortunate and will always be a “donor” county, but the discrepancies are too great!
Our delegation to Annapolis has not been effective. We need new vigorous representation that will use our political clout to return Montgomery County to its primacy as the economic engine of the state. We have the largest delegation, but we punch below our weight. A healthy productive Montgomery is good for all of Maryland. We won’t need more taxes when our senators and delegates use the power and influence we should have.
New leadership is required to make changes. We are a fortunate community, but we can do better. We must do better to arrest the trends dimming our — and thus our state’s — future.
Education: We can do better at every level. Universal pre-K yields a return on investment at an incredible ratio. We have to do this now. Montgomery County is adding enough students every year to fill a high school and our children are being taught in trailers. We can’t keep up. The state has to be made to realize its responsibilities here. With more community college classes for qualified high school students, we can decompress and reduce college costs for those families. We need testing, but the tests have to track the curriculum, not control it, and schools should be scored, not individual teachers. Scores have to be risk adjusted, for schools with more at-risk children.
Health: We need a health-care professional in the Senate to get us out of the ACC exchange mess we are in. Health care for all Marylanders will generate an attractive productive reliable work force and enhance all our lives. As an emergency physician, I have seen the costs in lives, to families, and in productivity of untreated disease and injury. It’s societal malpractice not to prevent these disasters, when that cost is less than what it costs us after it’s too late.
Support for working families: Too often, a family member wants to work, add to our productivity and pay taxes, but has to stay at home to help. Programs to support quality reliable child care, disabled adults, and seniors who can age in place with help can pay for themselves. We can do so much more for our elders, who are a resource for our community and a blessing for their families and all of us.
We need maker centers, not just incubators to promote innovation and green job growth. We should incentivize not just new businesses, but the opening of new lines by existing businesses. We are nearly choking the life out of small business with our traffic congestion and all of us want transportation addressed, and absolutely with the involvement of the local areas most effective.
I’ve been taking care of Marylanders one at a time for three decades; now I’m ready to do more.
Respectfully, I ask for your support and your vote.
Hugh Hill
www.hughhill.org
Susan C. Lee
Susan Lee, a respected civil rights attorney, was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2002. Lee serves as a Deputy Majority Whip, House Judiciary Committee member, chair of the Family Law Subcommittee, vice chair of the Montgomery County House Delegation, President Emeritus of the Women’s Legislative Caucus, co chair of the Maryland Commission on Cyber Security, Innovation and Excellence, co chair of the Task Force to Study Identity Theft, and co chair of the Nanobiotechnology Task Force.
Susan Lee, the daughter of a World War II U.S. Navy veteran and retired Washington Post artist, attended Leland Jr. High School, Herbert Hoover Jr. High School, and Winston Churchill High School. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park and University of San Francisco School of Law. Susan was a member of the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board, Jewish Foundation for Group Homes Board, Montgomery County Gang Task Force, and Progressive Maryland Board and co-chair of the NAACP Multicultural Community Partnership. She was appointed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Advisory Board during the Clinton Administration.
In the Maryland General Assembly, Lee has helped pass significant laws to advance excellence in education, a clean environment and Chesapeake Bay, the life sciences, cyber, IT and emerging technologies, public safety, mass transit, transportation, smart growth, and other measures to uplift and improve the quality of life for all Marylanders. Serving two terms as president of the Women’s Legislative Caucus, she led efforts to pass an aggressive agenda of laws to fight domestic violence, sexual assault, child and elder abuse, and human trafficking; economically empower women, children and families; reduce health care disparities; and restore funding for rape crisis centers statewide.
Lee introduced and passed Maryland’s first ever Telemedicine law to allow physicians to be reimbursed for vital health care services delivered via Telemedicine, which has a track record of saving lives, increasing health care access and early diagnosis, improving outcomes and reducing health care costs and disparities. She also helped pass the Civil Marriage Protection Act and the Fairness for All Marylanders Act. As co chair of both the Commission on Cyber Security, Innovation and Excellence and the Identity Theft Task Force, Susan has been a leader in authoring and help passing landmark laws to protect our citizens against cyber attacks that could paralyze the operations of our government, economy, infrastructures and first responders and laws to protect against the surge in medical records and health care information identity theft and other crimes committed online and on social media. She also helped pass sensible gun safety laws and authored and led efforts to pass a new law to effectively deter and fight the surge in vicious and violent home invasions by perpetrators who have targeted seniors, women, and families. As co chair of the Nanobiotechnology Task Force, Susan helped support and pass laws to advance the life sciences, IT, cyber, and emerging technologies which create life saving innovations, jobs and revenues that will enable Maryland to globally compete and sustain our future. Lee has been inducted into the Montgomery County Human Rights Hall of Fame and Daily Record’s Maryland Top 100 Women, received the Maryland Legislative Agenda for Women’s Legislative Leadership Award, Maryland NOW Leadership Award, Village of Friendship Heights Community Service Award, Charles E. Smith Communities Chairman’s Award for Commitment and Support of the Elderly Community, National Center for Children and Families’ Spirit Award for Humanitarian Leadership, Equality Maryland’s Out for Justice Award, Mothers Against Drunk Driving Merit Award, Progressive Maryland’s Progressive Leader Award and recognized by the Maryland Health Information & Management Systems Society for leadership on Healthcare Information Technology and Reform.
Del. Susan C. Lee:
Since being elected in 2002 to the Maryland House of Delegates, I have had the privilege and honor of passing significant laws that have improved and uplifted the lives of countless individuals in our state. I am now running for the District 16 State Senate seat being vacated by my colleague Sen. Brian Frosh, who is running for Maryland Attorney General and has endorsed me for this seat. I am very in tuned with the many unique issues and challenges facing Potomac and Montgomery County having grown up in this community, personally experienced those changes, and having been a proud product of the Montgomery County public schools, a civil rights attorney and community advocate. Building on those experiences and my track record of proven leadership, hard work and getting results in the Maryland General Assembly, I can continue to do even more in the Senate for the citizens in District 16, Montgomery County and Maryland.
susanleeforsenate.com
Email: susanlee4senate@gmail.com
Friends of Susan C. Lee
P.O. Box 34283
Bethesda, MD 20827