Democrats Dominate Elections; Ambulance Fee Appears Headed To Defeat
Nov 2, 2010 23:34 - 1 Comment
Photo by Brad Rourke
Democratic candidates dominated the partisan races throughout Rockville precincts, with voters giving the nod to incumbents and presumptive winners in almost every case. The controversial “Ambulance Fee” measure (Montgomery County Question A) appeared destined for defeat, as the gap continued to widen as new precincts reported.
All the results are available here at the Montgomery County Board of Elections results page.
The following information reflects the state of affairs shortly before midnight, with 166 precincts having reported in Montgomery County out of the total of 254 precincts.
Governor Martin O’Malley appeared to be have trounced former governor Robert Ehrlich 60% to 37% shortly before midnight. State Senator Jennie Forehand was handily dispatching her opponent Adol Theo Owen-Williams, II 74% to 25%. And, the current District 17 of Kumar Barve, Luis Simmons, and Jim Gilchrist looked poised to retain their seats with roughly 23% each. Republican challenger Daniel Campos looked to have garnered about 11.5% of the vote, not enough to make it.
Ike Leggett looked to be heading for re-election as County Executive with 64% of the vote, and the four Democratic primary winners for the Montgomery County at-large seats — Marc Elrich, Nancy Floreen, George Leventhal, and Hans Riemer — were also heading toward victory shortly before midnight, with roughly 16% each.
In the at-large Board of Education race, Shirley Brandman was the evident winner with 62%. Judy Docca appeared to be winning District 1 with 69% of the vote, and Patricia O’Neill was winning District 3 with 67%. In District 5, Mike Durso appeared to be the winner with almost 58% of the vote.
County Question A — the “Ambulance Fee” — was highly contested and it looked as if it could go either way as midnight drew near. However, the trend as more precincts came is was leaning against. With 166 precincts reporting, the numbers were 45.57% for and 54.43% against.
“The people have spoken, so we’ll honor that,” Leggett said late Tuesday. “But the consequences of it are challenging.”
Very big of someone to honor the people. Honoring the will of the people is a two-way street. But not challenging. The county might have to cut back on the millions in pork for CostCo and LiveNation. And maybe cut back on “no questions asked” services to people who are in this country illegally.
I do understand the arguments on both sides of the issue. But I think if the County made a reasonable case that it is cutting all unnecessary costs and that an ambulance transport fee was really really necessary, there wouldn’t have been a problem with it. But there is SO much dead weight in the budget, still. What’s coming next after a fee…an insurance co-pay for the ride. Its this slowly-creeping fee structure for things we ALREADY pay for, BASIC services that are a CORE funciton of local government!
Personally, hmm…I think a better fee is for firefighting — Grab your wallet before leaving during a house fire, and make sure you have a major credit card to swipe to open the hydrant. Plus to swipe to activate the pump on the truck. And hose rental!