ROCKVILLE - With less than three weeks until the 2014 general elections, candidates are making a last-minute push to appeal to voters. In the June primary, few incumbents lost their seats and many expect to be voted back into office in November.
The Democratic County Council candidates are already preparing for their tenure on the council despite one having a Republican contender. At a recent press conference Council President Craig Rice, who said he ousted the last republican to hold office in 2006 with his election to the state House of Delegates, said he doesnt expect a Republican to win in Montgomery County where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-1.
Congressional District 6 Republican candidate Dan Bongino expects to change that. At the announcement of his candidacy in 2013, Bongino told his supporters Republicans deserved a say and they will win back the four seats they lost. Bongino, a former secret service agent who has worked with three presidential administrations, ran against Ben Cardin in the 2012 senate race. He said he easily won District 6, which is heavily Republican.
Montgomery County cares about the things people in the same county care about, jobs, education, and these things are no different. Were the only campaign that is talking about real solutions for job growth, the out of control tax rate, giving people control of their healthcare system back and weve been the only campaign to put out real solutions for that. We havent had any problems in Montgomery County, Bongino said.
Bonginos platform includes a stay on tax rates, Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) reform and a change to the rain tax.
How did we lose the argument that we were the genuine legitimate party for Americans middle class? The Republican party forgot the working class a long time ago. I was a grave digger, my father a plumber, my brother an electrician and I only became a secret service agent later on. How we became the party of rich oil barons is beyond me. When the liberals win in Maryland, like they always do, everybody loses; when we win, the liberals lose nothing. When the liberals win, more money comes out of your pocket and you lose control of your healthcare, and you cant pick where your kids go to school thats why people leave the most beautiful state in the union. What happens when we win? When we win, we take nothing from them. Their wallets get fatter and their businesses grow, they get their own healthcare back and they get to pick where their kids go to school. Nobody loses. Bongino said.
Neither Bongino nor his opponent incumbent John Delaney live in District 6. Bongino lives in District 2s Severna Park and Delaney lives in District 8s Potomac. Less than a million people live in District 6, many of them in Montgomery County. The district includes Potomac, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Poolesville, Clarksburg, Frederick and all of Washington, Allegany and Garrett counties. Republicans outnumber Democrats 2-1 in Frederick, Washington and Allegany counties.
Bongino said he is running a grass-roots campaign which includes phone calls, knocking on 20,000 doors 6,000 of which Bongino said he knocked on personally and attending community events.