Gazette Endorses for State Legislature

The Gazette has published its endorsements for the state legislature and has lobbed a few surprises, especially in District 18. The districts it covers vary from edition to edition so you need to check out the online edition to get the whole county.

Here is a quick late-night rundown:

District 14: All of the incumbents were endorsed.

District 15: The general election is the real battle here as there are no primary battles in Montgomery's one marginal district.

District 16: All of the incumbents were endorsed, including Del. Marilyn Goldwater.

District 17: The Gazette encourages the reelection of Del. Kumar Barve and Del. Luis Simmons. For the third seat, they endorse Laura Farthing Berthiaume.

District 18: This district is the real shocker as neither incumbent Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez or Del. Jane Lawton was endorsed. Instead, the Gazette picked newcomers Al Carr, Dan Farrington, and James Browning. I believe that these are the only cases in which the Gazette did not endorse the incumbents who were not mentioned in the short editorial.

District 19: In the three-way senate race, the Gazette recommends Del. Carol Petzold for the open senate seat. For the House of Delegates, they suggest incumbent Del. Hank Heller as well as Roger Manno and Alec Stone.

District 20: In the County's nastiest state legislative race, the Gazette ultimately picked incumbent Sen. Ida Ruben over challenger Jamie Raskin. For the delegate slots, they endorsed incumbent Del. Sheila Hixon as well as Takoma Park Councilwoman Heather Mizeur and Lobbyist Tom Hucker.

District 39: The Gazette endorsed all four incumbents for the House of Delegates, including incumbent Del. Joan F. Stern who was not included in the district slate by her colleagues. Bet it could be awkward next session if they get their way and challenger Saqib Ali doesn't replace Stern.