Silverman Running on the Purple Line

Steve Silverman's campaign for Montgomery county executive has the dubious distinction of having replaced Virginia Sen. George "Macaca" Allen on the front page of the Washington Post today. The paper that broke Watergate has now uncovered the shocking news that Silverman has received money from developers. As "developer" is a word loathed even more than "macaca" in Montgomery County these days due to snarling traffic and development scandals, this story isn't exactly one the Silverman campaign would have drafted. Silverman's opponent, Ike Leggett, also received developer money but not nearly as much.

Silverman is working hard to distance himself from the developer taint with campaign mailings that are among the best designed I've seen this year. The first one announced "Steve Silverman's plan to limit and manage growth and protect open space." Apparently, Silverman is using all that developer money to write brochures attacking developers because this one says that Silverman will fight to make sure that "developers pay their fair share" and promises to protect the agricultural reserve while building the Purple Line. I loved Silverman's second mass mailing because I've always been a sucker for maps of the Metro system. This one contrasts Silverman staunch pro-Purple Line position with supposed waffling on the part of Leggett, who dithered on the issue in the past but now says he is a supporter.

The brochure I received from Leggett highlights his impressive biography and experience. It also promises to "slow the pace of growth by fighting the special interests that want to clog our communities" and somehow produce "safer, less congested roads through support of common sense transportation solutions that always take into account community concerns." No direct mention of the Purple Line (or other specifics) though one could read that last sentence to read that he favors a below grade, less intrusive version of the Purple Line. No wonder Chevy Chase, which borders the proposed route for the Purple Line, is a forest of Leggett signs but I haven't yet seen one for Silverman there.

I am not sure Silverman is wise to tie his campaign so closely to traffic relief and the Purple Line. First, no candidate is going to "solve" traffic. People are going to be "tired of sitting in traffic" four years from now too. If Silverman is seeking reelection in 2010, his opponents are going to have a lot of fun with that slogan from this campaign.

Second, Montgomery's major traffic bottleneck is arguably caused by people heading from the Rockville-Gaithersburg area to the Dulles corridor (and then home again in the evening). The Purple Line will do nothing about this problem since it doesn't provide a new bridge over the Potomac. New Carrollton and Prince George's are in the other direction.

Third, Silverman is tying his future to a project over which his control is limited because the bulk of the money will have to come from state and federal funds. Even a county as large as Montgomery cannot pay for more than a fraction of Purple Line construction costs. The state is already committed to spending a bundle in Montgomery to build the ICC. Both Ehrlich and O'Malley claim favor the Purple Line though Ehrlich is a recent convert. However, one suspects that building Baltimore's Red Line would take priority for these two Baltimoreans.

When I spoke with Silverman at an event, he convincingly argued that the Purple Line is more likely to be built if the County Exec is strongly behind it. Still, there is a big difference between stating "I will see that it [the Purple Line] gets built" and "I will fight to build the Purple Line." Guess which his campaign literature says? Silverman should be more careful; he could get stuck spending his weekends laying track himself if the state doesn't come through.

Fourth, speaking of Red Lines, the existing Metro system is likely to gobble up state and federal dollars. Powerful Fairfax Rep. Tom Davis has proposed to give $1.5 billion to Metro if each of the region's three juridsdictions will create a dedicated funding source for Metro. Maryland would be foolish to leave this money on the table, especially when funds are desperately needed to fix escalators and buy more cars for the Red Line. If we don't get the federal money, Metro may need the money even more.

Of course, if Montgomery cannot get money for the Purple Line, this whole debate may be moot and we should all probably vote based on other issues or even which candidate we like or trust more. In truth, despite the magnification of differences between Silverman and Leggett, these two experienced candidates differ only by degrees.