Former Aide Gets Even with Berliner

Two years ago, Council Member Roger Berliner parted ways with his first Chief of Staff, Reggie Oldak. But Oldak is getting the last laugh by co-sponsoring a fundraiser for none other than his opponent, Ilaya Hopkins!

Reggie Oldak is a Georgetown-educated tax lawyer and women’s rights advocate who finished a strong fourth for a District 16 Delegate seat in 2006. Right after he was elected, freshman Council Member Roger Berliner hired her as his confidential aide, or Chief of Staff. But Oldak had not given up on her political career quite yet. She wrote a guest column in the Gazette on tax policy in 2007 (which does not even mention her employment by Berliner) and ran for a Delegate appointment that same year. Berliner released Oldak in 2008. The story in Rockville was that Oldak was not well trusted to move her employer’s agenda exclusively when she may have also had her own. Oldak decided back in January not to run for Delegate again but she still remains politically active.

And she has not forgotten her old boss. Oldak has joined an all-star cast of District 1 women including former Planning Board Member Pat Baptiste, Montgomery Women activists Jenny Sue Dunner and Julie Davis and realtor Jane Fairweather to co-host a “Women for Ilaya” fundraiser tonight. See Hopkins’s email to supporters below.


This is delicious payback, of course, but there could be more. Oldak worked for Berliner for 18 months. How much does she know about him? Is there anything… of particular note?

If there is, District 1 voters may soon find out. Ilaya Hopkins will see to that!