The Nancy King – Saqib Ali District 39 Senate race was a real barn burner, but it was not the first marquee Senate race in that district. District 39 was originally located in Baltimore City, but in the wake of the 1990 Census, it became a new district in Montgomery County. It originally stretched from unincorporated Gaithersburg up to the Frederick County border and was much more rural and conservative than it is today.
The district’s inaugural Senate contest drew two formidable candidates: three-term Democratic Delegate Gene Counihan (who had represented District 15 and was redistricted) and Republican Patrick J. Hogan, an aide to Congresswoman Connie Morella. Counihan ran on a slate with three Democratic Delegate candidates, one of whom was MCEA Vice-President Charles Barkley. All four Democrats were defeated, with Counihan losing by just 8 points. But the Democrats came back and evicted all the Republican Delegates in 1998. Hogan changed his registration to Democrat in 2000, served seven more years before retiring and was replaced by Nancy King. Counihan became one of MoCo’s most respected private citizens, working with WMATA and WSSC and serving on numerous boards.
Here is Counihan’s walk piece from 1994.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Gene Counihan for Senate, 1994
Monday, July 12, 2010
Why I’m Supporting Royce Hanson for County Council in District 2
By Gene Counihan.
Some press reports of Royce Hanson’s announcement last week that he would seek the open 2nd District seat on the County Council mentioned my support for his election. Since then many friends have asked me why I am such a strong supporter of his candidacy. This Guest Column provides a great opportunity for me to answer that question.
I came to Montgomery County to live, work and raise a family in 1963. One of the first community activists I met was Royce Hanson. Because of Royce’s vision and leadership in shaping our community over the years, I have repeatedly made the decision to continue to live in Montgomery County. Since the mid-sixties, Royce Hanson has had a major hand in creating the outstanding community we live in today. Royce drafted the new County Charter that was adopted in 1968. That Charter established our current Executive-Council form of government. Royce then served from 1972 until 1981 as Chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board. During his tenure as chairman, the Agriculture Reserve Program was established and Royce became known and acclaimed nationally as the “Father” of the open space plan that has shielded 93,000 acres of land in Montgomery County from development. In addition to open space programs, Royce was the primary architect responsible for the County’s adoption of numerous planning, zoning, and growth management tools, including the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance and Central Business District zones.
Royce Hanson lived outside of Montgomery County for a number of years as he continued to build a reputation as a nationally recognized professor and visionary leader in urban planning and development. Ten years ago Royce and his wife Mary returned home to Montgomery County to resume his life-long quest to build stronger and more livable communities through active civic engagement. Before long, Royce was again serving in many community leadership posts. In addition to teaching at UMBC, Dr Hanson soon became a Trustee at Montgomery County Community Ministries and the U of MD Agro-Ecology Center and he became Chairman of the Board of the Maryland Environmental Trust. He served as co-chair of the Legacy Open Space Advisory Committee and became a Democratic Party precinct chair in Montgomery Village.
In 2006 when major development violations were discovered in Clarksburg, the County Council turned to Royce to investigate what went wrong. Because of his outstanding work and the strength of his recommendations for remedial action, the Council asked him to return to the position he left 25 years earlier, Chairman of the Planning Board. The Council knew they could count on Royce to clean up the mess and restore public confidence in the planning process and the County’s oversight of development.
During his just completed term as chairman, Royce provided leadership in filling key staff positions and refocusing the Board’s work to correct oversight deficiencies. With public confidence restored he was able to steer transformative master plan revisions of Germantown, Gaithersburg West and White Flint areas through adoption by the County Council. These bold plans will shape Montgomery County growth and quality of life for future generations.
Now, Royce wants to serve on the County Council where he will be able to work to implement the policies and plans he set in motion at the Planning Board. He remains a community activist committed to resolving our fiscal challenges in order to support quality schools, maintain clean and usable parks, and to coordinate transportation and development planning while preserving open spaces and respecting our environment.
So, you see, I’m supporting Royce Hanson’s candidacy for County Council because he has done so much to make our community the best place I know to call home. And if intelligence, integrity, vision, and experience aren’t enough, how about, I just flat out like the guy.
Royce Hanson is “good people.” Please join me in helping to elect him to the County Council.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Campus is the Wrong Place for a Hospital
By Gene Counihan.
As a former trustee of Montgomery College (1998 until September 2009) as well as a current member of the Governing Board of Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, I have followed with great interest and concern the Adventist HealthCare and Holy Cross Hospital proposals to develop a hospital in upper Montgomery County. Both institutions are longtime, responsible, and valued corporate members of our community. I am speaking out publicly now to express my conviction that locating any hospital on the Montgomery College Germantown campus property is not the right thing to do.
I come to that view independently of my affiliation with Shady Grove Hospital. I have tried to serve the interests of my fellow Montgomery County residents in many capacities over the past 45 years – 12 years as a delegate to the Maryland General Assembly, a longtime board member of Universities of Maryland at Shady Grove, founding member of the Committee for Montgomery, member and past president of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, president emeritus of Olney Theatre Center and chairman of the Montgomery Village Foundation – as well as the previously noted board service at Montgomery College and Shady Grove Hospital. My experience also includes 29 years with Montgomery County Public Schools and more than a decade in government relations with WMATA (Metro). I currently serve as Chairman of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.
All of these activities have given me a deep understanding of Montgomery County issues and how public policy is formed. I hope that they also show that I come to my views on this subject from a broad perspective and a sincere desire to promote neither the interests of Montgomery College nor of the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital but rather the interests of all who live in Montgomery County. My objections to locating a hospital on the Montgomery College Germantown property are summarized here:
1. The process that resulted in the agreement between the College and Holy Cross Hospital was initiated quietly, behind closed doors without the knowledge or participation of the College’s Board of Trustees or the community at large. The Montgomery College Foundation, the former President of the College, and the property’s developer (Foulger Pratt) privately worked out the tentative agreement with Holy Cross Hospital amongst themselves. Contrary to the way major public/private developments are undertaken in Montgomery County, other healthcare institutions, such as Adventist HealthCare, MedStar, amd Johns Hopkins, all of whom have a presence in the County, were not given the same opportunity to present competing bids and proposals for developing a hospital facility on College property in Germantown. There were no informational hearings for public comment, so no civic or other interested community members had the opportunity to express their opinions or have questions answered. The deal was simply announced after Holy Cross submitted a letter of intent to build a hospital on the campus to the Maryland Health Care Commission. This process was not in keeping with our tradition in Montgomery County of transparency and community involvement.
2. The site where the hospital is now proposed to be located (near the middle of the campus) was purchased with public funds to accommodate the future growth needs of the academic programs of the College, not for private development. The original site selected for a public/private partnership project was located on the edge of the campus along I-270. The present site should be retained to meet future college growth needs.
3. The argument that having a hospital in the center of the Germantown campus would benefit the College’s Nursing Program is weak. The College’s nursing program is located over 20 miles away on its Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus. The County and State recently invested millions of dollars in building a state-of-the-art Health Sciences Building to support health care and nursing programs on the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus.
4. The Germantown campus is not the right place for any new hospital. There is a nearly new Germantown Emergency Center located near the College campus. The center is operated by Adventist HealthCare as an adjunct to its Shady Grove Adventist Hospital emergency room. It doesn’t make sense to locate two emergency rooms almost next door to each other.
Gene Counihan, Montgomery Village, MD
Editor’s Note: Gene Counihan is a former member of the House of Delegates, a former President of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, is the former Maryland Government Relations Officer for WMATA and is the current Chair of WSSC.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
A King Sized Democracy
For political junkies, Christmas was last night. In an overcrowded 3rd story room in Kensington, the Democratic Central Committee gathered to determine who would represent Montgomery Village, unincorporated Gaithersburg, Washington Grove, and parts of Darnestown and Germantown in the State Senate.
Under state law, whenever there is a vacancy between elections the local political party of the resigning member selects a name and forwards it to the Governor. The Governor has two choices: appoint the name selected by the local county party or send it back. So last night was election night for District 39 and that duty fell to the twenty-three members of the Democratic Central Committee and not the 100,000 residents of District 39.
Having worked two Iowa Caucuses where you have a 2:1 ratio of observers to actual voters at many precincts; this was no different where almost fifty people were watching the proceedings.
Opening Remarks
Each candidate had five minutes for an opening statement. Newcomer Saqib Ali had the strongest speech. The rhetoric and style was solid and his theme was clear “now is the time to take a stand.”
Gene Counihan was next. It was the first time I laid eyes on him. Although I knew what to look for since at least three people said he looks like Santa Claus. Counihan, a former delegate who lost to the incumbent Hogan in 1994 Senate race when P.J. was still a Republican, pointed out that his experience as a legislator – twelve years – was more than the combined experience of his opponents. Since his defeat, Counihan has been a lobbyist in Annapolis. Unfortunately, he lost track of his five minutes and missed his chance to summarize his position. I was left hanging how he would reach his “big finish”.
Rounding out the opening remarks was Nancy King, who was a School Board member for eight years prior to becoming a member of the House of Delegates. She was the most causal clutching her clip board close to her chest and speaking directly to the Central Committee. She emphasized that Annapolis is about relationships and she has some very good ones with members in both chambers. She told them that education was her area of expertise and without getting on to the Senate Budget and Tax Committee she wanted to remain in the House where she is a key chair on Education matters.
After the opening remarks, I had scored it for style and rhetoric as Ali with Counihan and King a distant second and third respectively. On content, I liked Counihan combination of numbers and its impact slightly over a tie between King and Ali.
Who dances the best: The Q&As
The Q&A was a series of eight (maybe more) questions about a range of issues. Basically, it was a chance to see how well they could think on their feet. There was a question on slots, specifically why Nancy King supported them and the rest did not. King said she wanted to keep all options open. On education, all favored GCIE though no one had a specific plan of how to protect it.
On transportation, everyone talked about the key projects for upcounty, especially the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT). For me, the 800 elephant in the room was the ICC and how financing it will be a brake on almost every other major road improvement in the county (according to Ike’s comments at a Town Meeting in Olney in December 2006). Without a massive increase to the transportation trust fund you either build the ICC or you improve roads, metro, the Purple Line and the CCT. But you can’t do both under the current transportation trust fund financing. However, since no one wants to be the bearer of bad news no one mentioned it and the Central Committee passed on asking it.
Counihan could talk of how he worked to swing District 39 from being all Republican after the 1994 races to being all Democrat today. He even recruited Nancy King to the Democratic Party. King talked of how she came in first in both the general and primary while spending a mere $7800 because she is constantly in the community talking to people. Her husband mentioned how a trip to the grocery store is longer because she is always talking to residents about local concerns.
A (non-voting) youth member of the Central Committee asked about the role of youth. This was directed primarily at Nancy King, who as a Delegate, tried to take away the youth vote from the School Board. She gave a very good reason: she was part of the School Board when they were selecting a new Superintendent and there were 3 for a candidate and 3 against. One person was not present leaving the youth school board member, who had not done any of the vetting of the candidates to decide. She felt that was too much pressure to put on teenager.
Grading the Q&A, I had it very close but if you forced me to choose I would rank them Counihan then King and Ali. But it could just as easily be reversed. King was the most conservative of the three and she had to explain her positions on more issues. Ali brought abundant energy and the freshest ideas. Counihan had a nice command of the issues and the facts behind them.
Recap the voting
The Central Committee would nominate the first person to get a majority (12 votes) and failing that then drop the lowest vote getter in the second round – basically Instant Runoff Voting. In the first round, with 23 votes and 12 votes to win, Saqib Ali got 9 votes, Gene Counihan got 6 votes, Nancy King got 7 votes and one vote came back blank. Counihan was out.
For round two, again 23 votes with 12 to win, Saqib Ali got 9 votes, Nancy King got 13 votes and one vote came back blank. So it looks as though one person did not like any of them or all of them and couldn’t decide. It seems as though all of the first round Counihan votes went to King. So Nancy King is the newest Senator.
The final image I had of the night was seeing an ashen Saqib Ali. His father, who was quietly sitting in the back of the room all night, walked up to him and gathered Saqib in a warm, full embrace. Anyone would appreciate that gesture after an emotional evening. Maybe if this vote was delayed for two years, Saqib could have had more of a record to highlight. Counihan did well but he might have been a few years too late. King, like the three porridges, was just right.
More for political junkies in September
Next month the Central Committee gets to select King’s replacement for Delegate with Central Committee member Kirill Reznik, possibly Gene Counihan again and maybe former County Council candidate Hugh Bailey as the leading players. Also the Central Committee will select the replacement for Marilyn Goldwater in District 16 from a slew of candidates. That means twice as much fun for us junkies.
My wish is the Central Committee for these major events selects a room that can accommodate everyone and not pack all into such a tiny place. Still I thought the process was fair, open and transparent.
