For much of its 30-year long history, the Purple Line – now envisioned as a $2.45 billion, 16-mile light rail system – has been a topic of unrelenting controversy between proponents and opponents in Montgomery County. Of late, however, the project also has become a political football with statewide implications, thanks to the increasingly competitive race for governor between Democrat Anthony Brown and Republican Larry Hogan.
In an event Thursday organized by the Brown campaign, leading Brown supporters from both Montgomery and neighboring Prince George’s counties – led by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett — held a noon press conference/rally in Silver Spring, to charge that Hogan’s election could spell doom for the Purple Line. “Look around you,” Leggett implored, pointing to the redevelopment surrounding downtown Veterans Plaza. “And now, [when] we are on the verge of moving forward with the next real phase in this development with the Purple Line, we have someone who steps in, without any consultation, without any alternate plan…simply to say ‘I’m going to undo all of that.’.”
@VoteIkeLeggett, @melcouncil9 & @RicePolitics hold press conf challenging @Hogan4Governor's opposition to Purple Line pic.twitter.com/RZJs6y5VDB
— MD Democratic Party (@mddems) October 16, 2014
The event took place in an area that has been a bastion of support for the Purple Line, and that is also home to significant numbers of the county’s increasing minority population. With Brown vying to become Maryland’s first African-American governor, voter turnout in majority-minority Montgomery County, the state’s largest jurisdiction, could be key to the outcome on Nov. 4.
The Hogan campaign responded with a press release noting Brown’s absence from Thursday’s event, gibing that “the increasingly invisible Lt. Governor missed a press conference with more popular local leaders.” But Brown was in Silver Spring a week ago for a Purple Line rally, when he took a shot at what he called Hogan’s “campaign conversion” on the Purple Line. It was an allusion to recent statements by Hogan in which the latter appeared to soften his rhetoric on the project. Hogan is also investing significant effort in Montgomery, hoping to outdo the showings of other recent Republican gubernatorial contenders despite the county’s heavily Democratic tilt.
If some Democratic activists privately share the Hogan campaign’s complaint that Brown has waged a general election candidacy that has been barely visible at times, the Hogan effort – for its part –has tended to be opaque when it comes to discussing anything but its signature issue: improving the state’s business climate with the assistance of largely unspecified tax cuts. In recent weeks, campaign officials have declined to make Hogan available for an interview on the Purple Line and other transportation issues of key interest to Montgomery County, despite repeated requests from Bethesda Beat and the “MoCo Politics” blog.
But a timeline of Hogan’s public statements to date on the Purple Line, culled from published accounts and press releases issued by his campaign, indicate he has zigged and zagged on the issue, even if he may have stopped short of the flip-flop alleged by Brown.
March 26, 2014—In a pre-primary debate among the contenders for the GOP gubernatorial nod, held in Rockville and sponsored by the Chevy Chase Women’s Republican Club, Hogan joined Harford County Executive David Craig and conservative activist Charles Lollar in agreeing that plans to build the Purple Line should be cancelled, according to a Baltimore Sun report.
Sept. 17, 2014—In a story outlining Brown’s and Hogan’s stances on statewide transportation issues, the Sun wrote: “Larry Hogan has ice in his voice as he vows to block construction of Baltimore's Red Line and the Purple Line in the Washington suburbs. The GOP candidate sees the mass transit projects as expensive boondoggles that would use money that should be spent on fixing roads.” The story goes on to quote Hogan as saying, “We're going to focus on building roads, and that's something this administration has not done.” Such statements were fodder for criticism at Thursday’s rally, with County Councilmember Hans Riemer suggesting Hogan has a bias against the investment in mass transit infrastructure on which current county leadership is heavily relying to address future transportation needs.
Sept. 20, 2014—In a press release issued by his campaign, Hogan declared, “I’m opposed to the Purple Line—it’s too expensive, ridership is too speculative, and it diverts funds from needed repairs to roads and highways.”
Sept. 24, 2014—In a brief encounter with this reporter following a symposium in Bethesda on county real estate issues, Hogan said the Sun article a week earlier had overstated his opposition to the Purple Line. While saying he would delay construction of the Purple Line until the state’s finances are “straightened out,” Hogan indicated he would allow planning and design activity related to the Purple Line to proceed. (A subsequent request to the Hogan campaign for a more extensive interview on the Purple Line and other county transportation issues was rejected by a campaign spokeswoman, who contended Hogan was “completely booked up with debate prep and events every day until the election” and not available for such an interview.)
Oct. 8, 2014—In an appearance on Baltimore’s WBAL radio, Hogan declared, “I’m not really opposed to the Red Line or the Purple Line and both of them I think are worth considering and I’m not even opposed to continuing along the planning and engineering phases, but quite frankly, you know, we’ve robbed a billion dollars out of the Transportation Trust Fund,” according to an account in the Sun. Hogan’s charge that the trust fund was “robbed” has been disputed by state officials, who say the money to which he is referring – allocated to local jurisdictions for road repair and maintenance – was cut due to strained state finances at the height of the recession.
Oct. 16, 2014—In a press release following Thursday’s pro-Brown rally in Silver Spring, the Hogan campaign reverted to strong criticism of the Purple Line, pointing out that the cost of the project has doubled. (Today’s $2.5 billion price tag compares to a $1.2 billion estimate when then-Gov. Parris Glendening first proposed the current Purple Line light rail system in 2001; state officials note the length of the route and the number of stations have increased over the intervening 13 years.)
In a “fact sheet” attached to the Hogan press release, his campaign charged the Purple Line “makes no sense as transportation policy,” while declaring, “Alternative clean fuel buses would be a far less expensive, more environmentally responsible, and more adaptable means of transporting persons around the inner Washington suburbs.” Hogan appears to be reflecting the position of the last Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich – in whose administration he served. Ehrlich pushed for a bus rapid transit system over light rail.
The fact sheet also termed the Purple Line “an environmental disaster,” echoing criticisms voiced by residents in the Chevy Chase area along the western end of the proposed route.
“The Purple Line would tear through numerous neighborhoods and destroy one of the most prized features of lower Montgomery County, the Capital Crescent Trail,” the fact sheet declared. “What now is a pristine linear park very heavily used for hiking and biking would be torn up.”
Whether Hogan can pick up support in predominantly Democratic pockets of opposition to the current route – or at least dampen turnout within them on Election Day – remains to be seen. In the meantime, at Thursday’s Silver Spring rally, there were efforts clearly aimed at energizing minority voters through suggestions that Hogan is blocking opportunity for them.
Hogan “is standing in the way of many of our minority communities that are looking to the Purple Line as a spur of economic development and jobs, to right some of the challenges we face when it comes to opportunities for all,” charged Montgomery County President Craig Rice, who, like Brown, is African-American.
