A second candidate has emerged for the District 1 County Council seat that will be open in 2018.
Bethesda resident Reggie Oldak confirmed Tuesday in an interview with Bethesda Beat that she will pursue the seat being vacated by her former boss—council President Roger Berliner—who must step down from the council due to term limits.
“I spent my career advocating for women’s health and economic security at the local, state and federal levels and now I feel like I really can make a difference serving on the front lives of government,” Oldak, 66, said about her decision to run.
District 1 encompasses Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Potomac, but also stretches north along the Potomac River to the Frederick County line. The district seat is one of four that will be open due to term limits—three at-large seats will also be up for grabs because Nancy Floreen, Marc Elrich and George Leventhal must step down. County Executive Ike Leggett is also term limited in 2018, creating a race for the county leadership post that’s likely to attract more than six candidates, including Leventhal, Elrich and Berliner.
Oldak, a Democrat, started her career as a tax lawyer for the IRS after receiving her law degree from Georgetown University and later worked in private practice while also serving on the women’s advocacy coalition the Maryland Legislative Agenda for Women. She ran a last-minute 10-week campaign for state delegate in District 16 in 2006, but finished in fourth place—about 2,000 votes short for one of the three delegate seats in the district.
Berliner hired Oldak as his chief of staff when he was first elected to the council in 2006 and she worked in that role until 2008, when she was hired as the director of government relations at the National Women’s Law Center. She left the law center last year to work for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Senate campaign of then-U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen.
“I’ve spent a lot of my career on the kind of issues they deal with at the state and national level—equal pay, emergency contraception, health care… . Now I’m looking to work on county-level issues, which includes the same concerns, but lets me use my tax and budget policy professional experience,” Oldak said.
She said her priorities if elected would be ensuring the county’s infrastructure can handle population growth, championing the schools, preserving the environment and taking care of the county’s children and making sure seniors are able to age in place.
Oldak said she’s considering tapping into the county’s public financing fund for her council run.
Oldak’s lone declared challenger is former Kensington Mayor Peter Fosselman, who told Bethesda Beat in February about his plans to run for the seat. However, other challengers are expected to emerge.
State Del. Al Carr (D-Kensington) and Andrew Friedson, a senior adviser to Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, have said they are considering a run for the District 1 seat or an at-large seat. Del. Jeff Waldstreicher (D-Bethesda) is also known to be considering a run and Del. Ariana Kelly (D-Bethesda) may enter the race.
Potential candidates still have plenty of time—the filing deadline for the November 2018 election isn’t until February 28, 2018, while the primary is June 26, 2018.
Oldak said she’s glad she decided early to run.
“With having done a 10-week campaign before, I really don’t want to do that again,” she said.
