Two key roles in Joe Biden’s presidential administration will be held by Montgomery County residents, and others living in the area have been mentioned as possibilities.
After Biden, the president-elect, named Ronald Klain of Chevy Chase as his chief of staff, he picked Jen O’Malley Dillon, also of Chevy Chase, as deputy chief of staff.
Klain was Biden’s chief of staff as vice president. He most recently served as senior advisor to Biden for the presidential campaign. Before working on Biden’s campaign, he was executive vice president and general counsel of Revolution LLC.
O’Malley Dillon was Biden’s campaign manager during his presidential campaign — the first female campaign manager for a successful Democratic presidential campaign.
Michèle Flournoy of Bethesda is considered a strong contender to be the first woman to be defense secretary. Flournoy held key Pentagon roles during the Clinton and Obama administrations.
Sarah Bloom Raskin of Takoma Park, a former deputy treasury secretary, has been mentioned as a possibility for treasury secretary. Bloom Raskin — whose husband, Jamie, is Maryland’s Congressman for the 8th District — is a former member of the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors.
O’Malley Dillon was a founding partner at the communications and data firm Precision Strategies and was campaign manager for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign before joining Biden’s campaign in March.
She also formerly worked as deputy campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, executive director of the Democratic National Committee, and battleground states director of Obama’s 2008 campaign.
— Briana Adhikusuma
Delegate wants lower speed limit in parts of Montgomery County
State Del. David Moon, a Takoma Park Democrat, says he plans to reintroduce legislation in the upcoming General Assembly session to give Montgomery County more authority over speed limits.
The bill is sponsored by the Montgomery County Delegation and would give the county the authority to lower the speed limit to 15 mph for highways in urban districts without requiring an engineering and traffic study.
The county would also have the authority to lower the speed limit to 15 mph outside an urban district after performing an engineering and traffic study, according to the bill.
Moon posted a link to the bill on Twitter Friday in response to news of a fatal pedestrian crash in North Bethesda, the 14th fatal pedestrian crash of the year.
“Too many MoCo pedestrians are getting killed by drivers, so I’m reintroducing legislation to give MoCo more power over speed limits to create safer roads. These are preventable deaths,” he wrote.
The bill is scheduled to be discussed during a meeting of the delegation on Dec. 1.
— Dan Schere
Hogan announces $3.5M in eviction prevention grants for Montgomery
Of $19.3 million in evictions prevention grants being distributed by the state, Montgomery County will be receiving roughly $3.5 million.
Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday morning announced the rental relief funding for 17 jurisdictions, which is expected to aid more than 3,600 households.
The state’s March 16 moratorium on evictions is still in effect during the state of emergency. It protects residents from being evicted if they can demonstrate that they were not able to pay their rent because of impacts from the pandemic.
— Briana Adhikusuma
