Elrich facing final two years in office after term-limit referendum passes

County charter will be amended to limit county executive to two terms

November 6, 2024 5:55 a.m.

This story, originally posted at 12:55 a.m. Nov. 6, 2024, was updated at 9:05 a.m. to include the most recent election results.

County Executive Marc Elrich (D) is facing his final two years in office after voters passed a term-limit referendum Tuesday that will amend the county charter to restrict the county executive to serving two terms.

An initiative resulting in the referendum was sponsored by the Committee For Better Government, which is led by Reardon Sullivan, a former Montgomery County Republican party chair and unsuccessful 2022 GOP county executive nominee. The committee gathered enough valid signatures earlier this fall to have the referendum placed on the ballot, despite criticism from the county’s Charter Review Commission.

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The referendum will amend the county charter to limit a county executive to serving two consecutive terms instead of three consecutive terms. That limit, which also applies to County Councilmembers, was approved by voters in 2018. Elrich is currently serving the second year of his second four-year term.

Nearly 68% of county voters cast a ballot in support of the referendum, according to results posted by the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Elrich said he was disappointed by the results when he spoke to MoCo360 at the watch party for Democratic Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks in College Park on Tuesday evening.

“You’ve got Republicans who couldn’t beat me one on one, the developers couldn’t beat me one on one. They faced an election in two years. The best strategy was to try to use term limits to knock me out,” Elrich said. “They didn’t tell people that the executive already had term limits … they’re smart enough to lie and misrepresent the truth, because that’s where Republicans stand.”

Sullivan praised the results in an email to MoCo360 Tuesday evening. 

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“The political elites in Montgomery County lost despite big name endorsements, stealing our signs, manipulating the Charter Review Commission, and lying about the drivers of the petition,” Sullivan wrote. “The voters know authenticity and good governance when they see it.”

While the initiative was originally posed by Sullivan as nonpartisan despite his prominent Republican connections, the race was increasingly politicized in the days leading up to the general election.

The Montgomery County Republican Central Committee voted to endorse the referendum, while the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee lent its name to a movement against the proposed charter change. Several signs placed at polling places urging residents to vote against the initiative bore the name of the Democratic party.

In the weeks preceding Election Day,  the movement opposing the referendum gained momentum, with U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Dist. 8), former County Executive Ike Leggett, four state senators and 14 state delegates who represent the county encouraging constituents to “vote no” when they cast their ballots, according to the “Against Question A” political action committee website.

Meanwhile, those supporting the referendum, including a political action committee backed by real estate developers and businesses, raised 30 times as much money, collecting more than $66,000 compared to the $2,300 received by the opposition, according to state campaign finance data.

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Nine of the 11 members of the entirely Democratic Montgomery County Council were among the opposition, urging voters to select “no,” according to the Against Question A committee’s website. Council President Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) and Councilmember Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7) did not publicly take a position.

Several unions also recommended a “no” vote, including the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 26, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 500, the Municipal & County Government Employees Organization (MCGEO) Local 1994, and the Montgomery County Education Association, the local teachers union.

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