Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, right, greets incoming Montgomery County Board of Education member Laura Stewart at Friday’s Committee for Montgomery breakfast in North Bethesda. Photo by Joe Andrucyk/Governor’s Office.
Like the conventions for the Maryland Association of Counties and the Maryland Municipal League, and the J. Millard Tawes Clam Bake and Crab Feast, the annual Committee for Montgomery legislative breakfast is a highly anticipated ritual in the Maryland political world.
It’s geared, of course, to the political elite of Montgomery County, Maryland’s largest jurisdiction — political, business, civic, community, nonprofit and labor leaders. But statewide officeholders and pols aspiring to higher office often make the scene, too.
The schmoozing, which takes place before and after the lengthy formal program, is of the highest grade.
Traditionally, the breakfast is held in mid-December, three weeks before the start of the General Assembly session, with the battle lines for the 90-day legislative session already taking shape. But this year, due to a change in the availability of the big ballroom at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, the breakfast took place Friday, three weeks earlier than usual — even though the weather outside seemed more like mid-December.
A big group turned out, anyway — at least 700 people.
“I am so excited to be here, because this is the signature event of the year, is it not?” said Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D), a former Montgomery County state lawmaker, who went on to wish the crowd a Happy Thanksgiving.
“I know the event is a little early this year,” she said. “Looks like that was a good decision to be made, because this room is filled with people who care about the direction of the state of Maryland and Montgomery County.”
The Committee for Montgomery was formed 36 years ago, to serve as a counterpoint to the Greater Baltimore Committee, a business group whose influence has waxed and waned through the years but is often perceived as a political powerhouse. The Committee for Montgomery, in its own words, “is a coalition of leaders representing a broad cross-section of Montgomery County.”
Over the years, the organization has evolved to the point where it mostly exists to organize the annual breakfast, which attracts a gold-plated list of sponsors and spotlights the county’s priorities for the legislative year.
Because this year’s event occurred closer to Election Day than to the Jan. 8 kickoff of the Annapolis session, many of the speeches dealt more with the implications to the county and state of former President Donald Trump’s reelection than they did to the coming work of the General Assembly. On top of that, Montgomery voters’ decision to embrace a two-term limit for the county executive has jumpstarted the race to replace County Executive Marc Elrich (D), with all of the known potential successors present and glad-handing energetically.
In ways that befitted their personalities and priorities, a raft of political leaders — Elrich, Gov. Wes Moore (D), U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D), U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) and Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson (D) — emphasized the federal government’s importance on the state and local economy and mindset, and vowed to be a bulwark against whatever may come from the Trump administration, especially when it comes to protecting federal workers.
Some leavened their speeches with quotes from Frederick Douglass or Tom Paine or Bruce Springsteen, and all talked in starkly partisan ways about the necessity of working together to counter Trump and his Republican allies.
“I know the power of the people in this room and I know the power of the people they’ve elected,” Moore said.
Elrich taunted “the orange man,” and said the county can still chart its own course regardless of who sits in the White House.
“Nothing they do is going to change who we are,” he said. “What [Trump] says in Washington doesn’t matter.”
Friedson, who, because the Committee for Montgomery breakfast was held earlier than usual, got to address the assemblage as council president for two straight years (he’ll turn the gavel over on Dec. 2), said that even anticipating obstacles from the federal government under Trump, “we can capitalize on our unrivaled strategic assets.”
“While there will be difficult days ahead,” he said, “I also believe with challenge will come an opportunity to prove our mettle in Montgomery County.”
I’m glad everyone is shaking off the shock and dumbfoundedness of the election. It’s time to put on your marching shoes.
– Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th)
The federal officials, Van Hollen and Raskin, offered sober assessments of the task ahead for Maryland and Montgomery County.
“We need to be clear-eyed about the election results and the consequences,” Van Hollen said. “We know that this Trump administration, round two, presents some clear challenges to this country and to this region in particular.”
Raskin recounted some of the recent battles with House Republicans, including over a bill that would enable the Treasury Department to label certain nonprofit organizations as terrorist groups, and said, “It’s been a long week on Capitol Hill, so it’s good to be back in MoCo in the Free State.”
“I’m glad everyone is shaking off the shock and dumbfoundedness of the election,” Raskin continued. “It’s time to put on your marching shoes.”
Even though most of the talk was dominated by the incoming Trump administration, the two-hour program did feature a 15-minute discussion with four state lawmakers about the upcoming General Assembly session. In that brief timeframe, Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D) and Dels. Marc Korman (D), Lily Qi (D) and Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D) — all from Montgomery County — tried to answer questions about transportation, education, climate change, economic development and social justice.
While he was addressing transportation funding specifically, Korman may have summed up the prevailing attitude about the upcoming session when he said, “Whatever your cup of tea is, we don’t have enough money for any of them, and that’s a huge challenge.”