Andrews refuses to accept any donations from developers. He is smart, principled and big on face to face interaction with his constituents, of which I am one.
Andrews has been our county council representative since he was first elected. He campaigns on a personal level, going door to door and listening to people. He used to be the executive director of Common Cause, and is a strong proponent of public campaign financing AND a living wage.
I feel Doug Duncan was an active and effective county executive in many
ways, but is too cozy with developers.
I despise Ike Leggett from when he sat on the county alcoholic beverage control board 22 years ago. We had problems with a beer and wine store that was a huge nuisance in our neighborhood, with noise, litter, public drinking and urination, etc. The day we moved in from out of state, we discovered that a number of their customers drank, cursed and peed in our back yard. When we put up a 7-foot fence, the customers continued to drink, cursed, smashed bottles on the fence and peed on it, and I was terrified to let my kids play in our own yard. The entire area was a mess of beer cans and broken bottles. Finally in desperation I led a petition to shut the place down. The store owner hired a major criminal defense lawyer - a vicious snake who normally defends the worst murderers - to save his license and started a smear campaign against me personally, accusing me of being racist. I went to the hearing with a personal letter from the Rev. Jesse Jackson thanking me and my husband for our donations and support for his campaign for president on the Citizens Party ticket. Then I tongue-lashed that hotshot attorney so much that people were astonished -- they had never heard of anyone verbally beating this guy down. The alcohol board's vote was tied, and then Leggett decided to go along with the county's cronyism and voted against our petition. Because we had no recourse, we sold our house and moved to another neighborhood where our small children could play outside the house safely.
I also feel Leggett is a sloppy, ineffective county executive who doesn't really care about anything but appeasing the developers and the party bigwigs. It was under his watch (or rather, lack of watch) that the Gaithersburg Library -- the busiest library in the county -- was shut down for renovations more than a year before the contracts were finally awarded and the work commenced. This was because the storm drainage plans had to be re-drawn, and it took something like 14 months, during which that library could have been in use, but instead sat empty and idle. Same kind of thing, only worse, is the Silver Spring Transit Station, which remains unopened because of poor construction. Duncan would never have allowed situations like these to happen, and I strongly doubt Andrews would, either.
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Here is part of an endorsement for Andrews from Royce Hanson, Former chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board:
"I know and like all three candidates for county executive. I am supporting Phil because he, alone, brings fresh ideas and perspective to the challenges the county faces as it emerges from the Great Recession and must address a transformed economy and population. I had the opportunity to work with him during the four years I served as chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board (2006-2010). I found him to be a thoughtful, fair-minded, and effective member of the Council. He was a constant champion of community and environmental quality, and protection of the parks and Agricultural Reserve. Recently, he was an early and consistent leader in building council support for protection of Ten-Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir—our emergency water supply--from excessive development.
Phil is a strong supporter of improvements in public transit, bikeways, and pedestrian systems and an opponent of expensive and environmentally destructive roads such as the extension of Mid-County highway (M-83). He will refocus our transportation strategy on moving people and conserving energy.
He is best known for taking on entrenched pressure groups and fighting for fiscal and campaign finance reforms. Throughout his 16-years on the County Council, he has never accepted campaign donations from PACs or developers. Instead, he has relied on small individual contributions and direct, door-to-door conversations with voters."
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