Listen to Republican House of Delegates candidate Rose Li and you’ll hear much of the same message some Democrats used in battling it out with each other during June’s primary.
Li, a research consultant and former NIH supervisor, is attempting to become the first Republican delegate from heavily-Democratic District 16 since Connie Morella in 1986 and she’s doing so with a similarly moderate approach.
Her rallying cry during a Bethesda fundraiser on Monday night was about making Montgomery County’s delegation to Annapolis stronger in order to get more state funding for county projects such as new school construction.
Iterations of the phrase “We receive only 20 cents for every tax dollar sent to Annapolis” permeate her campaign literature. One of her closest supporters said he actually worried the message too closely mirrors that of Phil Andrews, the Democratic councilmember who lost a three-way Democratic primary for county executive.
“Our delegates can’t seem to bring home the bacon. Now when I ask people, including the Democratic County Councilmembers and other county officials, the answer is, ‘You don’t have a very strong delegation. Everybody knows, you’re just going to roll over and do whatever the leadership says,’” Li said on Monday. “The biggest antidote I think to fixing that is to get at least one Republican in office, because that gives those Democratic colleagues of mine the leverage to go back to their leaders and say, ‘Look what happens when we don’t vote in the best interests of our county. We could lose our seats.’
“And then we could start to get the resources that our county needs,” Li continued. “And I think that message resonates regardless of party. It’s about our county and the voters in our county. They’re overlooked, neglected and taken for granted because there’s no accountability.”
At least two of the three winners of the District 16 Democratic primary — incumbent Ariana Kelly and first-timer Marc Korman — appear to be taking Li’s campaign seriously and have restarted campaign fundraising efforts after a financially draining primary. Incumbent Bill Frick is expected to join the pair for an event sometime next month.
At Li’s event on Monday, held at the Positano restaurant in Woodmont Triangle, former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich said there’s no doubt Li faces an uphill battle.
“This is a really tough seat in a really tough county in a really tough state,” Ehrlich said. “We have this lady who wants to attack that and win. This is not for show. I’m not here wasting my time, I’m not here wasting your time and we’re not wasting our money.”
Li’s campaign reported $27,364 in the bank in her August report. Fellow Republican candidates John Andrews and Lynda del Castillo were both nominated by the county’s Republican Central Committee and have waived their right to raise more than $1,000 for campaign purposes.
Kelly reported $19,754 in the bank in August and recently announced her own fundraising event on Oct. 7 at Roof Bethesda, with tickets costing $100, $250, $500 and $1,000. Frick reported $34,844 in the bank in his late August report. Korman’s campaign — after spending more than $200,000 during the primary – had $3,896 remaining in August.
Li’s platform includes stopping the use of dedicated transportation funding for non-transportation expenses (another issue Democrats have been pushing), appointing Public Service Commissioners “committed to consumer-centric oversight of Pepco” and reigning in speed cameras.
John Haaga, Li’s friend and a District 16 Democrat who said he’ll be voting for her on Nov. 4, said despite the large Democratic majority in the area, the idea of voting Republican wasn’t always so strange. There were no Republicans in the county’s last delegation to Annapolis.
“I grew up in the county and there was this long tradition of ticket-spitting. My parents would vote Democrat for president and then [Republican] Gilbert Gude for Congress. It was just something you did,” Haaga said. “Nobody likes a cable company monopoly. Why is a one party political monopoly any better?”
Democratic supporter Prasad Nair said he’s supporting Li because he’s tired of what he called burdensome regulations for small businesses.
“Whether it’s as a homeowner or the permitting process for a business, intrusions are getting more and more difficult,” said Nair, who owns a Bethesda software development company. “I’ve seen the trend line is just not in the right direction. The only growth we’re seeing is in government and the reduction is in business.”
Li will need a lot more Democratic support to make a real run at a seat.
“These lines were drawn for a reason: Not to be friendly to our party or to successful people, entrepreneurs. They were drawn to reelect a permanent monopoly in this county and in this state,” Ehrlich told Li’s supporters on Monday. “Typically, we’re not able to attract the highest quality candidates in many seats. Here we have a gem.”
