Excerpt from Endorsement

From article which first appeared Monday, September 4, 2006; Page A18.

IN THE APPROACH to primaries for the Montgomery County Council next week, the political debate has focused sharply on growth -- how much, how fast and how in the world to stop it from overwhelming the capacity of local roads. No great surprise: Many county residents are fed up with long commutes and constant crowding. But there is irony, too, in the fact that population and job growth in Montgomery is a good deal slower than in most other suburban localities in the region. Many of the consequential arguments about growth in the county are settled -- for instance, whether to build the intercounty connector between Interstates 95 and 270, which now looks like a done deal. That suggests that even council candidates peddling virulent anti-growth rhetoric would, if elected, have scant impact on changing the course of events in the county.

Certainly, growth will continue to occupy county leaders as new projects come up for approval and new transit options such as the Purple Line are polished and pushed. But in choosing candidates for the county council, we doubt that a simple growth-no growth litmus test makes sense. Better to choose candidates based on bedrock virtues of experience, sound judgment, work ethic and character.

Those are the qualities that will be needed to confront a daunting array of challenges in a county that is not so much growing as reinventing itself. As it approaches a population of 1 million, Montgomery is increasingly less white and less uniformly prosperous. By the end of the next council's term in 2010, a majority of county residents will be minorities for the first time, according to projections. The next council will have to wrestle with a shortage of affordable housing, increasing strains on social services and a disparity in resources and school quality between the eastern and western halves of the county. It will take savvy, capable officials to handle all that.

In District 2, Michael Knapp , a first-term member, has been a steady presence on the council and has accumulated expertise in the county's fire and rescue operations, whose reorganization he spearheaded.