Lamont McClure

This morning I was surprised when I woke up to the message from Lamont McClure that he was not going to run for re-election. Lamont's been on County Council for a decade now, winning twice in his district in tight races. He fought as a champion for the county worker, organized labor, and anyone who just wanted a decent county executive's office. McClure was good at his job on council, despite his critics, because he didn't equivocate, even when the Executive was a Democrat, and he was able to stay focused on the job at hand. I count him as a friend and one of the good guys around here. He'll be missed.

As for his seat- the change in re-districting has been characterized as making the seat bright red Republican. The seat before was Democratic by about 100-200 votes in any election, and now I'd say you can inverse that and say the seat is Republican by about that much. In other words, a very strong candidate could keep it Democratic, I just don't know who that candidate is right now. A very weak candidate could lose by more than that too, and I think there is some possibility of that. If the Republicans nominate someone with a long record already, I'd hope someone will jump into this race for the Democrats and take their best shot.