In a race with many choices, only one candidate has been fighting for your neighborhood every day for more than a decade.
Robert Dyer hasn't just appeared in an election year to ask for your vote - he's been earning it.
During the biggest battles that pitted you and your neighbors against the County Council and Planning Board - Westbard, the Moses Cemetery, the MCPS bus depot, the Rockville Pike Plan, keeping Damascus rural - the other candidates were nowhere to be found. Robert Dyer was there - testifying on your behalf as a citizen, marching alongside you in protests, and reporting the real story as a hyperlocal news pioneer and founder of Suburban News Network.
Before you vote on Election Day, ask yourself, "Where were the other candidates when it mattered most? If they really care about you and your community, why weren't they there on the ground, fighting the real threats to our quality of life?"
Voters overwhelmingly voted for change by approving term limits in 2016 - but we have to finish the job by voting for a true change candidate, not the next batch of minions of the local political machine that created the mess we're in. This election isn't about who has the most dirty money and endorsements from the MoCo political cartel. It's about who has demonstrated leadership through action.
Montgomery County hasn't attracted a single major corporate headquarters in two decades. New studies show that Montgomery County has created the fewest new jobs, and has the lowest growth rate for new businesses, in the D.C. region. If our County's debt was a department, it would be the third-largest department in the government.
The County Council raised your taxes to record heights, but still ran up a $120000000 deficit. Many residents have found their property tax has literally become a second mortgage.
Last year, Montgomery County's murder rate went up 31%, while the MCPS graduation rate declined. The MCPS achievement gap only got worse, and we learned of major student safety and security problems in our schools.
According to a Montgomery County Police Department memo, incidents of rape are up 53% over 2017, and violent gang-related crimes are up 72%.
The County Council has struggled to deliver basic services, while wasting time on issues like vending machine snacks and banning circus animals. Two residents died in a preventable 911 outage, and seven more in an explosion in a building with over 1600 code violations. The County didn't even collect the trash for weeks in large parts of Bethesda and Silver Spring in 2016.
The Council defends an archaic government monopoly on liquor sales that won't let you buy beer or wine at the grocery store, and is driving restaurants and bars out of the County at record rates.
Councilmembers have tuned-out your concerns about traffic congestion, school overcrowding and the impact of their urbanization plans on existing suburban neighborhoods. Council and Planning Board hearings end with citizens screaming at the officials who are supposed to represent our interests. For the first time in history, residents have taken to the streets to march in protest against the Council and Planning Board.
Despite traffic congestion that is worse than ever, the Council spent the last four years canceling the very infrastructure projects that would relieve it, like the M-83 Highway, Montrose Parkway East and the Georgia Avenue-Norbeck Road interchange. While Virginia builds Express Lanes and steals our jobs, Montgomery County "leaders" are fighting Gov. Larry Hogan's Express Lanes plan.
With revenue shrinking and funds in short supply, we need a fiscally-responsible, high-wage-job-creating Councilmember who can get the most bang for the infrastructure and job creation buck. A Councilmember who will give equal priority to the needs of our long-neglected Upcounty and East County. And with the next Council voting on sector plans for Aspen Hill, Forest Glen, Gaithersburg East and Germantown, we need a Councilman who actually represents the interests and concerns of residents.
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The 2018 election will literally decide the future of your neighborhood and quality of life. Vote for the man who will ask the questions you would ask, who believes what you believe, who will fight the County machine because he's been fighting it for years -
- Vote for Robert Dyer
"I am honored to have the endorsement of Keep Damascus Rural, a grassroots organization of Damascus residents fighting to preserve the rural, small-town character of Damascus. It's an endorsement by actual residents, as opposed to the political machine endorsements that control too much of our politics in Montgomery County. I'm the only candidate in the At-Large race to earn KDR's endorsement.
It's the suburban and rural character of Montgomery County that makes it a great place to live and raise a family. My opponents want to change that. With your support, I will stop them. Elect me, and you will finally have a voice on the Council representing your interests on land-use decisions, not the developers'."
- Robert Dyer
Authority: Friends of Robert F. Dyer, D. Dyer, Treas.