By all measurements, Gov. Lawrence J Hogan Jr.’s campaign rally in Montgomery County Tuesday night was a big success – except maybe for the Robin Ficker conundrum.
This was the largest pre-election rally for a Republican candidate in the heavily Democratic county in 20 years. About 175 enthusiastic supporters turned up outside the Barking Mad Cafe in Gaithersburg to hear Hogan and the city’s mayor, Jud Ashman, a Democrat who has crossed party lines to endorse the governor’s reelection.
Hogan is making a big play for Montgomery County this year — a place where no Republican statewide candidate has cleared 40 percent of the vote since Ellen R. Sauerbrey took 41 percent in the 1994 gubernatorial election, a race that essentially ended up in a statewide tie.
“I’m telling you here tonight – if you work hard and get your friends to the polls, we’re going to win Montgomery County,” an ebullient Hogan told the crowd.
