Gaithersburg readies for higher voter turnout

Seven candidates, none of them incumbents, are vying for a majority of three seats on the council.

‘‘This election has generated more media attention than usual, and I thought as a precaution we would have additional ballots on hand,” said Assistant City Manager Fred Felton when asked why more ballots were necessary. ‘‘Also, given that we have seven candidates, which is more than normal, we thought that that could increase the turnout. And finally the fact that three incumbents are not running, potentially would impact our turnout.”

The group One Gaithersburg has endorsed three candidates who it says will bring a more unifying voice to the council — Ahmed Ali, Carlos Solis and Ryan Spiegel.

The other candidates are Shawn Ali, Jud Ashman, Cathy Drzyzgula and Wilson Faris.

According to the group’s Web site, One Gaithersburg is made up of four smaller groups: the Services Employees International Union Local 500, the Montgomery County Government Employees Organization, the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans and Progressive Maryland.

Still, not everyone agrees that One Gaithersburg is playing a positive role or helping to bring all city residents together.

Kentlands resident Richard Arkin has filed a complaint with the city’s Board of Supervisors of Elections in which he states that having outside parties involved in the Gaithersburg election ‘‘poses a grave threat to our city.”

Candidate Drzyzgula, who was a member of a city task force that studied the mostly immigrant and highly emotional issue of day laborers and whether there should be an employment center for them in the city, said: ‘‘I think that Gaithersburg was divided earlier by outside groups trying to tell the city what to do, and if outside groups continue to do that, it will be divisive not uniting.”

Mayor Sidney A. Katz said Monday that he finds it ‘‘strange” that outside influences are attempting to sway” the city’s election. ‘‘I believe that at the end of the day the people who are voting in the City of Gaithersburg are going to vote for the people that they believe have the most knowledge and will do the best job for the city.”

Only 2,678 of the city’s 27,725 registered voters cast votes in city elections in 2005 — less than 10 percent — and city records show that traditionally an average of 10 to 12 percent eligible voters vast ballots in Gaithersburg elections.

A candidate must get 40 percent of the votes cast to win an election; in 2005, that meant 1,071 votes.

With seven candidates running for three seats being left open by departing incumbents, the majority of the council will be first-time council members.

Getting out the vote

With horns blasting and a megaphone blaring slogans, the One Gaithersburg candidates led a 30-car caravan through the city on Sunday to encourage voter turnout on Tuesday.

Ahmed Ali, Solis and Spiegel, dressed in dark suits, rode in the bed of a red pickup truck for nearly two hours waving to city residents.

State Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D-Dist. 17) rode with the candidates and using the megaphone, called to potential voters in English and Spanish, while Sam Rodriguez of Baltimore filmed the ride with plans to place his video on the Internet.

‘‘Unite Gaithersburg, don’t divide Gaithersburg!” cried Gutierrez, a Chevy Chase resident for more than 50 years. ‘‘Progressive candidates who will make a difference!” Other times, she called out: ‘‘Affordable housing, not boarded-up housing!” then in Spanish: ‘‘Se ve! Se siente! La gente esta presente!” or ‘‘You can see it! You can feel it! The people are here!”

Under the banner of One Gaithersburg, dozens of supporters piled into cars to join the caravan, honking their way from Olde Towne to Muddy Branch to Kentlands to Lakeforest Shopping Center and back.

The caravan bearing American flags and green balloons wound through traffic meeting curious stares, smiles, waves and bemusement.

Behind the pick-up drove city business owner Denis Tabar in a souped-up Plymouth Prowler. The former disc jockey used his own sound equipment to create a commercial for Solis that he has placed on his Internet gospel radio station and which a buddy has played on an AM radio station for over a week; friends paid for the commercial, he said.

‘‘A caravan isn’t enough, literature isn’t enough, none of that means anything if people say ‘Yes, I support what you’re doing, but then they forget to go out and vote,’” said Spiegel, back in Olde Towne. ‘‘We have to make sure people vote.”

The final hours

Later on Sunday, Spiegel joined Drzyzgula and Ashman at a 4 p.m. reception for about 100 people at the home of outgoing councilman John Schlichting. Shawn Ali, another hopeful, knocked on doors and handed out fliers.

What had been a quiet campaign season through September and October has heated up in the last two weeks, as candidates have appeared in six debates and the Latino media has pushed the election as crucial to the well-being of immigrant communities.

Groups ranging from One Gaithersburg to Gaithersburg First, a group recently formed to counteract One Gaithersburg, are now working to get voters to the polls.