(Update at 10:10 a.m.) Town of Chevy Chase Council members Al Lang and Kathy Strom were reelected and Vicky Taplin won the seat being vacated by David Lublin in Tuesday’s Town election.
Seven Town residents vied for the three Council spots, with the Purple Line, park space, downtown Bethesda development and the Town’s public image among the prominent issues.
Lang, who voted against the Town’s contract with a lobbying firm to fight the Purple Line, made waves at a candidates forum when he accused Town Mayor Pat Burda of giving winning firm Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney information to strengthen its bid. Burda denied his accusations.
Strom, who voted for the roughly $350,000, year-long contract, said Lang’s accusation wasn’t true.
Taplin, a lawyer who serves on the Town’s Environment Committee, said in a candidate statement she’d work for a better Purple Line and to “defend the special qualities of the Town against development at our borders.”
In a candidates forum, she said she was against the Purple Line because it would mean the loss of trees along the Capital Crescent Trail. She also said she didn’t think the 16-mile light rail was a done deal.
“I do not feel that it is inevitable,” Taplin said. “I feel that the Town was smart to get into the federal lobbying when it did because the decisions are being made at the federal level. I think it’s important to challenge this as the alignment.”
She was the leading vote-getter with 492 votes. Strom got 467 votes and Lang got 400.
Other candidates, including Donald Farren, said the Town’s strategy should be to accept that the Purple Line is coming and work to mitigate its affects. Farren got 163 votes.
Kathie Legg was the fourth-place finisher, with 390 votes. Grant Davies got 366 and Deborah Vollmer got 74.