Having lived in Talbot County for over 30 years, 3 in Easton, David cherishes the quality of life we all enjoy here. He compares Easton’s small town ambience to the hectic pace and frustrating traffic in the DC area where it was necessary for him to live during his career. With a PhD in economy, David served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy and Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget Office for several years. In that capacity he often testified before Congress. With this background he will be very valuable when Easton works on its budget every spring.
Not opposed to growth per se, he would like Easton to grow in a small carefully planned process, in sync with the Town’s new Comprehensive Plan. He knows that the Poplar Hill and the Easton Club’s Maryland Health Club projects are not suitable for Easton. David and his wife, Esther, both love of the small town of Easton and look forward to many years of enjoyment here. We will cast our vote for him on May 2.
Jane and Roger Bollman
Easton
Holly Wright says
David Montgomery’s extremist views on keeping the Talbot Boys statue, disregard for the reproductive rights of women (he brags about his 100 rating from Maryland Pro Life), opposition to anti-racism school curriculum and his announced willingness to use budget authority to meddle in behalf these views disqualifies him from representing my or any ward on the Easton Town Council. This is what distinguishes him from Ron Engle.
With all due respect, your letter is one in a series of proforma letters which beats the dead horse of development concerns. There is unanimity among candidates for the need for managed growth.
Let David Montgomery serve on the Planning commission away from any influence on the social issues that make up our community which are just as important as preserving it’s small town character.
John D. Briggs says
Sadly, Ms. Wrght’s letter seethes with the very sort of divisiveness that is so poisonous to our society. I have known David Montgomery and his wife for many years, To brand his views as either “extremist” or “racist” is to engage in the sort or indiscriminate slander that has been mostly avoided here in Easton but to which to which we have become all too accustomed at the national level. His interest in education is a genuine interest in raising well educated children capable of critical thinking and making nuanced decisions later in life about history, warts and all. His views on abortion are mainstream Catholic and not absolutist so far as I now. There is a 77% consensus in the country that late term pregnancies should be heavily regulated; that send trimester abortions should be somewhat regulated; and that first term abortions should be essentially unregulated. That is the standard oil the civilized world. But Ms. Wright seems to believe that women’s reproductive rights are Uber allés right up until birth, and perhaps even thereafter. To introduce this issue into social election is needles and a distraction to what it is that the Town Council actually does.
I certainly encourage thoughtful people who care about Easton and the children of Easton to vote for David Montgomery.
Holly Wright says
David Montgomery’s race for the Easton Town Council as his friends of many years will know follows on the heels of his unsuccessful run for Talbot County Council and it was in this race only months ago that he himself introduced the social issues of the Board of Education’s “anti-racist and sexuality curriculum” and referred to “current fads in sexuality”. He further introduced and rather featured his endorsement by Maryland Right to Life and in particular his unique rating of 100 among the candidates. You could say he was mister right wing social issues.
He stirred up those issues in his campaign precisely because he expected it would resonate on the local level and produce votes. The fact that his campaign for County Council failed has caused him to present Montgomery 2.0 in the Town Council race. Local politics doesn’t work that way.
Those who supported and voted for him in that race will continue to expect him to champion these “so-called “anti-woke” social issues especially since he promised to use the budget process to advance them. They will continue to look to him in any legislative role he plays, no matter how he is crafting his current political persona. And that’s bad for Easton.
As a resident of Ward 3, I urge all my neighbors to vote for Ron Engle. He and the other Town Council members will vote for limited growth without the offensive social baggage.
By the way, if David Montgomery’s position is that second trimester abortions should only be “somewhat regulated” and first term abortions should be “essentially unregulated”, I’m sure Maryland Right to Life who gave him a 100 rating would like to know. You may have taken the same liberty in characterizing his views as you did on summarizing mine.
Barbara Denton says
None of the reasons you cannot stand David Montgomery are pertinent to this election. David and the Town Council are not involved in abortion decisions. Maryland has abortion up to birth. What more do you want? the Talbot Boys are sitting in an abandoned field with no care or anyone to take care of them. Your nasty group got their way by lying and you seem to want to continue your series of untruths. The school curriculum is an abomination. It does not teach children to think nor does it teach them the basics necessary for reading, writing and arithmetic. We are far enough from Covid to realize Covid cannot be used as an excuse for the abysmal scores on testing. As a matter of fact Maryland has fallen from 2nd in the nation a few years ago to 40th. The Blue Print is a farce which will do nothing to improve education outcomes but will over time drive Maryland into bankruptcy. Alex Bridges had a lot to do with David’s close loss in the County Council race. The most important thing this Council has to do is stop this rampant and devastating growth currently being discussed for Easton.
We need good health care services and good schools. At the present time we have neither. We need to work on that rather than worrying about abortion which will not be removed from Maryland any time in the near future. The Talbot Boys are gone but not forgotten by Talbot County. Those who worked to remove them should be ashamed.
Deirdre LaMotte says
You talk about “education”yet your crowd wants indoctrination by banning anything found “offensive”, like Anne Frank, Animal Farm, The Catcher in the Rye, Charlotte’s Web, and hundreds of other books deemed offensive to the Far Right agenda of autocracy or GOP Politburo.
Get the point?
You want good health care, but not for all Americans, correct? That is why the Republican Party,including our “Representative” Harris, has considered 100 Resolutions to ban The Affordable Care Act. You know, “Obama Care”, the term that your crowd used to get the racist all riled up.
And you defend a bunch of anti-American men who upraised against our Nation? They did so only to propagate slavery in the territories and nations adjacent to the United States. Nothing “honorable” about them at all. They were losers and should have suffered severe consequences for their traitorous acts.
Finally, your crowd nationally is determined to take personal liberty away from women and millions of others. On a National level. No, we will fight this till your fascist Party is destroyed. .
Deirdre LaMotte says
Agree. There will be many trying to refresh his image after his acerbic and out of touch opinions that would have raised eyebrows with polite society. He sounds like the Tucker Carlson of Talbot County and should be treated as such.
After all that has happened at the local level during the
past 30 years, I would not trust a reactionary with
the job of street cleaner.
Pam Reynolds says
To my fellow left- leaning Ward 3 residents, if you are concerned about David Montgomery’s political philosophies, understand that his targeted views are not relevant to the duties of the Town Council. Ron Engles’s girlfriend, who has written many of the TS articles in support of him, is the Director of Government Affairs for the Mid Shore Board of Realtors (per LinkedIn). Ron is a board member of the Easton and Talbot County Development Commissions (per Easton government website). Now where do you think Ron’s interest lie? Hold your nose and vote David Montgomery on Tuesday.
Susie Hayward says
“Hold your nose and vote David Montgomery” Fortunately, we have another candidate with compassion and integrity, Ron Engle.
Debra Principi says
We agree with your comments regarding David Montgomery and will be voting for him, as well. Thank you for sharing.
Reed Fawell 3 says
In my view, David Montgomery reeks with dispassionate competence. Likely that is because he’s earned it the hard way, over many years of public service performing and succeeding at demanding jobs.
Dennis Smith says
All I read in this article is no to growth. The article is incomplete without a proposal for what he will actually approve in the form of growth. As is typical for many politicians they like to say no to other people’s ideas but have none of their own.
Caroline Ketcham says
I am strongly against both Poplar Hill and the plans MHC has for the Easton Club. Just because David Montgomery shares this anti-growth view (in our own backyard one must note) does not cancel his uber conservative political record. Easton needs forward looking leadership.