(Image source from: marylandreporter.com)

The moderator of a Democratic breakfast club may have been joking when she said Montgomery County, the executive candidate of county Marc Elrich had a poster of Che Guevara, a Cuban Marxist revolutionary leader, hanging in his County Council office.

But it didn’t stop Susan Heltemes from asking the candidate to respond to the perception that some or many in Montgomery County view County Councilmember Marc Elrich as a socialist.

“You have gotten some heat for being a socialist,” Heltemes said. “What can you say to a room full of Democrats that you merit the Democratic mantle to be the next executive?”

Elrich laughed, denied having a poster of the communist revolutionary in his office and then answered the question.

“I’m a registered Democrat, apparently that’s gotten missed in all of this,” Elrich responded. “What we are supposed to do as elected officials is not write policies through an ideological lens, but write policy through a lens of what works.

Most of the legislation I’ve introduced gets passed, so if I’m a socialist then I’ve led the county on a socialist path and apparently there are eight other socialists on the council and you need to route them out.”

Elrich lists the endorsement of the Metro DC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America on his campaign website. A recent exchange of articles on the Seventh State blog run by progressive Democrats accused him of being a socialist, but Elrich responded “you would be hard-put to classify me.”

By Lokesh