Politics & Government

Claire Marcuccio Whitaker Kicks off Rockville City Council Campaign

Forehand: "She could walk in the shoes of so many different people. She can understand what other people's needs are."

On Thursday, a large group of supporters crowded into a Salvadorian restaurant in East Rockville to back an unlikely candidate for Rockville City Council: the mayor’s sister, Claire Marcuccio Whitaker.

“It’s tough doing something you’ve never done before, and that’s where I am,” Whitaker said during her campaign kick-off event. “I’m not a politician. I’m just Claire.”

Whitaker, an Assistant U.S. Attorney who has never held public office, filed for candidacy at the last minute—long after her sister, Rockville Mayor Phylllis Marcuccio announced she wasn’t running for re-election. 

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“I entered the race because there were no other candidates,” Whitaker told Patch. “It just didn’t seem right.

Whitaker had the support of Maryland Sen. Jennie Forehand, a democrat who represents Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Garrett Park; former Rockville Mayor Steve Van Grack, and Planning Commissioners Anne Goodman, Charles Littlefield and Jack Leiderman.

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Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Bridget Donnell Newton attended Thursday. Council candidate Don Hadley, who is also on the Planning Commission, also came to support Whitaker.

Whitaker said she opposed a proposed change to the city’s Adequate Public Facilities Standards that would allow developers to ask the city to waive its growth policy for projects near Metro stations. 

“I think that’s wrong and that’s been my major reason for coming into the race,” Whitaker said.

Whitaker said that Rockville could stand to learn things from nearby cities. 

“Gaithersburg, for instance, has absolutely no debt,” she said. “I think we should try to learn from that. Our debt right now is $142 million and we’re talking about borrowing some more money. I don’t think that’s a good idea. I would vote against any increase in debt unless it were to reduce the interest rate.”

Whitaker is a first-generation American, the daughter of a Sicilian stonemason who raised his family at the home he built on Horners Lane in East Rockville—back when it was still country. The family tended chickens and she wore dresses her mother sewed from the fabric of chicken seed sacks, Whitaker recalled.

Forehand said Whitaker broke boundaries by being a female law school graduate during the 1960s, a career that didn’t have many female faces.

“She could walk in the shoes of so many different people,” Forehand said. “She can understand what other people’s needs are.”

Aside from Whitaker’s daughter, Sasha Whitaker, 31, who encouraged everyone to vote for “the best mom ever,” perhaps the biggest endorsement Friday came from Mayor Marcuccio, who said Rockville couldn’t ask for a better candidate.

“What can I say? Don’t you need this lady on your council? It isn’t just because she’s my sister,” Marcuccio said.

Marcuccio served two terms as Rockville mayor, having served on the council from 2003-2009. She thanked her supporters Friday.

“Thank you so much for my—let’s say my dependency on you to be my support over the past four years. I feel so … proud, I can’t tell you enough,” Marcuccio said. Then looked over to her sister. “And this is the biggest legacy I could offer.”

Rockville's election is Nov. 5. The council candidates are: Hadley; Julie Palakovich Carr; Beryl L. Feinberg; Councilman Tom Moore, who is seeking re-election; and Virginia Onley.


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