Jud Ashman has helmed the city of Gaithersburg for more than a decade, and he isn’t ready to stop. Ashman is running for his third full term as mayor in the Nov. 4 city election, when Gaithersburg residents will also select new council members.

Ashman wants to build on the city’s prior work to increase mass transit access and increase the development of “missing middle” housing.

“I feel like the city has been thriving under my leadership. We have been adding jobs. We’re still seeing a lot of investment. We’re adding housing. We are being good stewards to the environment,” Ashman told The Banner in a recent interview.

He’s got competition.

Tiffany Kelly, a longtime local activist, said she’s looking to lead a change of the status quo. For her, this starts with making sure residents who aren’t tuned into politics know there’s an election happening.

“I’ve always been a staunch advocate, not one just that likes to make a lot of noise, but really wants to see systemic change,” Kelly said. “Folks here are pretty much entrenched in the way they do things.”

The so-far quiet, nonpartisan race has attracted some attention, though.

Ashman has received endorsements from all his colleagues on the City Council, as well as state Sens. Cheryl Kagan and Nancy King and state Dels. Ryan Spiegel and Joe Vogel, all of whom represent Gaithersburg in Annapolis.

Kelly‘s endorsement come from prominent local progressive advocacy groups such as the Maryland Forward Party, Progressive Maryland and Jews United for Justice.

The two candidates have both raised just over $17,000, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. Ashman’s donors include former Congressman David Trone and his wife, who gave $2,000, and the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington, a group that lobbies on behalf of local landlords and developers, which gave $1,000.

Kelly has received more individual, smaller donations, which she said points to grassroots community support. However, several contributors to Kelly’s campaign have addresses outside Maryland, including some in Florida, Virginia and other parts of the country.

She has been critical of Ashman as speculation grows that he will be running for the County Council District 3 seat that will be vacated by Sidney Katz in December 2026. (Katz has contributed $200 to Ashman’s mayoral campaign, according to campaign finance reports.) Kelly said that if Ashman plans to run for the seat, he should not be running for mayor.

Ashman declined to say whether he plans to run for the council, but said his priority is “whatever is best for Gaithersburg.”

Here is where Ashman and Kelly stand on issues that, according to a recent Banner poll, are on Gaithersburg residents’ minds.

Housing

Both Ashman and Kelly agree that the housing and cost-of-living crisis is one of the toughest issues facing the city. About 89% of Gaithersburg and Germantown residents cited the cost of living as a problem facing the county, according to a Banner poll, with 60% of residents calling it a “very serious problem.”

The candidates differ on how to solve it. Ashman, a supporter of several of the county’s upzoning efforts, said increasing the county’s housing supply is key. He wants to encourage more housing construction and said the county’s policies on rent control may discourage development.

The policy is “well-intentioned,” he said, but misguided.

“I support more targeted ways to help people in need,” Ashman said. “World history is full of examples of price controls leading to shortages, and that’s what we’re starting to see right here with housing in Montgomery County.”

Kelly said the city needs to increase its requirement for new housing developments to include affordable or moderately priced units to 20-25%. Most county developments have a requirement of 15%.

“Affordable housing is not cheap,” Kelly said. “We need different types of housing to be available. … We need to look at our outdated zoning code to make that happen.”

Crime

About 20% of Gaithersburg and Germantown residents cited public safety as the county’s most pressing issue, according to The Banner‘s poll.

Ashman said that he is proud of the work of the city’s police department, which operates separately from the county’s, and cited programs like Drone as First Responder as a way to decrease tensions between officers and residents. He said these initiatives create accountability and trust.

“This is the best of policing, what we have in Gaithersburg. It’s a culture that values restraint, it values de-escalation training,” Ashman said.

Kelly, in contrast, expressed serious concerns about the city’s police force. She noted the death of Kwamena Ocran, a Black man shot and killed by Gaithersburg police in 2021 while officers were investigating an alleged illegal handgun purchase. She said public safety should be focused on crime prevention rather than crime response.

“I don’t want the crime to happen. If you’re responding, that means harm has already happened,” Kelly said. “How do we move to a prevention model? I don’t want you to have to respond to anything. What’s broken? Something is broken.”

Transit

Ashman and Kelly share concerns about the city’s transit access.

Gaitherburg residents depend heavily on their cars, and the city does not have a Metro station. By contrast, Ashman pointed out, the Rockville area has three.

Gaithersburg is also not part of the planned Purple Line light rail project. Ashman said the expansion of bus lines is the most realistic solution and something he’s lobbied county officials for.

“We’re invested and have our own skin in the game on bus rapid transit, but ultimately, the county is going to have to find a way to fund that plan and get it running,” Ashman said.

Kelly wants to create a connector bus to help residents get to some commercial areas of the city, which, she noted, have limited parking access.

“I really want to build an Old Town that’s bustling, has night life, and even opportunities for kids and for teens to have fun,” Kelly said. “A connector bus would make that more accessible.”

Mass layoffs

Both candidates said above all, they are particularly concerned about how federal directives and mass layoffs at federal agencies are hurting the city and its residents.

The Banner poll found that 70% of respondents said they were either personally affected or knew someone affected by the mass layoffs of federal workers since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. In Gaithersburg and Germantown, 76% of respondents said they were either personally affected or knew someone affected.

“My top priority, the thing that keeps me up at night most, is how to deal with the changes at the federal level,” said Ashman, who estimates that 12-13% of city residents are or were federal employees before the cuts.

“We have the reduction in federal grants,” he said. “We have immigration enforcement without due process.”

Kelly, a federal worker, says the city can’t wait around for the federal government to change, and needs to find solutions now.

“We need to mobilize quickly,” Kelly said. “There are some tough times coming, and I don’t think we’re having the right conversations, because we never really understood struggle in the first place.”

More information about how to vote in the Gaithersburg city election is available at the City of Gaithersburg website.