The falling dominoes included Congressman Mike Barnes' decision to run for the vacant U.S. Senate seat, allowing state Sen. Stewart Bainum to run for the vacant U.S. House seat, allowing Del. Ida Ruben to run for Bainum's state Senate seat. That's where I came in.

Del. Ruben hired me -- a 22-year-old kid, fresh out of college -- to coordinate her 1986 campaign for the Maryland Senate. In the course of that campaign, I came to understand how the precinct organization worked, what the role of the central committee was, the importance of the sample ballot, and all of the other nuts and bolts of winning elections in Montgomery County. Ten years later, I was elected county Democratic chairman.

I was not the only one who got the chance to start or advance a career in politics in 1986. The two vacancies at the top of the state's political hierarchy created opportunities at lower levels for hundreds of candidates and campaign volunteers.

It would be a long wait before another watershed year like that one. In the intervening years, the local Democratic Party became somewhat sclerotic as incumbent officeholders settled in for long tenures. Capable officeholders were routinely re-elected, and younger pols put their aspirations on hold. The local party settled into a stasis that I call "incumbentocracy." It became difficult to recruit volunteers, with limited opportunities for advancement within the party structure.

Meanwhile, the county's demographics changed dramatically. The county's African-American population more than doubled between 1980 and 2000 and its Asian-American and Latino populations increased more than fourfold. These underrepresented communities felt the local Democratic Party gave them only lip service. The white incumbents were happy to take their votes but provided no real chance for reciprocity or power-sharing. The few non-white candidates brave enough to run felt they received no real support from the party establishment.

The result was an atrophying of the local party organization, epitomized by the party's failure to field competitive candidates for the 8th Congressional District seat throughout the early 1990s. The low point occurred in 1994, when a national Republican landslide was mirrored in the defeat of Democratic candidates for state Senate, State House and County Council.

With strong leadership at the state and county levels, these setbacks were reversed in 1998. In that year, a diverse slate of candidates swept the election for Democratic Central Committee, and Parris Glendening, Doug Duncan and Ralph Neas mounted a vigorous joint get-out-the-vote effort that propelled Glendening to re-election and helped defeat three of the Republican delegates elected four years earlier. Yet, the county still sent an essentially all-white delegation to Annapolis (except for one member of Indian ancestry). African-American constituents in particular noticed that the local party's strong support for certain favored candidates did not extend to Herman Taylor or Maurice Miles, both of whom mounted competitive challenges to Republican incumbents.

A number of fortuitous circumstances helped generate an even more favorable climate for local Democrats in 2002. Chris Van Hollen was able to build on the prior efforts of Don Mooers, Ralph Neas and Terry Lierman to defeat Connie Morella. The competition between Van Hollen and Mark Shriver for the congressional nomination, combined with the decennial redistricting, resulted in several open seats in the legislature. Several non-white candidates braved fierce primary competition to run for these seats, and for the first time, several of these candidates received strong backing from the party establishment. Reciprocity and power-sharing from the Democratic establishment helped the African-American, Asian-American and Latino communities buy into the urgency of participating in the election. Strong participation from these communities buoyed the efforts of both white and non-white Democrats.

As a result, new faces in Annapolis and Rockville will include rising stars like Herman Taylor, Susan Lee, Rob Garagiola, Brian Feldman, Kathleen Dumais, Ana Sol Gutierrez, Rich Madaleno, Gareth Murray, Anne Kaiser, Karen Montgomery, Nancy King, Nancy Floreen, Mike Knapp and Tom Perez. Two long-time incumbent Republicans were defeated, in the state Senate and on the County Council. And finally, the panoply of elected Democrats in the county reflects the demographics of our diverse constituency. Montgomery County's sophisticated voters had no reservations about electing non-white candidates who were clearly qualified and exhibited leadership skills.

In sum, Montgomery County Democrats have much to celebrate in 2002, despite the loss of the governor's mansion and our party's failure to maintain control of the U.S. Senate. Locally, we achieved historic levels of inclusion for underrepresented constituencies, and enabled fresh new talent to emerge. Our new congressman, Chris Van Hollen, is the most prominent symbol of this year of opportunity. In this county, Democrats are vigorous and muscular. We are the party of tomorrow.

George L. Leventhal of Takoma Park served as Montgomery County Democratic chairman from 1996 to 2001. He was elected on Nov. 5 to an at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council.