Biography

George L. Leventhal, a Democrat, was elected to an at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council on November 5, 2002 after many years of active involvement in local politics and community affairs. On December 6, 2005, he was elected Council President.

Leventhal chairs the Council's Health and Human Services Committee and is a member of the Transportation and Environment Committee. He also serves on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Human Services Policy Committee.  Among his accomplishments in his first term are:

• Expanding the network of clinics that provide health care to the uninsured, including a community pharmacy that provides free medicine to low-income county residents;
• Directing Montgomery County to procure five percent of its electricity from clean, renewable sources (the amount of clean energy procured by Montgomery County increased to ten percent on July 1, 2006);
• Passing legislation to provide a tax rebate to consumers purchasing clean energy; and
• Passing legislation to require all newly-constructed buildings in Montgomery County that exceed 10,000 square feet gross floor area to meet "green buildings" environmental standards.
   

From 1995 to 2002, Leventhal was employed as Senior Federal Relations Officer for the Association of American Universities (AAU). In this position, he advised the presidents of 63 major North American universities, and their staffs, on political and policy developments related to higher education and scientific research.

For eight years before joining the AAU staff, Leventhal served on the staff of the United States Senate. He was legislative director for Senator Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland from 1993 to 1995 and earlier served three years as Senator Mikulski's legislative assistant for appropriations, budget, tax, and transportation issues. From 1987 to 1990, Leventhal was a research assistant on the tax staff of the Senate Finance Committee under its then-chairman Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. Earlier, he worked on the staff of the Maryland General Assembly in Annapolis and served as campaign coordinator for local election campaigns in Maryland and California.

From 1996 to 2001, Leventhal served as chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee.  He played a leading role in many other political and community activities in the Takoma Park-Silver Spring area and throughout Montgomery County.

Leventhal received a Master’s degree in public administration from the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley. He grew up in Maryland and lives in Takoma Park with his wife, Soraia P. Leventhal, and their two sons, Daniel, eleven, and Francisco, eight.