After Run for Montco Commissioner, Jenny Brown Returns to Life in Gladwyne

Lately, Gladwyne resident Jenny Brown has been picking up her kids from school and cooking dinner for her family—which isn’t necessarily a good thing, she joked.

Just over two months ago, for Montgomery County commissioner.

Already a Lower Merion Township commissioner representing Ward 2 (Gladwyne and Penn Valley), her busy schedule became even more hectic.

Depending on the day, Brown could have up to 12 engagements, such as meetings with residents and fundraising appointments. Brown and Castor raised about $1.5 million in fundraising—more than any Republican team had raised. 

Brown’s mother-in-law and father-in-law, from Cape Cod, moved in with the family for 10 weeks leading up to help out with her two kids Sara, 5, and Jack, 12.

“Obviously I was disappointed with what happened at the county level,” Brown said. “That having been said, however, I am absolutely thrilled to be out of campaign mode.”

Brown said she ran for county commissioner because she sees Montgomery County in the same financial state Lower Merion was in back in 2003.

“Lower Merion really went on this spending-and-borrowing binge, and I saw the county going that way, and I wanted to get in place good, fiscal policies to ensure the county’s fiscal future, and I knew what the county needed,” Brown said.

In December, the county commissioners (Castor, Joseph Hoeffel and James Matthews) . Democratic Commissioners Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards, who won the election in November, have since replaced Hoeffel and Matthews. 

“I have never voted to raise taxes and wasn’t planning to start,” Brown said. “I didn’t take that gimmicky tax pledge that looks like it worked with the voters.”

Brown said she plans to keep her focus on financial issues within Lower Merion Township.

“I think, as a result of all our hard work after the past six years, we ,” Brown said of the township. “I think those of us on the board who have been fighting for that should be very pleased… I think that’s all good, and we’ll continue to work on that.”

Brown said she’s heard two responses since the election season: “So sorry you didn’t win, but ,” from within her constituency, and from outside her constituency: “Please stay in it, don’t lose hope, you’ve got to run for something else again.”

In the meantime, Brown’s family added two new members in December when they adopted two mutts from the SPCA—Petey and Leo. They go everywhere with her, she said, including to in Gladwyne.

As for running for a higher position in government again, it’s too soon to tell.

“I’m really enjoying what I’m doing now," Brown said. "I’ll enjoy the next couple of years as township commissioner, and I’ll leave those types of considerations for another time."