A flurry of 11th hour filings before the 9 p.m. deadline on Tuesday complicated races for some Harford County candidates, while confirming likely paths to re-election for others.
When the dust settled after a final rally of late candidate filings, the hotly contested races for the Districts 7 and 34A delegation seats, Republican Central Committee, and Board of Education had grown, while several key races remained uncontested.
Democrats failed to file candidates for county executive, county council president, county council Districts B, D, and E, State’s Attorney, and Clerk of the Court – 7 offices in all – but still have time left to find someone from their party willing to fill the empty spots on the ballot.
The Democratic and Republican Central Committees still have until 5 p.m. on Wednesdy, July 21 to file a Certificate of Designation and Certificate of Candidacy for Designee – completing a process whereby a central committee may submit a candidate for an uncontested race.
The deadline for a candidate to withdrawl from a race is Friday, July 16 at 5 p.m.
Tuesday’s filing deadline brought some late surprises to the 2010 Primary Election, including Republican Havre de Grace City Councilman Randy Craig (son of county executive David Craig) for House of Delegates District 34A; Democratic Bel Air lawyer John Janowich for House of Delegates District 35B; and several more candidates joining the handful already running for the much sought after Register of Wills position.
The most populated race by far of 2010 is the contest for the dozen seats on the Republican Central Committee, for which a total of 37 candidates have filed. On the other side of the ballot, 16 candidates, 8 men and 8 women, filed for the 10 Democratic Central Committee positions, which are separated into 5 men and 5 women.
John Bowers, campaign manager for deceased county executive candidate Steve Wright, did not file for the same office despite claims he would run as an unaffiliated candidate. The county executive’s race did pick up a declaration of intent from Constitution Party candidate Mark Fisher, however.
All 7 members of the Harford County Council, including council president Billy Boniface, are seeking re-election, although Boniface, Dick Slutzky, and Mary Ann Lisanti face no Primary Election opposition and Boniface and Slutzky face no opposition whatsoever.
In the state house races, Sen. Barry Glassman has no Republican Primary Election challenger nor any Democratic General Election competition. Conversely, the race for the 3 District 7 delegation seats has attracted 13 candidates, including incumbent Republican Dels. Rick Impallaria and Pat McDonough.
The Harford County Board of Education District A race drew 4 candidates, while the District B and District D races each have 5 candidates.
Brian you misquoted me in your article. I made one announcement that indicated my intention to file for the office. Ones intent is different from making an absolute commitment. I have been saying on my FB page that my intention was to run and would run as a Constitution Party candidate. A few days prior to the deadline I was advised that Mark Fisher was interested in running for the same office with the same party affiliation. I met with Mr. Fisher the day before yesterday and came to the conclusion that he held the same views as I as to government and personal conduct. I made the decision he had a better mindset for public service. I therefore encouraged him to run and gave him my full support. My INTENTIONS now are to promote the Constitution Party and its platform during this election.
Thank You
John Bowers
“Therefore I will be running as a ONE TERM candidate” It appears to me that Brian was correct after reading what you put on facebook. It does not surprise me that your meaning of “will” is only an indication of your intention. It just goes to show that we cannot take anything you say at face value.
If they have a forum for republican central committee candidates they will need to rent a stadium!
Im so glad Trevor Leach is running for Republican Central Committee — we need more principled, young people that will keep our party in check
Well I found the Facebook page for Tom Hopkins and it explains alot about him, seems like a good man – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116544945044660
I also found a website for Birch through google search and his posting on dagger, he seems pretty knowledgeable.
I see Jerome Foster filed to run for the Board of Education seat in District A. As a member of the Democratic Central Committee he appears to be just another political type with aspirations – aren’t we trying to get away from these kind of people?
If your screen name is supposed to be “curious”, maybe you should have spent more time at one of the Board of Education’s fine schools and less time just assuming that someone on the Central Committee should automatically be undeserving of consideration.
The comment is simply an opinion, not an assumption, based on other information I know about the candidate. End of story.
Foster would be a great choice. That would give us two flaming racists.
Who is the other?
Is it an 11th hour filing if it was done just before 9:00pm?
BSmeter~
It is if the person making the “11th hour” call is two time zones ahead of Harford County, and is therefore somewhere in Buenos Aires.
Boy, I did not think about that. How is the race for school board going? Looks like you have some competition up there!
Unreal…MORE people lining up for this comfortable position filing wills along side of Derek Hopkins wife…oops…didn’t mean to bring that one up again….at a small paying position of $98,000 a year. More than the average Government worker makes at $80,000 a year. Next time…I am in the race…Unreal.
Question…We are too busy paying $98k odd dollars a year for a Register of Wills position. What a joke! No wonder we have idiots lining up for that position. If you win the Harford county popularity contest, you get a $98k a year job. What a joke. Call the government and demand they remove this un-needed figurehead position. Talk about a waste of tax payer money!!!