A new set of leaders will carry Harford County forward, with Barry Glassman and Richard Slutzky claiming easy victories in the races for county executive and county council president, respectively, in Tuesday’s general election, while Jeff Gahler defeated incumbent Sheriff Jesse Bane.
Gahler unseated Bane with more than 55 percent of the vote, a sharp turnaround from four years ago, when Bane defeated Gahler by just over 3,000 votes.
Gahler said a strong statewide Republican turnout may have played a role in securing a victory for him in his second try.
“It feels wonderful,” he said. “Seven years of my life put into this, between the two campaigns. It’s just an overwhelming.”
Glassman and Slutzky each faced only marginal challenges; Glassman won in a landslide, claiming nearly 75 percent of the vote, while Slutzky defeated Democrat Jim Thornton by a wide margin.
“Looks like the Republican lambs are running wild in Harford County tonight,” he remarked.
“I’ve prepared a lifetime for a dream of being Harford County Executive,” Glassman said, later adding, “It’s a long journey but I’ve made it back home.”
“Harford County voters sent a clear message tonight, they are ready for a new generation of leadership.”
The self-proclaimed “not-so-tall farm boy from Level” took to the stage of the Armory at 9:30 p.m., surveyed the crowd for his mother, and thanked his team and supporters before launching into a preview of what county residents can expect from his administration. Glassman said his administration will focus not on “30 minutes of the county telling you why you can’t do something, but 30 minutes of us telling how you can make it happen in Harford County.”
“We plan to have our transition moving in the morning, we plan to hit the ground running on Dec. 1, inauguration day,” he said.
In the County Council races, incumbent council member Dion Guthrie, a Democrat, faced a serious challenge from Republican Mike Perrone, who led Guthrie by several hundred votes at the close of election night.
The District F race saw Republican Curtis Beulah defeat Joseph Smith, a Democrat. As he watched other election results on a large screen at Glassman’s party at approximately 10 p.m., Beulah was enthusiastic but wasn’t yet ready to claim victory.
“All I can say is it feels good,” he said. “We both ran a clean campaign, hats off to Joe Smith.”
Even as he was congratulated by passers-by, Beulah remained cautious, reminiscing about watching his sizeable lead on primary election night dwindle.
Beulah later joined Patrick Vincenti for celebratory photos with the new county executive; Vincenti was likewise hesitant to claim victory.
“Tonight, I’m delighted and pleased at all the hard work by the volunteers on my campaign,” he said.
Joe Woods, who was unopposed for Council District B in both the primary and general elections, nonetheless hit the campaign trail hard and was surprised by what he saw.
“It was wild out there,” he said. “One of the most interesting things I saw this time that I hadn’t seen before was entire families out voting together.”
Woods called the results of the general election a show of displeasure with state and federal democrats, saying Republicans were a visible presence.
Asked about the probable new look of the county council as results continued to roll in Tuesday night, Woods expected little difference.
“I don’t think much will change because we all get along so well together,” he said.
Board of Education races saw Jansen Robinson claim the District A seat, Bob Frisch retain his District B seat, Nancy Reynolds win in District D, and Rachel Gauthier and Thomas Fitzpatrick hold leads in Districts E and F respectively.
Only the District C race remained too close to call by the end of election night; with 83.3 percent of precincts reporting, challenger Joseph Voskuhl held a 64-vote lead over incumbent Alysson Krchnavy, 6,262 to 6,198.
Looking at the precients not reported yet a large portion are on the route 40 corridor.
Well… so much for that. Were you expecting a 100,000 vote Democratic comeback?
@CDEV which parts of rout 40.. south harford?
Uh oh Anybody have a job for Chuck???? Prison experience…
I gotta job for him right here..Congratulations Howard and Marc.
Chuck should consider the Chief position with Bel Air PD…. that is, if Eddie Hopkins doesn’t beat him to that job!
Latest numbers are showing Gahler’s lead continuing to widen. Over 7k up now.
Lucy, Gahler is up by 12,000… Union bosses beware… Bane will you now pay back all of those union dues?
Gahler has won and will be the next Sheriff.
Here comes Howard with his lists of pay backs.
That is exactly what Gahler should not allow. If I were Gahler I would not tolerate any vindictive behavior under my command. That’s what leaders do.
Looks like the county is going to hell in a hand basket!
The Harford County Board of Elections unofficial returns has 90 of 93 precincts reporting as of 1110pm. Mr. Gahler is leading Sheriff Bane by almost 11,000 votes. With 96% of the vote already in, Gahler is leading by a margin of 56% to 44% for Sheriff Bane.
Congratulations Jeff! Glad to see people realized Bane for who he is and voted in the right guy!
Congratulations Sheriff Gahler on your victory. It is time for the mission statement of the Sheriff’s Office to mean something and to be fair to all who serve. As for me…….10-42…10-7.
Congratulations to the winners. When can we expect to hear who the new Sheriff will be bringing in to assist him when he begins and how he will ensure that all the deputies (CO & LE) will get their raises? Will the new County Council support more funding for the school system and it’s employees as well as the Police officers? Hoping these promises come true!
Why would Jeff give a raise to that dick Impallaria?
I didn’t realize he was the only deputy employed by the Sheriff’s Office. This is also about the relationship between the new Sheriff and the new Council and how the budgets will be funded that I would like answers to and how every hard working employee for the HCPS and the HCSO who have not had raises in over 7 yrs be rectified.
Hopefully Impallaria won’t be employed much longer. I’ll be approaching the Council about investigating Forwood, Impallaria, Visnaw, and Banes other misappropriations. Time for a federal investigation into Bane.
Its time for a Federal Investigation into Harford County’s entire Criminal Justice System……..Careful what you wish for.
Hopefully they include Harford county DPW workers in that raise! Remember its been 7 years for them too.
NONE of the county employees EXCEPT the teachers have gotten raises and all of us make this county go round, don’t forget that. Know what your talking about before you post.
@seriously? If you don’t like not getting a raise, quit. There are 100 people that would take your job tomorrow.
A lot of the “special” county employees (connected to political favors) HAVE gotten raised and that is what was so inappropriate under this last administration. They always took care of their “own” with favors and promotions and so on. This went on all over the county. People that were brought in were promoted and given raises and people that had worked for the country many years were overlooked. No one in the general public has any idea what has been going on in this county. The county employees have been treated like dirt. Do more work, get absolutely no recognition while “friends and family” were rewarded for doing not even their jobs. All of this should get out and maybe then people would start to think who they are voting for. People were voted back in that absolutely should not have gotten these jobs. It is a very sad situation.
I want to know how the new Sheriff is going to get his Deputies under control. A good first step might be insisting that the Deputies be required to start telling the truth about things……
A big thank you to all of the Harford County voters who realized that a change in leadership at the HCSO was necessary.
Congratulations to Mr. Gahler and I wish you every success as you assemble your senior staff and return the Office of Sheriff in Harford County to one that embodies fair treatment to all of the employees.
Thank you to the many Deputies of the Harford County Detention Center who were willing to stand up for what is right and endorse Mr. Gahler.
This is indeed a fresh start for the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.
Mike Welsh: Amen, brother! I just pray that the citizenry realizes that a lot of things, internally at the Sheriff’s Office, will have to happen very quickly in order for Sheriff Gahler to begin all the “repairs” that need to be done to provide top-notch law enforcement and corrections services for public safety. After all, soon-to-be ex-Sheriff Bane had 8 years, actually many more years than that, to screw things up.
God-speed Sheriff Gahler!!!
By DION… DON”T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU IN THE ASS ON THE WAY OUT. Time for your chrony politics to hit the road. Edgewood is no longer your buffet of votes as working residents are tired of you catering to crooks and criminals.
Bob Peck, I think Best Buy is looking for security guards. Try Pet Smart as well
So happy District A… Edgewood, Joppatowne, Abingdon stood up for no more enslavement from Guthrie. Time for Route 40 to do the work from within, not from handouts, not from broken promises.
Folks of all races voted for Mike Perrone… Mike take this and make it better! Congratulations and thanks for breaking the stronghold. Honked my horn daily seeing you at the corner of Rt 40 and Joppa Farm Rd! The community needs and deserves better than the usual suspects.
Congratulations to Jeff Gahler and Marc Eaton…….. Now I’m paying homage to the Man…..
Anyone heard from or checked on Concerned Wife? Heard he had chest pains?
When I was deputy sheriff (corrections), I attempted to promote to the rank of corporal. I went through the promotional process and made first on the corporals promotional list. I was already performing acting corporal duties prior to the promotional process. I was also a good officer and was a member of the CRT. Once the test results came out, the sheriff said their wouldn’t be any correctional promotions at the jail. I was beyond frustrated due to the fact that I was nothing but loyal and dedicated to the agency. When I felt I was being pigeon holed because I wasn’t a “company man”, which I will add… Being outspoken and a hard charger doesn’t mean you’re not a company man, it just means that that’s what your personality is. I bled French blue(the sheriffs office class B uniform color),I swore to uphold that star and everything it stood for and what I believed it stood for. To this day I still take pride having been a member of the HCSO. A lot of people are going to know who I am after reading this post and none of them will ever say I wasn’t dedicated to my job with the agency, I always took my position seriously and I always stood behind the people I worked with and worked for. It appeared that I wasn’t the person they wanted to promote so, I decided to apply to another agency. After successfully completely that process, I was in a holding pattern, almost 5 months had passed and still there was no corporal promotions being announced at the jail. While on vacation, i received a call by the personnel manager to set up a meeting with herself the sheriff(Bane) and his second in command. I accepted. During the course of this meeting I was told if I retract my application process with the MTA police, I would be promoted. I said, and I quote “if you tell me I’m promoted right now, I’ll remove myself from their process.” I was told that I had to remove myself from the process before I would get promoted. I asked for a day or two to think about it because I didn’t trust the way things were being presented to me. Later that same day I was hired by the MTA. A day after I left, the 2 individuals under me on the list were promoted. I didn’t want to leave, I wanted to stay, period. To this day, I would love to a member of the HCSO. But this is how the now former sheriff treats and treated his troops. If the now Sherriff Gahler sees this, sir, I would be more than happy to come back and feel under you. I’m sorry that this story had to be told in this fashion.
“If the now Sherriff Gahler sees this, sir, I would be more than happy to come back and feel under you.” – What exactly does this mean? I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade or start anything right after Gahler’s victory, but this doesn’t sound good. Why would Jeff Gahler want you to feel under him?
Obviously a typo.
Typo isn’t correct, that whole sentence was Castrated.
*Serve is what was auto corrected, not work. All apologies to the junior spelling police auxiliary official.
Heard Concerned wife is moving to Prince Georges County.
Don’t know about PG county but maybe he’s being moved out of that cushy transport job. Now that Greg and Bane are both gone, Sean no one cares about your spreadsheets!
Where are all the usual characters at? Proud to be Liberal, monster, the professor, etc.?
For months we heard how the “tea baggers” will never win another election anywhere, how the incumbent Sheriff was going to easily win.
Because their big mouths have nothing to say, maybe they can use the open space beneath their noses for something else.
They are just letting you have your moment. I’m sure they will be back.
Congratulations to Mr. Gahler. The people have spoken with their votes, and that is how our great country is supposed to operate. I wish Mr. Gahler all of the luck in the world, because he is my sheriff also. I hope he turns out to be the best sheriff this county has ever seen.
Having said this, I hope Marc can now concern himself with his mental health and stop the hating. I am a lifelong Republican but openly support Bane. That is my prerogative to vote for whom I think is the best qualified person for the job. Bane lost because he is a Democrat and an incumbent. I hope Mr. Gahler learns quickly the difference from being in the MSP and having to deal with the politics of being Sheriff. There is a big difference.
Four years from now, some of you will still be supporting Gahler and you will see a group of malcontents and want-to-be’s who will have the advantage of sniping at him daily. This is the history of the HCSO.
Mr. Gahler didn’t get my vote or the vote of many of my friends and others that I know because Bane was a Democrat or an incumbent. Gahler got my vote because he is not a proven vindictive hateful man who has a record of mistreatment of employees, and a person who is willing to lie in an attempt to benefit himself.
If Sheriff Gahler resorts to the same hateful vindictive behavior displayed by Bane then Gahler will lose my support and would probably lose the support of all of the others that I know voted for him. It has nothing to do with being a Democrat or incumbent.
Mike- there is nothing I could do to help. So I watched as others were forced to retire, were demoted or were transferred. A few of them were my friends, I wish I would have done more.
Thank you for acknowledging your personal observations of the Bane administration. With regard to wishing you would have done more to address this behavior there are always many considerations each individual weighs when they see wrongs happening.
It is a sad situation when the very union that was formed to provide an avenue for redress to agency mismanagement and mistreatment is itself co-opted by their leadership. That includes the current leadership and several of the past leaders who were only interested in using the union as a platform to achieve and feed their personal gain. The rank and file membership of the Deputies Union should be up in arms regarding their current leaders. The union should be there FOR you. It should not exist to USE you.
If you are still an agency member I hope that a new day has arrived and the kind of things you witnessed will stop the day Sheriff Gahler takes the oath of office.
For the first time since 2006, the LT rests easy knowing Jesse has been defeated, and by such a margin. Congratulations to the new leadership at HCSO.
The People have spoken, It was time for a change.
Now that there is a new sheriff, what does it mean? How will be policing be different? Does he have a plan for the Rt 40 corridor? If so, is it going to work?
What does it mean?
It means new leadership at the senior levels of the HCSO.
It means that Sheriff Gahler will conduct a top to bottom evaluation of all units within the HCSO and make changes that he feels will benefit the overall HCSO mission.
It means that ALL employees will be evaluated fairly with regard to function within the HCSO.
It means an end to the political vindictiveness that was so flagrantly demonstrated by the Bane administration.
It means, in my opinion, that you will see more boots on the street and fewer specialized units or numbers of personnel assigned to those specialized units.
It means that when employees approach senior management with valid workplace complaints regarding hostile work environments, they will not be dismissed from their positions and reassigned throughout the agency effectively separating them from their assigned work function.
It means an end to the retention of employees who have committed crimes and keeping them on the county payroll.
In the end, it means a new beginning for the HCSO absent the hostile vindictive environment that has existed for at least the last four years!
Mike I apreciate your response. However, I am not so much concerned what it means for the inner workings of the HCSO. Rather, what is the net net going to be for us citizens in Harco? How is this going to impact crime?
I encourage you to reach out to Sheriff Gahler. He will be more than happy to speak with you about his plans. HIs website has his email address on it
Considering Bane signs in peoples yards were investigated the last thing I’d do is give him my email address.
” that you will see more boots on the street and fewer specialized units or numbers of personnel assigned to those specialized units.” – That’s the way you curb crime. Presence is the key. Boots on the street, cars patrolling problem areas non-stop, installing cameras on more streets and putting repeat offenders of violent crime behind bars for greater lengths of time. He can control most of what I said, but Cassilly is going to have to start putting Robbers, Thieves and Thugs behind bars for a greater length of time. Good luck with that one…….
This whole election was about the inner workings of the HCSO. That is all the Gahler posters could talk about constantly.
Steve/Mike Welsh,
Get your new name ready when you start defending Gahler. I hope you enjoy your new career with him. Better develop some tough skin, because what goes around, comes around.
Your friends voted for him probably because of the campaigning that the Gahler people did. Most people voted against Bane because he was a Democrat and an incumbent. You will enjoy being on the defensive for the next 4 years.
Fred aka Monster, now that your mentor Jesse Bane has been fired, please check out.
It’s going to be your turn to defend the new sheriff. As I said, what goes around, comes around. You will be dizzy, dizzier than you are now after Gahler’s honeymoon with voters is over. You, on the other hand, I hope will be as mouthy as you have been in the past two elections. Maybe, you will actually deal with some real policing issues instead of the mickey mouse crap.
One way box car ticket to Baltimore, load em up, ship em out
The fact that Gahler won the election doesn/t make you less of a BS er. You are a crock and remain one. Why don’t you take your knapsack, put it on a stick and ride the rails. Box cars are a good mode of transportation for the likes of you.
New leadership = business as usual. Different players, same party!
The Republican spent 6 years trying to stop Obama agenda, now will spent the next two trying to undo the gains.
Don’t you mean “Pains” instead of “Gains”. Obama & his agenda = FAIL
*work* intead of feel. Damn auto correct
There will be a quit move to revoke all that has been achieve in the last 6 years, they a going to try and erase the Obama Presidency. you will see exactly how much they care about working people, minorities,women, education, teachers, and how much they will do for do for the wealthy, especially corporation, many of whom they have a vested interest in them. They will cut social programs for the poor, and give more taxes break to the rich. Your son and daughters will be shedding their blood in foreign country so the rich can get control of their natural resources. More excessive force used by police on minorities and illegal aliens. More military hard ware on the street of our towns and cities, and more civil up rest. Health care vanish, more part time jobs and less full time employment, no more union and less pay for a hard days work, while giving themselves big time raises. Yes you see this and soon, what will you do about it.
Wow. You forgot a case of ebola in every pot…
Where to even start??? Were you talking about O’Malley’s crony-capitalism to his impoverished Hollywood friends? You know, the tax incentives to keep “House of Cards” or such show based in Baltimore for over $20 million? That type of corporate welfare provided by the state?
Wars for resources in other lands… by the looks of it, technology seems to be making the middle east just a little less important than it was a few years ago. Tell you what, just go draw a red line for the warring parties not to cross… what you do when they do cross it? I’m like the president, I don’t know either…
Okay… Minorities should not suffer injustices – totally agreed. I’ll make the illegal alien angle easy – deportation. If they are not here they cannot get abused. Easy.
Health care… tell you what… if you like your plan you can keep it.
Employment vs. unemployment… oh my, I guess you might be proof there is no cure for stupid.
Here is an age-old political question: Were you better off 6 years ago or not? I suspect now that the Congress will have a willing Senate pass a budget and give big business a picture of what they can expect with respect to tax bills to pay… you might get the solution for stagnant unemployment numbers and related issues explaining why corporations are sitting on mounds of cash and not hiring.
Tell you what… go back to your drawing board… work on “War on Women v. 3” and see how that plays out in 2016. Let the adults get things fixed. The fear-mongering will help excite your base, but when people wake up and look at what is going on…. well, you get what we had here yesterday – a tidal wave in the other direction.
Peace.
“Minorities should not suffer injustices – totally agreed. I’ll make the illegal alien angle easy – deportation. If they are not here they cannot get abused. Easy.
Health care… tell you what… if you like your plan you can keep it.
Employment vs. unemployment… oh my, I guess you might be proof there is no cure for stupid.”
Profound, man, profound.
Congrats to Sheriff Gahler. Things have not been easy lately at HCSO, but we all still did the job and did it right. Many have suffered and some have had their lives ruined by choices made by Sheriff Bane and his top command staff. Let us not forget people who were fired, demoted or transferred by a vindictive man. My hope is that Sheriff Gahler takes a look at these life destroying decisions that were made against many of my fellow coworkers.
Rumor has it Jeff isn’t going to fire any of Jesse’s friends and replace them with his own…
.
Rumor has it that there will be an opening for the Chief of Police position in Havre de Grace.
Edgewood eagerly, awaits the ” New” sheriff as well as some surrounding areas.
Jeff is going to turn edgewood into your grand mothers living room filled with boy scouts and puppy dogs.
he has a plan.
I’m all for cleaning up Edgewood. Edgewood is out of control with all the crime going on. Someone has to step in and say no more.
that is the most abdurd comment I have seen yet.