Joseph Bartenfelder spends what he calls his "sanity" time lifting boxes, riding tractors, driving truckloads of produce through the night to market. For decades, he's pursued the double life of politician and farmer, an identity his supporters say sets him apart in an age of white-collar public officials.
Joe is Joe, they say — what you see is what you get. What you see is a tall, broad-shouldered man with a genial manner who seems to move easily between dark business suits and dusty work pants, who says he means to sustain small bits of this long-running juggling act even if he wins the job of Baltimore County executive, running the multibillion-dollar operation that is the county government.
As it is, he often mixes farm and council work, taking calls about county business while on his tractor, or discussing a problem with a constituent at the market.
He and his chief opponent for the Democratic nomination, Kevin Kamenetz, who has served alongside Bartenfelder on the County Council since 1994, are in the closing weeks of one of the most hotly contested races for this office in 30 years. The chase to the Sept. 14 primary is a study in contrast: Kamenetz, 52, the tough lawyer and public policy wiz; Bartenfelder, 53, the farmer with 28 years of legislative experience. They're seeking an open seat, as incumbent James T. Smith Jr. has served the maximum two terms.
The folksy farmer persona has risks, as Bartenfelder's detractors say he's not sufficiently sharp on policy or decisive enough for the demanding executive role. His supporters say Bartenfelder, a former 12-year member of the Maryland House of Delegates, is a warm man who knows how to get along with people, who prefers the path of gentle persuasion and has experience running a small business.
They're hoping Bartenfelder's personal appeal, his campaign appearances and his volunteer troops can make up a fundraising gap of several hundred thousand dollars with Kamenetz.
Asked one recent Sunday morning about his treasured "sanity" time, the Fullerton resident paused and smiled: "I've gotten less of it."
He and a crew of nine, including his wife, Robin, and two of his four children, got to that Sunday's farmers' market under the Jones Falls Expressway in downtown Baltimore shortly before 6 a.m., and proceeded to unload the contents of their 22-foot box truck: eggplants, tomatoes, melons, peppers, greens and other goods. A pickup piled high with sweet corn had sprouted black-and-yellow campaign signs. Campaign literature and bumper stickers were on offer with the produce.
Wearing an Atlantic Tractor/John Deere cap, navy work pants and a khaki Bartenfelder Farms shirt, Bartenfelder stood behind a table piled with watermelons. His day had started shortly after 4 a.m. and wouldn't end until about 11 p.m. — not until he'd left the city, hit two county political events, driven up and back to the wholesale market in Jessup to deliver a 60-box truckload of kale, and returned to catch some sleep. He'd be up around dawn for campaign sign waving.
He's continuing the family farming that began five generations ago. His parents, Andrew and Nancy, also worked at farming part time while working full time as a county corrections officer and school bus driver, respectively.
The family has about 20 acres leased from the city of Baltimore in Fullerton and 100 acres it owns near Easton on the Eastern Shore.
Bartenfelder, a graduate of St. Joseph School in Fullerton and Calvert Hall College High School, has been dividing his time between farming and politics since he was 25 and won his first state delegate seat in 1982.
That was four years after his first House run fell fewer than 30 votes shy, an effort Bartenfelder says began on a whim when he was 21, newly graduated from what was then Towson State University with a business administration degree. On the way to and from Ocean City that spring, he noticed a fresh crop of political signs. He thought, why not try it? On his way back from the beach, he drove to the Board of Elections office in Annapolis, paid the $50 filing fee and began his first campaign for the Maryland House of Delegates.
Just like that, Bartenfelder says. Just an urge "to make a difference in the community."
He'd had a taste of politics as a boy, putting up signs and knocking on doors for his cousin, Harry Bartenfelder, who served two terms on the County Council. That "helped me get bit by the bug," he says.
He served as county delegation chairman and member of the House Appropriations Committee, but after three terms he'd had enough. In 1994, he decided to leave the General Assembly to run for County Council. A newspaper article that spring reported that he was dismayed by the lack of action in the legislature's just-completed session, and wanted to have more impact on the lives of constituents.
The council's work is hardly lofty, as much of the time is spent responding to residents' concerns about potholes, drainage problems, road signs, building permits, leaking water pipes.
"They call you about every issue," said Bartenfelder, who represents a district that stretches roughly from Overlea east to Middle River and the Chesapeake Bay.
The 6th District tends conservative. In 2006, en route to defeat to Democrat Martin O'Malley, Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. won Baltimore County by 3 percentage points, but a review of precinct-level results shows he won Bartenfelder's district by twice that much.
The pairing of Ehrlich and Bartenfelder campaign signs there and elsewhere is a common sight, even if a council member's political ideology is not easily read in their record. As legislators, council members deal mostly with budgets, land use and local regulations, matters that frequently resist partisan labels.
If anything, Bartenfelder's consistent pro-labor record puts him in one sense to the left of Kamenetz, who is generally seen as more liberal. But Bartenfelder's labor record plays well in the conservative southeast and southwest ends of the county, where supporters tend to talk less about his policy positions than his affable personality and working-class affiliation.
In Arbutus, the heart of Ehrlich country, more than 100 people jammed Paul's Restaurant this summer for a $100- and $50-a-head Bartenfelder fundraiser. The candidate was introduced by Arbutus lawyer Salvatore E. "Manny" Anello III.
"He talks to the common man, he relates to the common man," Anello told the crowd. He said Bartenfelder's political experience shows "there is no one more qualified to carry on the legacy of Jim Smith," a Democrat credited as a capable manager of county fiscal affairs.
Anello said in an interview later that he's backing Bartenfelder largely because of his personal qualities. "He's not deceptive in the least," said Anello. "I think that's very refreshing in a politician. No false airs, no affectations. He is what he is."
On the southeast side, Don Crockett, a longtime political campaign worker, said, "Joe is very, very popular over here. He's a good old boy, he's a farmer."
William R. McCaffrey, a former Prince George's County delegate who served with Bartenfelder in the House, says the folksy demeanor can be deceiving, and Bartenfelder is often underestimated.
"They'll tell you he's nothing but a farmer, he doesn't know much," says McCaffrey, who now lives in Anne Arundel County. "You could go to him to explain a bill, he would ask questions that were germane to the issue."
Several Kamenetz supporters, including Councilman Vincent Gardina and former state Sen. Michael Collins, have said they like Bartenfelder personally, but they have doubts about his executive potential. Among other things, both said they wondered whether he would be sufficiently "decisive."
Dennis C. Donaldson, former Prince George's delegate and Democratic House leader, said he remembers Bartenfelder as a "very hard worker" in the Assembly who would "take a position and hold to it. ... He wasn't wishy-washy at all."
He's clear enough about wanting to hold onto some elements of his farm life if he wins the executive job, but aside from showing up at the Sunday market it's not clear how that would work.
"If I spend any time in the field, it'll be like anybody else spending time on the golf course," he said — crucial "sanity" time.
"It keeps me grounded," he said. "Because no matter what else happens, you know what you have to fall back on is your family and your farm."
arthur.hirsch@baltsun.com
Joseph Bartenfelder
Resides: Fullerton
Age: 53
County councilman since: 1994
Occupation: Farmer