June may seem like forever from now, especially with sub-freezing overnight temperatures we just experienced, but it will be here before you know it. And with it, Maryland's primary election.
Nationally, you'll hear a lot about the mid-term elections for Congress, but those conversations likely won't heat up until later in the summer and into the fall before the general election in November. Thanks to partisan gerrymandering, sadly, all eight of Maryland's may be foregone conclusions.
Statewide, the story will be narrowing a wide field of Democratic candidates for governor to challenge popular Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.
What you won't hear about on CNN, Fox News or even your favorite local Baltimore area television or radio news stations, however, is anything about local races for county commissioner, the school board or who will be representing you in Annapolis the next four years.
The Carroll County Times is proud to have partnered with the Community Media Center to bring you that information. Later this month, profiles of candidates in each of these races will begin to appear in the newspaper and our website, while the CMC will be broadcasting live six candidate forums over the next month and a half (moderated in part by yours truly). They will be replayed periodically until the election and available on the CMC's YouTube channel on demand.
Our goal through this partnership is to provide county residents with as much information as possible about these local candidates to make the most informed decisions possible.
But we need your help to do so. While we have plenty of our own questions for these candidates. We want to know what's on your mind and what questions you have for the candidates. We've set up an email account — carrollelections2018@gmail.com — specifically for county residents to submit questions to be asked in our coverage as well as at these six upcoming forums, which all begin at 7 p.m.
The first of these candidate forums will take place in less than 10 days, when the Taneytown Senior and Community Center will play host to the two Republican county commissioner candidates, incumbent Stephen Wantz and challenger Katherine Adelaide.
Two days later, on Thursday, April 19, the Community Media Center in Westminster will host a forum for the 10 active nonpartisan Board of Education candidates — Cathey Allison, Tara Battaglia, Patricia Ann Dorsey, Muri Dueppen, Donald Garmer, Jason Helton, Doug Howard, Kenneth Kiler, Mary Kowalski and Bob Lord (the 11th candidate, Michael Yokay, recently informed the Times that he is no longer seeking office).
Back-to-back forums will occur the following week on Tuesday, April 24, and Wednesday, April 25, respectively, for District 4 candidates at the Mount Airy senior center and District 5 candidates at the South Carroll senior center.
The District 4 forum will include four Republican candidates — Christopher "Eric" Bouchat, Paul Burkett, Bret Grossnickle and Sean Shaffer — as well as Democrat candidate Paul Johnson.
Four Republicans — Kathy Fuller, Dave Greenwalt, Frank Robert and Ed Rothstein — seeking the nomination in District 5 have been invited.
Two weeks later, on Wednesday, May 9, in the only county race with competitive primaries for both parties, Republicans Dennis Frazier, the incumbent commissioner, and Tom Gordon, and Democrats Doug Mathias and Maria Warburton, have been invited to the Westminster senior center for the District 3 Commissioner forum.
On Wednesday, May 16, the four Republican candidates competing for three spots on the November ballot for state delegate representing District 5, and the one Democratic candidate, are invited to the Community Media Center for the final forum before the election.
Republican incumbents Susan Krebs, April Rose and Haven Shoemaker, along with newcomer David Ellin, have been asked to attend, along with Democrat Emily Shank.
The primary election is Tuesday, June 26. Early voting begins Thursday, June 14, through Thursday, June 21, and will be available at two locations this year — the Westminster Senior and Community Center and the South Carroll Swim Club.
In the last two mid-term primaries, just 24 percent (2014) and 31 percent (2010) of Carroll County registered voters participated. Yet, the Republican primary has determined the winner in every commissioner race since the county moved to five commissioners in 2010.
It's so important to understand and to get informed about the issues and the candidates before casting a ballot. And, in my many cases locally, waiting until the General Election in November will be too late. Please check out our upcoming coverage, attend or watch the upcoming candidate forums and, of course, submit questions for us to ask the candidates by emailing carrollelections2018@gmail.com.
Wayne Carter is the editor of the Carroll County Times. Reach him at wayne.carter@carrollcountytimes.com.
