Results were mixed for candidates on both sides of the continuing dispute over redevelopment of downtown Columbia during the Columbia Democratic Club's packed endorsement meeting Wednesday night.
Columbia's oldest and most active Democratic Club drew a standing-room-only hallway-packed crowd of candidates — from Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Sarbanes to a raft of courthouse hopefuls and nonpartisan school board candidates — and their supporters at the Jeffers Hill Community Center. Among those, the club endorsed incumbents Frank Aquino and Sandra French, and newcomer Larry Walker. As usual, the tally took until about midnight to complete.
Incumbents in two contested West Columbia primary races in which the General Growth Properties plan is central were endorsed by the club in lopsided votes, though county councilwoman Mary Kay Sigaty and Del. Elizabeth Bobo are on opposite sides of the issue.
Sigaty, a champion of the much-changed redevelopment zoning adopted by the County Council, got 88 votes out of 107 ballots, compared to 14 for rival Alan Klein, a longtime critic of the council's work on the issue. At the same time, club members gave 70 votes to veteran Bobo compared to 27 for John Bailey, her primary rival and a plan booster.
Bobo has been critical of the adopted rezoning, and has said she likes Klein's views: that it allows the developer too much leeway. Sigaty says the council added enough safeguards; she and Bailey both say the project is needed to revitalize central Columbia into a real downtown.
To get an endorsement, each candidate had to win a majority, or 54 votes out of the total cast. The District 4 council race between Sigaty and Klein and the District 12b House of Delegates race between Bobo and Bailey are the only two contested Democratic primaries. Both districts include Town Center Columbia.
"I'm gratified," Sigaty said after the vote. "It feels good that the members of the club recognize the work I've done."
"I'm pleased," Bobo said, adding that "I knew there was an organized effort" on Bailey's behalf, something he denied.
"It is what it is," Klein said, explaining that he knew he would not win the club's nod. "It certainly doesn't reflect the response I get as I go out and talk to people in the district." It's not clear how many club members live in West Columbia.
Bailey said he, too, was not surprised Bobo got the club's endorsement given her long history with the group. "I'm not going to win or lose on what the Columbia Democratic Club does," though he is a member himself, the former Republican said. Bailey did take comfort in collecting nearly twice the votes Klein got, however. "That number stood out to me that that my message is taking hold."
The quiet candidate
Reginald T. Avery is trying to become a candidate for Howard County Council, but he refuses to talk about it until August, according to Frank Beardsley, who said he is Avery's campaign manager.
Avery, a registered Republican until the night of July 6 (the filing deadline), showed up at county election board headquarters about 10 minutes before the deadline that night, according to Guy Mickley, the deputy board administrator, changed his voter registration to independent and filed to run for County Council in District 2, where Democrat Calvin Ball is the incumbent and Republican Anthony Jordan is also running.
Mickley said that as an independent, Avery must collect signatures from 1 percent of the district's voters to be certified as an official candidate. He's got until Aug. 2 to collect 333 valid names, Mickley said. Beardsley said, Avery, who lists 9330 Afternoon Lane, Columbia, as his home, would have no time to talk about his proposed candidacy until then.
Breaking through
Republican Edward J. Priola, 56, says he's working hard to crack the solid threesome of experienced District 13 Democrats who represent southeastern Howard County in the Maryland House of Delegates. Although the incumbents — Guy Guzzone, Shane Pendergrass and Frank Turner — say they are confident they've served the people well and will be reelected.
"Every day at 7 a.m. I'm waving [signs] at traffic," Priola said, wearing a colorful tropical shirt and a big smile at his "Aloha Priola" Hawaiian Luau fundraising event at High Ridge Park in North Laurel on Sunday. The event drew about 50 to 60 people, including other Republican candidates and officials, and raised "a couple thousand bucks," Priola guessed.
But he's relying more on sweat and shoe leather than money, he said, and now the veteran Republican is working full-time at it, having resigned his job as communications officer for the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Priola ran once before for delegate, in 1994 in Anne Arundel County, but was unsuccessful.
This time, he said he and supporters are dropping 300 to 500 campaign door-hangers a day. He's hit 20,000 doors since October, he said, and returns to sign waving at commuters each afternoon rush hour.
"I think we're making an impression," he said. "I do think we're the hardest-working campaign in Howard County." Priola is one of four Republicans, including Jeff Robinson, Loretta Gaffney and J'Neanne Theus, competing for three GOP nominations for House of Delegates.
Priola is pushing term limits and fiscal conservatism along with a friendly climate for private business.
"It's not a Republican year," Priola said. "It's a fiscal conservatives' year."
Meanwhile, Turner and Guzzone recently held fundraisers of their own, aided by some of the most prominent Democrats in state government. Democrats stress Howard's top-rated schools, low crime and other public services as the reason for their confidence, but no one knows how the turmoil over the national economy will play out at the polls in November.
House Speaker Michael E. Busch and majority leader Del. Kumar Barve of Montgomery County attended Turner's gathering for about 60 people at the Watermark Place condominium in Columbia on July 10, along with county executive Ken Ulman, Del. Elizabeth Bobo, County Council members Mary Kay Sigaty and Jen Terrasa, and Sheriff James Fitzgerald. Busch said Howard is an important swing county in Maryland and Democrats need to boost Democratic turnout to win the county and help Democrats win the state.
"I need Frank back; this is going to be a tough election," he said. Turner said his experience on the Appropriations and Ways and Means committees will be even more important during poor economic times. "I think we've done a good job in the last four years and beyond. I think most people know that and they'll put us back in office," he told his supporters.
But Priola said he's not intimidated by Turner's backers, an idea reinforced by Republican Del. Gail H. Bates, who also attended his event. "Maybe they think Frank is vulnerable, or they wouldn't be showing up," she said, adding that no one, Democrats nor Republicans, can be sure what the voters will do this year.
In 2006, Turner was third behind Guzzone and Pendergrass, but still collected 20.3 percent of the vote, compared to 12.6 percent for the closest Republican — a gap of about 9,000 votes.
A week earlier at Guzzone's annual pizza party fundraiser at his Columbia home, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler joined a crowd of more than 200 on Guzzone's lawn and backyard. Ulman pointed out construction under way for the new North Laurel Community Center and regional park next to Laurel Woods Elementary school.
"That park didn't happen by accident," Ulman said, noting the years of tedious work required to assemble land for the park and plan for the facilities. Democrats feel voters will remain true to incumbents who have improved community life.
"They say this year is a bad year for incumbents," Guzzone told his supporters. "Maybe that's true somewhere, but I hope it's not true here. I'm proud of what we've done," he said.