The GOP County Council primary in west Columbia, the most lopsidedly Democratic of the five County Council districts, is a great sideshow.
Democratic voter superiority is so overwhelming there -- 1.83 to 1 -- that it looked as if the Democratic primary winner would win by default the 4th District seat being vacated by Democrat Paul R. Farragut.
But to the surprise of both Democrats and Republicans, the GOP fielded three very diverse candidates, each of whom is looking forward to winning the Sept. 13 primary. Based on the turnout in the 1990 primary, they will need only 720 votes to do it.
The three are coming up with some novel ideas. Federal retiree Robert E. O'Brien hopes to show that a person can raise and spend less than $300 and still wage a credible campaign. Mary Ann Wilkinson, an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, wants to make council members accessible by electronic mail.
And retired business executive Riaz H. Rana wants to limit council service to two terms of six years each, with a voter referendum on their performance every two years. A council member who didn't get a 75 percent approval rating would have to fight for re-election, under his plan.
Mr. Rana is a former Democrat new to the GOP. Mr. O'Brien and Ms. Wilkinson are long-time Republicans. Both Mr. O'Brien and Ms. Wilkinson had expected to run unopposed with their party's blessing.
When it appeared that no Republican would contest the seat, Mr. O'Brien, 60, met with County Executive Charles I. Ecker and asked if the executive would mind having Mr. O'Brien on the ticket with him.
"I was the first candidate in either party to file. I filed to provide competition" for the Democrats, he said.
$300 limit
Although two other candidates entered the race, Mr. O'Brien, who signed a waiver saying he would not raise or spend more than $300 on his campaign, has no intention of getting out. "I'm the best qualified person," he says. "My experience in federal service cannot be matched by anyone" else in the race.
During his 31-year government career, Mr. O'Brien served as a policy analyst with the Department of Agriculture, an environmental protection specialist with the Environmental Protection Agency, and a grants management specialist with the National Institutes of Health.
His major goals are to make comprehensive zoning a legislative act subject to voter referendum and to overturn a mixed-use zoning designation for an 820-acre parcel near Route 216 and U.S. 29. "I would do everything I could to rescind, eliminate or modify that decision," Mr. O'Brien says.
No advertising
Mr. O'Brien has limited his campaign activity to attendance at forums and answering questionnaires. Campaigning door to door "pointless," and media advertising is "self-glorifying," he says. "It doesn't make any difference whatsoever to people."
He believes his low-budget campaign can succeed because "people have not made up their minds yet -- they will look at the voters' guide and make their decision the day before the election."
Ms. Wilkinson, who holds a doctorate in education from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, started thinking about doing more politically than attending fund-raisers and helping with other people's campaigns when the state cut public health funding.
"Essential people were cut," she says, "I spearheaded a [successful] letter-writing campaign" to preserve essential services. She also involved several of her students in establishing "a clinical base for populations at risk" within the county -- teen parents, women with breast cancer, and the chronically mentally ill. In addition, Ms. Wilkinson, a psychiatric nurse, does volunteer therapy eight hours a week.
She had seen her role as chairwoman of both the county Commission for Women and the Women's Health Committee as rounding out her public service until Councilman Charles C. Feaga, a 5th District Republican, asked her to run for the council.
"I was shocked when asked," she says, "but I would definitely like to see a female on the council" again. Councilwoman Shane Pendergrass, a 1st District Democrat, the only woman on the five-member council, is running for state office this fall.
Like Mr. O'Brien, Ms. Wilkinson thinks the zoning procedures need to be changed. She wants residents to have more than three minutes to express themselves on controversial matters, such as the Route 216 mixed-use zoning proposal.
Ms. Wilkinson, 44, also sees her campaign as having an important teaching role. "If nothing else, it will feed my students' zeal for years to come," she says. "I am teaching leadership and management and that nurses need to be involved in politics. We give of ourselves and help other people. We have excellent management and organizational skills."
Ms. Wilkinson is out every morning with a sign, waving at motorists. The experience reminds her of her early childhood in New Orleans when she used to sit on the porch in rockers with her grandparents and wave at passing cars, she says.
"If people will listen and not just vote the party, I have a shot," Ms. Wilkinson says. "If not, I've tried. I can feel satisfaction even if I lose."
Former CEO
Mr. Rana, 59, built a $38 million-a-year, 390-employee company from a one-man operation on a $5,000 investment. He wants to bring his experience of "trying to promote the best in people" to county government.
At Statistica, the Rockville-based computer company where he was chief executive officer until his retirement earlier this year, Mr. Rana "drove people crazy," he says, because "I believed in being in the trenches and I never accepted mediocrity. I earned a good reputation for the company."
He hopes to do the same for county government. He worries about the county's economic base and what he sees as a growing "we vs. them." mentality. "I got into a line of work where I was creating jobs," he says. "Why should it be us vs. them?"
He holds up a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution. "Our founding fathers didn't say 'Us vs. them,' they said, 'We the people.' The county charter says 'We the people.' Maybe we're just a little confused now. Maybe we have forgotten we are so interdependent.
"People on one side are saying 'no growth,' and people on the other are saying 'no restrictions.' This is where the conflict is. I'm hoping a guy like me can stand in the middle and hold their hands together and say, 'Let's be realistic.' "
If the county does not diversify its economic base -- Mr. Rana prefers many small companies to one or two large ones -- Howard may not have enough revenue from residential property taxes to maintain the quality of life residents have come to expect, he says.
Mr. Rana also wants stiffer penalties for crimes against the elderly.
There are also several things about the way the County Council does business that Mr. Rana wants changed. He objects to the fact that people who testify before the council are at a podium several feet below council members and have to look up to them.
Mr. Rana's last try for public office was 16 years ago, when he ran as a Democrat for a seat in the General Assembly. There were two things that led him to run again now, he says. One was a saying from his mother that a person's life is divided into three: "The first third you learn, the second third you earn, the last third you give. I am 59 and in the last third."
The other thing was an article he read in which a 68-year-old man said he was still waiting for a politician to tell the truth. "The day I read that article is the day I decided to run for office," he says.