Guy Guzzone is sweating. It's 8 o'clock on a sticky summer night, and after three nonstop hours of knocking on doors of registered voters, he's come to the 89th house, the second-to-last for the night, on some cul-de-sac in Owen Brown that at this point looks no different from so many others he's traversed in the past several months.
No one's home, and the lanky 34-year-old is ready to make his way to house number 90. But just then, a Toyota Camry pulls up. Out steps Peter Doob, 50-year-old Democrat, father of three and Columbia resident for 18 years.
Guzzone introduces himself with a smile, and Doob seems to nod in recognition. The candidate's eyes light up.
"You recognize my name?"
"I recognize your name," Doob says assuredly. "A Democrat running for County Council. About time."
About time indeed, Democrats say, for the party to win more races in Howard County. After 12 years of losing seats on the County Council, after eight years of being shut out of the county executive's office, Democrats are making a bid to reclaim control of county government this year.
The party's candidates are working hard, and with a sense of urgency: If the Democrats fail to win the county executive's office or a majority on the council, Republicans will control the drawing of new council district lines in 2000.
That would hand the GOP an opportunity to entrench themselves in the county's seats of power for more than a decade.
"It's a critical election for Democrats, no doubt about it," said Lin Eagan, a former president of the Columbia Democratic Club who was active in county politics in the 1970s, when Democrats held sway over county government. Then, being the Democratic nominee often meant victory in November.
Now, Democrats are struggling to influence the government machine they once ran.
This year presents a golden opportunity, with County Executive Charles I. Ecker, a Republican, leaving office, three Republicans leaving the council and the only two Democratic council members running for re-election.
Primaries add to GOP work
Moreover, Republicans face primaries in the executive's race and the three races for open seats, while Democrats can generally direct their money and efforts toward the November election.
The Democrats have largely pinned their hopes on two candidates: James Robey, the former police chief running for executive, and Guzzone, former Maryland director of the Sierra Club, who is running for the open council seat considered most winnable by Democrats.
If both men win -- a big if -- and the incumbent Democrats win -- as many expect -- the party would again control county government.
To many in the Democratic Party, Robey is the ideal candidate. He is a longtime public servant with good name recognition and obvious credentials on crime. He has a raft of volunteers from the public employee ranks, and his frequent meetings with community groups when he was police chief prepared him well for grass-roots campaigning.
He also has the help of Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who appeared with him two consecutive days this month.
"I'll tell ya, he's going to win the Democratic nomination. You heard it here first," Glendening joked to a crowd of about 250 at a recent western Howard fund-raiser for Robey, who has no primary opponent. "Because we're going to work together as one team, because we know the stakes, he's going to win in November as well."
What's at stake?
But some political observers are asking what, exactly, is at stake. Some of the Republicans running for office are either former Democrats or so moderate they could easily be mistaken for Democrats, and Robey himself is considered a conservative Democrat by members of both parties.
Meanwhile, the county's dominant issue -- growth -- has blurred party lines to the extent that, in many races, it is difficult to tell which candidate, Democrat or Republican, would do more to stem the tide of development in the next four years.
Still, many Democrats charge that a Republican win in November would signal trouble for managed growth and other key issues -- education, social services and affordable housing -- which Democrats contend have received short shrift from Republicans. Democrats say that, although party lines might be blurred, it would be dangerous to allow the GOP to set the agenda for more than a decade to come.
"Even if my opponents happen to be good on the education issue or any other issue, the bottom line is they are going to cast a vote for their party on redistricting," Guzzone said. "There might be one Republican or two Republicans who are good on this issue or on that issue, [but] if education is what we care about in the long term, then I'm putting my confidence in a Democratic majority delivering on that issue."
GOP defends its policies
Republicans readily agree they spend less on government, which might mean less money than Democrats would spend for education and social programs. But they say that's because their party spends wisely and rewards the public with lower taxes.
"There would be more government spending if the Democrats are in charge, and there would be the potential of lower taxes if the Republicans are in charge," says GOP councilman Darrel E. Drown, who is leaving office this year.
School battle continues
This year's school budget battle should help give the voters a clear choice in November. The GOP council majority, including executive candidates Charles C. Feaga and Dennis R. Schrader, infuriated educators and some parents by passing a small cut in the piggyback income tax while giving schools millions less than requested.
The Democrats immediately made it clear they would make that budget fight a campaign issue.
If they win, they might reverse the tax cut and use the new money -- $5.5 million in the next fiscal year -- for education.
If Republicans win, the tax cut will stay. If Schrader beats Feaga in the primary and wins the executive's race, he'll try to get rid of the $125-per-household trash tax -- a nearly $9 million hit that would further squeeze the budget.
That's a potential $14.5 million swing in annual taxes and spending. The executive's race and the contest in Guzzone's District 3 could help decide which way it goes. With political observers expecting the four other districts to split evenly between the parties, District 3 is the "swing" seat on the council.
The district, which includes North Laurel and part of southeast Columbia, is by far the most winnable of the three open seats for Democrats. Schrader won it by a narrow margin in 1994 -- a great year for Republican candidates nationwide -- and the district's ratio of Democratic voters to Republican voters has remained stable at 1.4 to 1 since that election.
Ex-Democrat steps carefully
The candidate considered to have the best chance of winning the district's Republican primary is Wanda Hurt, who until 1994 was an active Democrat. Schrader's endorsement of her, as well as an early start and a fund-raising lead, should help Hurt against primary opponent Kirk Halpin, who has run a low-profile campaign.
Hurt, a former PTA activist, has tried to walk a tightrope between her new loyalty to the Republican Party and her past support of educators on budget issues. She was initially critical of the GOP tax cut and said she would have found more money for education, but she retreated somewhat, saying she wouldn't second-guess the council's decisions.
Hurt hasn't made the trash tax an issue in her campaign, but she said last week she would "probably" support getting rid of the tax. "I'm leaning toward Dennis' proposal to deep-six it," she said, hedging a bit. "But I need to look at it."
Tax cut vs. class size
Guzzone doesn't have to walk a tightrope on education when he talks to voters. While knocking on those 90 doors that recent night, he met Owen Brown resident Terri Johnston. She and her husband are considering putting their 3-year-old in private school when the time comes, to avoid the larger class sizes of public schools.
Guzzone mentions the GOP's piggyback income tax cut, arguing that instead of cutting taxes, the county could have spent money to reduce class sizes.
"There have been some bad decisions made," the Democrat said. "I hope to reverse some of those."
Pub Date: 7/26/98