With Republican businessman Steven H. Adler's 17 percentage point election loss to Democrat James N. Robey, the field for Howard County's next county executive is wide open.

Robey cannot run for a third term because of term limits, and Adler said he will not fight for a second chance to lead the GOP if the party and elected Republican officials want someone else to carry the banner in 2006.

But Adler has no regrets, despite the decisive loss Nov. 5.

"I had a great time. My wife and I met hundreds and thousands of new people," he said. "It was a terrific experience. I don't regret it one bit."

But if either of the county's Republican councilmen, Allan H. Kittleman or Christopher J. Merdon, want to run for executive, Adler said he would support them.

"If the central committee wants me to be the candidate - if Allan and Chris aren't interested, I would probably be the candidate again," Adler said.

Some, such as County Councilman Guy J. Guzzone, a North Laurel-Savage Democrat, and Robey himself, scoff at even talking about what could happen years from now, arguing that politics - and life - is far too unpredictable.

"That's four years from now. It's at the bottom of my priority list right now," Robey said just after winning his second term.

But Guzzone, who will become council chairman next month, is a potential executive candidate, said Democratic Party leader Wendy Fiedler, as is 20-year County Council veteran C. Vernon Gray, despite his failed campaign for the state Senate.

As county police chief in the mid-1990s, Robey has often said he did not see himself running for county executive in 1998. Ten years earlier, few would have imagined school bureaucrat Charles I. Ecker running against, much less beating, County Executive Elizabeth Bobo for the county's top job in 1990. Ecker, now Carroll County's schools superintendent, served two terms as Howard's executive.

Speculation

But with the elections recently over, people are still interested, particularly as rumors abound about who may be offered jobs in Republican Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration.

Kittleman praised Adler's performance as a candidate.

"I don't think he should feel bad - he did a great job," the western county councilman said, complimenting Adler's cooperative team spirit. "He shows he's willing to work with the party and he's not just into it for himself."

Louis M. Pope, Republican Party leader, said Adler expressed his views to the county state central committee at a meeting Wednesday night.

Staying involved

"Steve, to his credit, threw it all into the race. That's a huge commitment. Once he gets back to other endeavors, you look at your options for the future," Pope said. "Steve was encouraged to run because of his skill. I think Steve wants to stay involved. What's going to happen two or four years from now is pretty hard to judge at this point."

And that day-to-day party involvement is key, said Merdon, who recalled that although Adler was heavily involved in Republican Dennis R. Schrader's campaign for county executive in 1998, he was not consistently active after that.

"He needs to be more involved in the party. That [involvement] goes a long way in getting support," Merdon said.

Still, Adler's task was a difficult one, Merdon noted.

"I think he ran a great campaign," he said, adding that Adler "ran against a pretty strong incumbent who really hasn't done anything wrong in the last four years. The issues were not there for him to run on."