With a month to go before the filing deadline for candidates in the 2006 elections, some races forHarford County Council are already crowded ? though officials say there could still be surprises.
District D, a wide swath of rural northern Harford County, has four candidates filed to run, all Republicans. Two Democrats also plan to file and are campaigning. The current councilman, Lance C. Miller, has stated that he will not seek re-election.
Without Miller, at least six candidates who are relatively new to council politics will be vying for the seat, beginning in the Sept. 12 primary.
“That race is wide open,” said Harford County Republican Central Committee Chairman Bill Christoforo. “We?ve not seen all the surprises yet. … There will be other people in the council races we haven?t even thought of.”
Republican Chad Shrodes ? a planner for the county government?s Department of Planning and Zoning ? says his background would help him deal with zoning issues that will come before the council, including the comprehensive rezoning bill that stalled earlier this year. If elected, Shrodes said he would resign from his job with the county.
Level Volunteer Fire Chief Jason Gallion has also filed as a Republican ? his second bid for the seat after losing to Miller in 1998. He has already earned the endorsement of Miller and State Del. Barry Glassman, the Republican representative for District 35A, Christoforo said.
Amy Hopkins Daney, a member of a prominent horse-breeding family in Darlington, said she wouldn?t have run for the seat if Miller ? her neighbor ? had filed for re-election. Her campaign in the Republican primary will be built on listening to the community, which she said many of Harford?s officials failed to accomplish.
Charles Burns, a Jarrettsville Republican who filed at the beginning of May, did not return calls before press time Wednesday evening.
Democrat Stephen Smith, the vice president of Harford?s branch of the NAACP, plans to officially file today. His campaign will focus on issues of transportation, making homes available to all county residents, school crowding and reaching out to other districts, said Kevin Racine, a member of Smith?s campaign staff.
Terence Cox, a Democrat from the Darlington/Dublin area, said he would focus on crowded schools in his district, zoning that would keep the region mostly rural and encouraging manufacturing jobs only in the areas designated for development. As controller for Alcore Inc., an aerospace manufacturer, Cox said he was pro-manufacturing, but in favor of controlled growth.
