As the clock passed 9 p.m. Monday night at the state Board of Elections, Evelyn Kach was ecstatic over something that didn?t happen.
For the first time in the nine elections in which her husband, Republican Del. Wade Kach of Baltimore County, has run for office, no one had filed to run against him in the primary or the general election. After 32 years in office, he?s getting a free ride.
Kach appears to be the only one among more than 300 candidates seeking one of the 141 seats in the House of Delegates this fall to face no opposition. Some, like House Speaker Michael Busch, a 20-year veteran in his Annapolis district, have a dozen or more people seeking a seat in their three-member districts.
Ten senators ? more than a fifth of 47-member Senate ? also are getting a free ride to another four-year term. They include some of the most liberal and conservative of the senators, as well as two committee chairmen.
The unopposed include seven Democrats, four fromMontgomery County: Budget and Tax Committee Chairman Ulysses Currie, Prince George?s; Judicial Proceedings Committee Chairman Brian Frosh, Montgomery, a persistent thorn in the side to Gov. Robert Ehrlich on the environment and personnel matters; Sen. Paul Pinsky, Prince George?s, another sharp Ehrlich critic; Sen. Nathaniel Exum, Prince George?s; Del. Richard Madaleno, Montgomery, running for his first Senate term, the only non-incumbent; Budget Committee Vice Chair Patrick Hogan, Montgomery; and Jennie Forehand, Montgomery.
The three Republican senators without opposition are: Minority Leader Lowell Stoltzfus, representing the lower Eastern Shore; Sen. Donald Munson, Washington County; and Nancy Jacobs, Harford County.
