The first salvo has been fired in the election campaign nobody involved in
Harford County politics wants to talk about out loud, or at least not until
now.
The Harford County Republican Central Committee put out a press release late
Thursday endorsing Charles Wagner for Circuit Court judge. Wagner is one of three men running against Judge Angela Eaves, who made history last month
when Gov. Martin O'Malley tapped her to be the first woman and the first
African-American to sit on the local circuit bench.
By law, Eaves has to run for a full 15-year term in this year's election,
and it's fairly debatable if O'Malley gave her an advantage by naming her to
the bench barely 10 weeks before the Feb. 12 primary election. Had he waited
until after the primary to appoint her, Eaves would have had until the 2010
election cycle to get settled in and theoretically better known among the
voters. That cuts both ways, though, because a longer stretch on the bench
could have given an established opponent more time to develop and execute a
campaign against her.
Either way, the wisdom of appointing now rather than later will have to
await post-election analysis.
Any lawyer in good standing with the Maryland bar who lives in Harford
County can oppose a sitting circuit judge. The election process is
technically nonpartisan, which means the candidates' names appear on the
Democratic and the Republican primary ballots. If one candidate wins both
primaries, it's tantamount to being elected, since only his or her name will
appear on the general election ballot. If there are different primary
winners, however, the two will square off in the general election.
Eaves was elevated from the District Court, where she had been a judge since
2000, to the Circuit Court to replace the retired Judge Maurice Baldwin Jr.
From a purely political standpoint, the new circuit court judge has several
factors working against her. For one, she's a black woman running on an
election ballot in a county which in its 235-year history has only elected
one black person to a countywide office.
But whether or not you consider the Harford electorate to be enlightened on matters of race (clearly being a woman won't hurt her) there's no question
Eaves' first appointment to the District Court was made by then-Gov. Parris
Glendening, who is positively reviled by many local voters, and her latest appointment to the Circuit Court bench came courtesy of O'Malley, who clearly can't be riding much of a wave of popularity locally following the recent tax raising special legislative session that was orchestrated by the
governor from start to finish.
Eaves also has history on her side, too. Since 1900, only one sitting
Harford Circuit Court judge has been unseated, and that happened in 1954
when voters in Baltimore County also had a say in Harford's judicial
elections, since both make up the state's Third Judicial Circuit. The defeat
of Judge D. Paul McNabb by Stewart Day still ranks as one of the bigger
political upsets in Harford County history, and the process for judicial
elections was changed soon afterward. There have been other similarly heated
judicial campaigns since, but the sitting judge has always come out on top.
In addition to Wagner, Eaves is opposed by Steve Scheinin, a Fallston
community leader, who has run for judge numerous times with no success, and
H. Edward Andrews III, a former legal counsel to the Harford County Council who does a lot of legal work for members of the local law enforcement
community.
Wagner's endorsement from the Republican Central Committee, on which his
wife, Kim, is a member, comes six years after he was an unsuccessful
candidate for House of Delegates, as a Democrat.
Charles Wagner is a people's lawyer and is well respected within the Harford County community, Michael Geppi, chairman of the Central Committee, said in the press release announcing the endorsement. We believe the people
of Harford County will be best served by a conservative judge as opposed to
someone appointed by the same governor who raised taxes and does not share
their values, Geppi said.
According to the release, former Gov. Bob Ehrlich is supporting Wagner and
will be a guest speaker for him at an upcoming fund-raiser.
"The citizens of Harford County do not need Governor O'Malley to make their choice for them. We are confident the people want a strong, honest,
straightforward jurist administering justice. Clearly the best choice for
judge is Charles Wagner," Geppi added.
Consider the gauntlet thrown.
The Political Pot
Harford County Executive David Craig was expected to head to New Hampshire
Friday night for a few days of campaigning on behalf of GOP presidential
hopeful Rudy Guiliani. Craig was due to be part of a contingent from
Maryland that includes Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold, with whom
Craig once served in the House of Delegates.
Craig spokesman Bob Thomas said the county executive will return the middle
of next week, in time for the start of the 2008 Maryland General Assembly
session. Craig is due to meet with local legislators next Friday to go over
his legislative package. |
