A former state senator. Two current and two former members of the Annapolis City Council. The daughter of a former mayor. A judge on the Anne Arundel County Orphans Court. And a dozen others.
Nineteen candidates have applied to fill the vacancy in the House of Delegates created by the resignation last month of former Del. Alice J. Cain (D-Anne Arundel) in District 30A. The Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee will meet virtually beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and then will make a selection.
It promises to be a long night: Candidates are invited to make two-minute statements, and central committee members will be allowed 13 minutes to question each contender. Do the math: If every candidate appears and gets the full grilling, it will take almost five hours before a candidate is selected.
The central committee’s recommendation will be forwarded to Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R), who has the final say on the appointment.
The central committee went through a similar drill just a year ago, following the death of former House speaker Michael E. Busch (D), who also represented District 30A. He was replaced by now-Del. Shaneka T. Henson (D), who had been an Annapolis alderwoman, who defeated 13 other applicants.
The contenders this time include:
— Annapolis Ald. Rhonda Pindell Charles, a retired attorney and Anne Arundel County official;
— Annapolis Ald. Eleanor “Elly” Tierney, a local bed-and-breakfast owner;
— Former state Sen. John A. Giannetti, who spent four years in the House and four years in the Senate representing a different district, then moved to Annapolis, where he practices law and served as chairman of the city Democratic Party;
— Vickie Gipson, associate judge of the Orphans’ Court of Anne Arundel County;
— William “Henry” Green, retired pastor of Heritage Baptist Church;
— Former Annapolis Ald. Ian Pfeiffer, who served for eight years on the Council and is Maryland director for the State Innovation Exchange;
— Former Annapolis Ald. Wayne Taylor;
— Loni Moyer, who runs a landscape business and is the daughter of former Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer;
— Chrissy Holt, who ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2018
The meeting will be recorded and posted on the central committee’s website and Facebook page after the interviews and deliberations are complete.
For a full list of candidates, click here.
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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