With the ever-coming wave of blue, many areas are now seeing hope where there normally wasn't one. Take Harford County, MD for example. Twenty years ago was when the Democratic powers that be decided, "We like things the way they are, so we won't do anything". This brought us Republican hell. All we have currently is one Democratic Councilman (
Dion Guthrie) and Delegate Mary-Dulany James
Earlier this year, the College Dems of Harford Community College we given a special treat; Professor
Stan Kollar (Biology) was to run for MD Senate 35. His big focus was the environment and continually kept trying to pull the conversation back into that subject, he actually has some substantial economy and 'quality of life' ideas that, while moderate, are progressive in the views of Harford.
Many weeks later, I was present at a Democratic Central Committee meeting where William Kilby was nominated to run against Nancy Jacobs. Kilby was more uni-issue than Kollar at first glance. From what he was talking about, everything revolved around farming, and while there is some truth to that, I would not expect someone to win on one single issue. I spent the next few weeks hoping to hear news from either of these two...
I heard nothing. Then the primary passed and I saw something that merits notice. Kilby, who has no website, no press and little visibility in Harford (Senate 34 covers a lot of Cecil as well) received MORE votes in his primary than Nancy Jacobs (Both ran unapposed).
The Baltimore Sun reported that this is one of the lowest primary turnouts in recent history. Kilby didn't just 'outscore' Jacobs by 70 or so, but by almost 2000 votes! Just the day after the primary, I was contacted by the Kilby Campaign for some volunteer advising. Well, the local Democratic Central Committee isn't that effective, so I almost felt obliged to help.
Kollar on the other hand...at least showed he was competitive, but was about 3000 votes shy of tieing the race.
Up and until election day, I plan on covering more on both of these candidates, and also how they're taking the fight to the republican, pro-business establishment.