Ingrid Mezo

While many local residents and politicians are sick of partisan politics, the recent gubernatorial election has underscored the disparity between how Frederick County votes compared to the rest of Maryland, and compared to voters nationwide. The majority of Frederick County elected a mix of republicans and democrats to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) and elected mostly republicans to local leadership roles, e.g., State’s Attorney and Sheriff.

Republicans Roscoe G. Bartlett and Alex X. Mooney re-elected as Rep. for U.S. Congress in District 6 and State Senator in legislative District 3.

The majority of Frederick County elected republican candidates for Maryland Governor and U.S. Senator, but democratic Governor elect Martin O’Malley and Lt. Governor elect Anthony G. Brown defeated republican incumbent Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., and Kristen Cox when the votes where tallied statewide. Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin defeated republican Michael S. Steele as U.S. Senator for the state.

On a federal level, U.S. voters placed democrats in majority positions in both the U.S. House and Senate, making Nancy Pelosi the first woman Majority Speaker of the House in U.S. history.

However, partisanship did not play a role in the election for the Board of Frederick County Commissioners (BOCC), which was driven by issues like growth, traffic, and schools. Elected officials and the public across party lines have called for a repeal of a 1982 ordinance that places the top vote getter of the majority party in the role as President of the BOCC. Instead, they want the top vote getter placed in that role.

In this election, democrat Jan Gardner, one of two democrats elected to the BOCC, overwhelmingly received the top number of votes (44,714), with a 6,206 lead over republican David Gray, who received the second highest number of votes (38,508), according to the latest unofficial results available on Tuesday on the county election board’s Web site.

In northern Frederick County, municipal leaders have repeatedly said that, while they agree that party platforms do make a difference at the state and federal level, partisanship should not play a role in local politics.

Republican Emmitsburg Mayor James Hoover, republican Thurmont Mayor Martin Burns, and democrat Thurmont Commissioner Ron Terpko all said they would like to see Gardner become BOCC president. "Oh, I think she’d do great," Burns said. "I know she used to have pretty deep arguments about the New Market Region plan; however, Jan has voted for growth before. She’s voted for the growth that she thought was appropriate. I think that she is a very articulate, very intelligent woman."

Instead of basing local elections on partisan politics, Burns said that he would like to see party affiliation done away with on a local level. "I think it’s antiquated," Burns said. "Partisan politics has no business on a municipal and county level, and they ought to do away with it."

That would allow everyone to select the best people, regardless of party affiliation, and to move ahead to the general election, he said. Now, voters registered as democrats or republicans can only choose to vote for the five best candidates in their party to advance to the general election. Having a partisan primary excludes candidates from other parties from getting a fair chance to appeal to voters during the general election, Burns said.

While Hoover said that he would also like to see the top vote getter, regardless of party affiliation, become BOCC president, he questioned changing a law after the election, despite the fact that republican BOCC elect David Gray (who would become president) has called for changing the law to allow Gardner to become president. "I think changing it would be appropriate, but changing it to affect this incoming board of county commissioners is improper," Hoover said. "I just think the reality is that the timing is wrong and there are four out of five people that will be affected by this change."

However, Hoover also said he would like to see Gardner as president of the BOCC, and would not argue if the ordinance was changed. "Jan’s deserving of it, there are no two ways about it," he said.

Gardner said that she would be honored to be the president of the BOCC if the majority of the board is willing to change the ordinance. She added that she would recuse herself from voting on the matter. "I think probably half of my congratulatory e-mails [were for becoming BOCC president], so I think it was a public expectation," Gardner said. Apparently, a member of the minority party has not been a top vote getter since 1978."

A major reason the ordinance was not changed prior to the election is because people didn’t know the ordinance existed, she said. Gray has taken the lead on changing it, and both Kai Hagen and Thompson have also indicated a desire to change it, Gardner said.