A week after the Maryland Court of Appeals redrew the General Assembly's legislative district map, Baltimore County candidates are jumping into unexpected races in new territory.
The court's legislative map reuniting Dundalk largely restored the status quo from the past 10 years. But the new 42nd District in Towson and the 7th District, running from Cockeysville to Middle River and into southern Harford County, have left candidates from both parties scrambling.
In the 42nd District, Del. Martha S. Klima, a Republican, announced this week that she will run for the Maryland Senate on a ticket with two party activists, Susan Aumann and William J. Frank. Voters in the district will elect one senator and two delegates.
Klima, a five-term member of the Maryland House of Delegates, said she had not been planning to run for the Senate, but when the new maps were released, she found herself to be the only elected legislator living in the district. She has been a member of the House appropriations committee and said she would be an advocate for fiscal restraint.
Aumann is a former member of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee and has been treasurer of the Bob Ehrlich for Maryland Committee. Frank ran for Congress in 1994 and serves as chairman of Sen. Andrew P. Harris' campaign committee. Both seek House seats.
Also running for the House from the 42nd District is Republican Emil B. Pielke, who was appointed last fall to finish James M. Kelley's term in the old Towson district. Pielke said his main priority if elected would be to balance the budget without raising taxes.
On the Democratic side, Jim Brochin, who has been campaigning for three years in preparation for a Senate race against Harris, has begun knocking on doors in the new 42nd District, which he hopes to represent in the state Senate.
A voracious door-to-door campaigner, Brochin had been planning a race critical of Harris' conservative voting record but now finds he is no longer in Harris' district. If elected, Brochin said he would work to shrink the size of government, lower the state income tax and protect open space.
Harris said he would run for re-election to the state Senate from the 7th District, although it is almost all new territory for him.
He said he thinks his opposition to Senate Bill 509, the failed east-side revitalization plan, will help him win votes in parts of the district he hasn't represented before.
County Councilman Vincent J. Gardina, a Democrat from Perry Hall, said he plans to run for state Senate in the 7th. He said he would campaign to improve education and economic development and to fight sprawl.
Del. Diane DeCarlo, another Democrat, filed to run for state Senate in the district before the court ruling, but her home is out of the new district. She has not announced her plans.
Democrat Jerry Hersl, an east-side activist, also has filed for the state Senate in the 7th.
It isn't clear who will file to run for the House representing the 7th District.
Voters will elect three delegates and one senator.
The court redrew the state legislative map after the one drawn by Gov. Parris N. Glendening was deemed unconstitutional.
