With no incumbent seeking re-election for the county's register of wills for the first time in more than three decades, four Republicans are seeking the party's nomination.
Francis X. Walsh, a Westminster lawyer who came in second in the 1998 Republican primary election for register of wills, has been endorsed by the current officeholder, Nancy L. Airing.
After seven years in the post, and 25 years working in the office, Airing, 64, decided to step down. She took over the job, which is the equivalent of the clerk of the Orphans' Court, when Reese L. Starner died in office in 1995, soon after being elected to an eighth term.
Also running as Republicans are: Paul G. Zimmerman, 48, of Westminster, a former assistant county attorney in Carroll who now holds the same post in Frederick County; William E. Burton, 62, of Sykesville, a professional auditor now under contract to the county, and Sue Ellen Greenfield, 36, of Westminster, a former accountant and now full-time homemaker.
Zimmerman, a lawyer for 20 years, said he became a candidate because he has the skills the job requires. "I saw the qualifications of the people that had signed up," he said, "and I felt my qualifications are a much better match for the position." He has worked in Frederick for the past eight years, handling a variety of administrative law issues such as zoning appeals and violations, liquor board and ethics violations.
Previous experience
Previously, he worked for five years for the state in Baltimore at the Board of Appeals for unemployment insurance, after serving six years in Carroll as an assistant county attorney.
Walsh, 63, has been a Carroll resident since 1977, and has previously been a candidate in General Assembly races. He maintains a law practice in Westminster and has specialized in estate work for 31 years.
"Something attracts me to it," he said. "It's mathematical to some extent. It has to come out evenly. It's not like divorce or criminal work, with a lot of anguish and grief."
Greenfield has been a member of the Republican Central Committee since 1998, and since 1995 has served on the county's housing review board, which considers appeals in landlord-tenant disputes.
She worked as accountant at Carroll Lutheran Village for three years before leaving to care for her five children. She said she became interested in the Orphans' Court a few years ago, after her grandmother died.
