Council Race

As an incumbent Democrat in a Howard County Council district with more registered Democrats than Republicans and independents combined, Jennifer Terrasa would seem like a sure bet for re-election. "I think I've done a good job over the last four years and the [voter registration] numbers are good, but I don't take anything for granted," said Terrasa, 41, a lawyer and mother of three whose District 3 covers North Laurel, Savage and parts of Columbia's villages of King's Contrivance and Owen Brown.

Shannon Sneed conceded her closely contested race to unseat City Councilman Warren Branch in a message on her campaign Facebook page late Thursday. The television producer congratulated Branch and pledged to continue her activism in East Baltimore. "We have come to the end of a long journey," Sneed wrote. "Though I was not selected to be the next council member, I will still be working tirelessly in our community. I would like to congratulate our councilman on his race, and I know if he succeeds then our community succeeds.

In the race for a seat on the Baltimore County Council in District 1, much debate revolves around a project that at best is years away from construction: a mixed-use commercial project far bigger than anything its developer has done before, which has not been officially filed and would be built on state-owned land in Catonsville that is not for sale. The Promenade — envisioned by Catonsville developer Steve Whalen as a complex of more than a million square feet including stores, restaurants, hotels, office, condominiums and public recreation area — has been discussed around Catonsville for years.

Baltimore City Councilman Warren Branch narrowly defeated his main challenger in the District 13 Democratic primary, election officials said Wednesday. With no votes left to count in the race, Branch, a first-term councilman, had a 43-vote lead over Shannon Sneed, said city elections director Armstead Jones Sr. The results were not yet certified, but election officials were in the process of doing that, Jones said. Reached by phone, Branch breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll take a win any way I can get it," he said jokingly.

The Harford County Democratic Central Committee has nominated Aberdeen resident Ruth B. Frank to run against Republican Robert S. Wagner in the District E County Council race.Mr. Wagner, 36, who is running for re-election, was the only candidate to file for the District E seat by the July 5 deadline. However, the central committees of both parties have until Wednesday to nominate candidates in races that would otherwise be uncontested in the Nov. 8 general election.The Democratic committee met yesterday and voted 6-0 to make Ms. Frank a candidate.

Warren Branch, a city public works inspector, beat incumbent Vernon E. Crider in the District 13 City Council Democratic primary election by 51 votes, the city elections director said yesterday. Provisional and absentee ballots were tallied yesterday and sent to the State Board of Elections, said Armstead B.C. Jones, the elections director. The council race had been the only local contest in the Sept. 11 Democratic primary that was too close to call, though Branch led by a slim margin after the voting.

Republican Gerald P. Starr isn't running against an incumbent in the District 1 County Council race, but he may as well be.His Democratic opponent, George F. Bachman, 69, does not appear to have lost one iota of political strength since he left the council eight years ago to pursue a bid for county executive. Bachman lost that contest, but today he is remembered less for that loss than for his 18 years of council service.Starr, 49, a financial administrator for Westinghouse Electric Corp.

The first candidate to enter the Hampstead Town Council race is Jacqueline Hyatt, who filed her candidacy March 11, Town Clerk Pat Warner said."No sense waiting until the last minute," said Ms. Hyatt. "I really do want to run again. . . . I think I make a difference."She said the projects on which she has made a difference include the Northeast Tourist Bureau; the Hampstead swimming pool; the town tree commission; the council's parks and recreation committee; and the effort to preserve the Hampstead train station.

At first glance, the County Council race in the 4th District looks like the battle of the tweed jackets.Incumbent Republican Bert L. Rice and his Democratic challenger, former U.S. Rep. Bill D. Burlison, are conservative-dressing, slow-talking politicians seeking to represent one of the fastest-growing areas of the county. The district stretches from Maryland City to Sherwood Forest and includes Odenton, Gambrills, Severn and Millersville.These rivals come from very different backgrounds, though.

P erhaps the most surprising thing about the report by Bryan P. Sears of the Towson Times that two development attorneys - including County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s son - are making a major fundraising push to back favored Baltimore County Council candidates in potentially open races is that they're limiting their ambition to three districts. After all, the 2nd District seat might be open, too. Why not try to buy a clear majority? The effort by Michael Paul Smith and David Gildea to raise money for candidates in the 1st, 5th and 6th councilmanic districts might be unusual in its scope and in the dollar amounts they're bringing in. But in terms of development interests seeking influence over Baltimore County government, somebody else thought of that back around the dawn of time.

In an election with few surprises, Baltimore City Councilwoman Belinda M. Conaway stood out. The two-term incumbent lost to a political newcomer in a relatively close race that was called Wednesday morning. With the possible exception of one council race that is still too close to call, Conaway was the only sitting member defeated in Tuesday's Democratic primary. After being dogged in recent months by questions about where she lives, she lost to Nick Mosby, an electrical engineer from Reservoir Hill, by 648 votes.

The incumbent ditched a mayoral bid at the last minute, deciding instead to try to hang on to his seat representing parts of Charles Village, Oliver, Remington and Station North. His challengers include a community activist who hopes to be the Baltimore City Council's first Latina member, an openly gay neighborhood leader who patrols the streets of Mount Vernon on a Segway and a college senior who has snagged the governor's endorsement. And then there's the labor leader, security guard and East Baltimore activist.

The election for an open Baltimore County Council seat in the east side's District 6 that includes Middle River, Fullerton and Overlea has, in many respects, become a referendum on the status quo and the Democratic administration that has been in place for the past eight years. Democrat Cathy A. Bevins, 51, of Middle River, was part of that administration, working for seven years in constituent service for County Executive James T. Smith Jr., and she said she would like to carry on Smith's approach.

In the race for a seat on the Baltimore County Council in District 1, much debate revolves around a project that at best is years away from construction: a mixed-use commercial project far bigger than anything its developer has done before, which has not been officially filed and would be built on state-owned land in Catonsville that is not for sale. The Promenade — envisioned by Catonsville developer Steve Whalen as a complex of more than a million square feet including stores, restaurants, hotels, office, condominiums and public recreation area — has been discussed around Catonsville for years.

Put a Democratic congressman, a Republican opponent and a Libertarian challenger at the same candidates' forum table and what do you get? Agreement that some children of illegal immigrants should be afforded a way to become citizens and stay in the only country they've ever known. That was just one highlight at Tuesday night's marathon six-hour, televised candidates' forum at Howard Community College sponsored by the Association of Community Services and the League of Women Voters.

Only five weeks remain before the November general election, but Reginald G. Avery's campaign for Howard County Council is just getting started. The 56-year-old Oakland Mills resident became a Republican county council candidate Monday after an earlier candidate nominated in the primary officially withdrew. Avery admitted his chances of unseating incumbent Democrat Calvin Ball in East Columbia's District 2 election are slim at best, but he said "I believe residents should have a choice.

An article in The Sun yesterday on campaign financin reports filed by Baltimore County Council candidates incorrectly characterized the amount 7th District candidate Louis L. DePazzo's report has spent on the race. Mr. DePazzo has spent about $1,700 in the current County Council race.The Sun regrets the errors.

Ever since his arrest last January in a drug sting at Washington's Vista Hotel, District Mayor Marion Barry has been a man desperately seeking vindication, first from the jurors who convicted him on one misdemeanor cocaine possession charge, then from the judge who sentenced him to six months in prison, and finally from the voters, whom he called upon to return him to office as one of two at-large members on the City Council. On Tuesday the people spoke and told Barry to call it a day.Barry's ignominious defeat in the council race -- he won less than 20 percent of the vote -- was entirely in keeping with the new mood among District voters that propelled Sharon Pratt Dixon, a lawyer and former utility company executive who three months ago was given virtually no chance of winning, into the mayor's office on a sweeping promise to "clean house."

Thank you for your excellent discussion about the unseemly role of "special interest money" from developers, lawyers, unions, political action committees and trade groups in the financing of the campaigns of at least five of the Democrats running in this week's primary for Baltimore County Council seats in the 1st, 5th and 6th districts ("Buying influence?" Sept. 8). Fortunately, in November the people of those districts will have the option of voting for Republican candidates beholden to nobody but them: Steve Whisler in the 1st, David Marks in the 5th and Ryan Nawrocki in the 6th. Gloria Murphy, Catonsville

As an incumbent Democrat in a Howard County Council district with more registered Democrats than Republicans and independents combined, Jennifer Terrasa would seem like a sure bet for re-election. "I think I've done a good job over the last four years and the [voter registration] numbers are good, but I don't take anything for granted," said Terrasa, 41, a lawyer and mother of three whose District 3 covers North Laurel, Savage and parts of Columbia's villages of King's Contrivance and Owen Brown.