Incumbents

In response to your editorial about last Tuesday's primary election results ("Muddled tea leaves," May20) the reason the voters are going to vote all incumbents out of office is to send a message to all new office holders, and that is to do the voters wishes not theirs. Politicians have taken the voters for granted way too long. I believe this year Congress will learn that the people are fed up and won't take it any longer. If you're Democrat, vote Democrat. Just don't vote for the incumbent.

Eric Schneider's first career start in the net in Johns Hopkins' 19-9 rout of Mount St. Mary's on Tuesday night may not have been a one-time appearance after all. In his post-game conference, coach Dave Pietramala announced that there would be an open competition between incumbent Pierce Bassett and Schneider. It was a jaw-dropping revelation considering that Bassett has been the undisputed starter since overtaking Mike Gvozden on March 27, 2010. “There is an open competition,” Pietramala said.

Dear Democrats, You will be electing a new mayor and City Council on September 13th. There are other marginal candidates running in the general election, but the primary has been the "official" election for many a decade in the city. So, you need to fire all of the incumbents unless you are happy with the downward spiral in which this city continues to plummet. The current incumbent gang has no concept of leadership or much else for that matter. They are a bunch of scofflaws, the same candidates and people who waste an inordinate amount of time just trying to explain where they live.

Former Montgomery County executive Doug Duncan's decision to run for his old seat after a six-year hiatus has changed the political landscape of the state's largest county even as critics argue that new demographics could present a big hurdle to his comeback. Duncan, 57, a Democrat who ended his 2006 campaign for governor abruptly after he was diagnosed with depression, told supporters last week that he will run for county executive in 2014 — setting the stage for a possible showdown with incumbent Isiah "Ike" Leggett that would have statewide political implications.

While the primary dust-ups in the Senate continue to sort themselves out, let's take a look at the changes in the larger chamber. It appears that incumbents will prevail in all but about a half-dozen of the 141 seats, at least until Nov. 2. More survived primaries this year than the incumbents of four years ago -- a feat that House Speaker Michael E. Busch called fairly remarkable, given the number of competitive Senate primary races. Just two sitting Democrats lost last night, compared with eight in 2006.

Your article about the references to race and religion in state Sen. C Anthony Muse's campaign materials as he seeks to unseat U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin in the April 3 Democratic primary says more than it seems to ("Muse flyer questioned over religious message," March 28). This isn't so much about race as it is about incumbency and cronyism. You don't have to be black or Jewish, male or female to be a victim of a captive electoral system. You just need to challenge an incumbent. Candidates always highlight the differences between them and their opponents in order to gain support.

The casino in Perryville wants to give back 400 to 500 of its slot machines due to the impact of the Maryland Live casino ("Casino seeking to stem decline," Aug. 7) while the legislature considers a 6th location when the 4th and 5th locations are still in the approval process. Maryland owns the machines Perryville wants to give back. What's the cost to that investment, the state employees that will pick them up, the cost of storing them (space, utilities, security personnel), the cost to refurbish, assuming someone else wants used machines, etc. My advice: Vote for a name you don't recognize in November, 2014.

During the recent Howard County school board election forum, one candidate implored the audience, "Don't give the advantage of incumbency to people. Vote for the best. " The candidate was Allen Dyer, one of three incumbents among a field of 14 candidates vying for three seats. Often, incumbency is seen as an advantage, and in Howard County school board elections, name recognition is key. But this year's three incumbents — Dyer, Ellen Flynn Giles and Janet Siddiqui — are seeking re-election as the school board has been much maligned for its infighting and its recent adoption of changes to the school system that have proven unpopular with some Howard citizens.

A NEW STUDY of women's chances of winning elections debunks the conventional wisdom that women have a harder time than men do.It is not a candidate's sex that is the determining factor, the study found; it is incumbency that offers a critical difference.That's not surprising. Incumbents' races usually are better financed by special-interest money from political action committees with a stake in the incumbents' voting records.The money, in turn, with the help of name recognition, helps incumbents finance slick advertising campaigns that many populist and underfinanced challengers, female or male, simply can't afford.

THE OUTCOME of Tuesday's elections must have given migraines to activists in the League of Women Voters and other civic groups that tout legislative contests as means to hold officials' feet to the fire. Yet elections, especially those between presidential face-offs, serve more to bolster the position of incumbents than to expose them to public accountability. Big budgets, large staffs and technical assistance aside, Congress is the sapless branch of American politics. Fourteen months after the 9/11 catastrophe, our 535 legislators -- 435 in the House, 100 in the Senate -- have yet to pass a homeland security act. Prescription drug coverage for all senior citizens remains a pipedream.

Voters in Howard County elected two incumbents and a first-time challenger to the school board on Tuesday. Incumbent Janet Siddiqui took the top spot, followed by first-time candidate Ann De Lacy and fellow incumbent Ellen Giles. Siddiqui said she was "very pleased and very humbled. " "It's been a long campaign, but it's the children in Howard County, the parents and the community that won tonight," she said. "I'm going to continue to do my work on the board for the next four years, continue to look at ways to eliminate the achievement gap and move forward.

Republican Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, who has represented Maryland's 6th District for nearly two decades, lost his bid for an 11th term Tuesday to a Democratic businessman who cast the closely watched race as a battle of different economic visions for the country. John Delaney, a Potomac financier, will become the seventh Democrat to represent the state in the House of Representatives in January after accomplishing the rare political feat of knocking off an incumbent member of Congress.

I have gone to most of the school board candidate forums this year, and I often hear harsh criticisms of our public schools from some of the challengers to the incumbents. Yet our schools are ranked very favorably in state and national polls. Drastic changes are not the way to go. The incumbents, Ellen Giles and Janet Siddiqui, must be doing something right, working with other board members and the HCPSS staff, always striving for improvement. I'm voting for them both. My third vote will go to Jackie Scott, who has been impressive in these forums, with her very good credentials, and the passion needed for this tough job. Carole Fisher Ellicott City

In President Barack Obama's much-anticipated acceptance speech in Charlotte, he sounded at times to be relying on the reverse of the old breakup line: "It's not you, it's me. " He told the American public that it is "you," and not he as president, who must hold firm behind his recovery efforts if the country is to bounce back economically over the next four years. Rather than taking advantage of Mitt Romney's failure in Tampa to provide specific details on what he would do to turn the economy around, Mr. Obama likewise fell short on any new approaches to break the stalemate.

Billy Cundiff won't get his chance for redemption, at least not in a Ravens' uniform. A little more than seven months after he missed a 32-yard field goal that thwarted the Ravens' Super Bowl hopes and just three days after he was benched for an undrafted rookie in the third preseason game, Cundiff was waived by the Ravens today, according to multiple sources. The move, which was extremely unexpected when training camp began but became self evident when Cundiff did not kick at all in the team's 48-17 victory over the Detroit Lions on Thursday, leaves the Ravens' kicking job to Justin Tucker, a rookie free agent out of Texas.

The casino in Perryville wants to give back 400 to 500 of its slot machines due to the impact of the Maryland Live casino ("Casino seeking to stem decline," Aug. 7) while the legislature considers a 6th location when the 4th and 5th locations are still in the approval process. Maryland owns the machines Perryville wants to give back. What's the cost to that investment, the state employees that will pick them up, the cost of storing them (space, utilities, security personnel), the cost to refurbish, assuming someone else wants used machines, etc. My advice: Vote for a name you don't recognize in November, 2014.

Sandra French is quick to point out that some local Howard County organizations did not support her re-election to the Board of Education and added that the tone of this year's campaign was often contentious. Still, it was apparent during September's primary that many voters in the county approve of the job she has done, as she finished with the most votes among 11 candidates. That support was solidified on Election Night when she won re-election, continuing her run as one of the longest-serving board members in the county's history.

Nearly a half-dozen Maryland state lawmakers are hoping to exploit the nation's anti-incumbent mood with campaigns for Congress that focus heavily on Washington's dysfunction. Two Republican state senators, David Brinkley of Frederick County and Nancy Jacobs of Harford County, announced plans this week to run for the House of Representatives. A third, Democrat C. Anthony Muse of Prince George's County, is expected to toss his name in for the Senate on Thursday. They join several others hoping to trade Annapolis for Washington in the November election.

The absence of tight end Dennis Pitta because of a broken bone in his right hand has meant more reps in Ravens training camp for Ed Dickson. “I'm taking a lot of reps, but it's going to get me in better shape,” he said after Wednesday's session at the team's training facility in Owings Mills before acknowledging that he is a bit more tired at the end of practice. “I'm OK with it. During [the] two-minute [drill] today, I took the whole thing and usually Dennis comes get me halfway.