Breaking his long silence about whom he would like to succeed him, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball gave a rousing endorsement to former Del. Vanessa Atterbeary Wednesday night, while attacking her two opponents as champions of division and obstruction on the County Council.
In front of a crowd of over 400 Atterbeary supporters at the Harriet Tubman Center in Columbia, Ball said he was “thrilled” to endorse Atterbeary, who had led passage of major legislation in Annapolis on school reform, police accountability and gun control.
“As our next county executive, I know she will continue working upon the progress we have made over the last eight years, while other candidates are focused on tearing down the pillars of our community” and opposing Ball’s programs and projects.
Ball, who is term-limited, never mentioned the names of Atterbeary’s Democratic primary opponents, County Council members Deb Jung and Liz Walsh, but he made clear who he was slamming.
“For the last eight years, some of our county council members who are now seeking the office of the county executive have chosen a path of division. While we worked tirelessly to build affordable housing, improve infrastructure and deliver results for residents, they were often cutting projects, cutting funding and publicly demeaning the public servants who dedicate their lives to this community. Too often we’ve seen these politicians pit neighbor against neighbor, community against community, disguising, obstruction as oversight,” Ball said.
Ball was joined on the stage of the former segregated Black high school by former Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, who had endorsed Atterbeary earlier in the race. Endorsing Atterbeary for the first time was Del. Jessica Feldmark, who had sought to become county executive herself last year until she dropped out of the contest to deal with breast cancer.
Atterbeary has been endorsed by the major public employee unions in Howard County and has raised over $1.1 million in the race. Jung and Walsh are using public campaign financing and criticizing Atterbeary for taking large contributions from developers and businesses.
Former Republican legislative candidate Bob Cockey is also running for county executive as a Democrat. There are no Republicans or independents seeking the office, so the winner of the Democratic primary will become the next Howard County executive. Because Maryland has closed party primaries, only the county’s 123,000 registered Democrats can vote in the race. The campaigns estimate that about 40,000 Democrats will show up at the polls with no other hotly contested offices on the ballot.
The entire elected Howard County government will be new in December, with only one of the five council members running for re-election: Christiana Rigby, District 3, Columbia-Laurel.
When Atterbeary took the stage Wednesday, she endorsed her own slate of council candidates in contested elections: Dr. Kevin Shin in District 1, Ellicott City-Elkridge; Jessica Nichols in District 2, East Columbia; and Janssen Evelyn in District 4, West Columbia-Maple Lawn.
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