With four Hagerstown City Council candidates throwing their names in for a recently vacated Maryland House of Delegates seat, the impact so close to an election is a bit of an unknown entity.
Mayor Bob Bruchey, incumbent council members Austin Heffernan and Shelley McIntire, and council candidate Brenda Thiam have all applied to the Washington County Republican Central Committee for the the vacancy for legislative District 2B, which is basically the city of Hagerstown.
The seat was previously held by Paul Corderman, who was appointed to the state Senate to replace Sen. Andrew Serafini, R-Washington, who resigned earlier this summer.
Committee Chairman Jerry DeWolf has said the committee hadn’t yet decided how many nominees it will forward to Gov. Larry Hogan, who will ultimately make the appointment, for his consideration. The committee will send the names by Sept. 30.
As for the the Nov. 3 General Election, which will have the four candidates along with six others running for five city council seats, “a ballot is a ballot,” according to Washington County Deputy Election Director Barry Jackson.
He said no candidates slated to appear on the ballot will be removed, regardless of the governor’s appointment.
If the appointee is one of the top-five vote getters in the race, Jackson said he believed the seat would go to the person with the next highest number of votes. He said following the election, all candidates have a certain period to decline the position.
Jackson said the election board is waiting to hear back from the state board on clarification of the process.
Should the governor appoint the mayor or one of the current council members, the procedure gets a bit murkier.
Hagerstown City Clerk Donna Spickler said in an email that with each vacancy, the mayor and city council establish the process that will be followed to fill it.
For the past two vacancies — which were filled by McIntire and Heffernan — the body accepted applications from interested citizens and selected several people to interview during open work sessions, Spickler noted.
She said it is possible the group would decide to use the same process or something entirely different to fill a new vacancy, adding the city charter does not indicate a specific process that must be followed.
Heffernan was sworn in to the city council in January 2018 after being appointed to fill the seat vacated by Corderman, who resigned in early December 2017 to become a state delegate.
Pursuing the delegate appointment, according to Heffernan, is a way to continue his main objective of bringing jobs to the area. Heffernan said he hadn’t really considered being a delegate before, but it was a good opportunity to continue getting funding for the city, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
McIntire, who joined the city council in December 2017 to fill the seat vacated when former Councilman Don Munson resigned, said she had plans to run for higher office in 2022 and felt “very fortunate the opportunity presented itself.”
Saying she was “incredibly enthusiastic about the position,” McIntire said she was confident that her experience, along with her public and private conduct, matched the position.
McIntire said she was a tireless advocate for and was dedicated to the community, and “worked hard every day as councilwoman to serve Hagerstown.” She said she has made significant decisions and changes in the community and would be “thrilled” to do the same on the state level.
Bruchey has served as Hagerstown mayor from 1997 to 2001; 2006 to 2012, and 2016 to 2020. He could not be reached for comment.
Thiam, a special education teacher with a doctorate in special education leadership from Capella University, has no prior political experience. She could not be reached for comment.