By Cameron W. Barr and Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 13, 2006; GZ16
Montgomery County Democrats are hoping they can shut Republicans out of the county's delegation to the General Assembly for the first time in decades.
The delegation's only Republican -- District 15 Del. Jean B. Cryor -- "is very, very vulnerable because of her very close ties" to Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., state Democratic Party Chairman Terry Lierman said.
Tom Reinheimer, chairman of the county Republican Party, called Lierman's analysis "wishful thinking," but conceded the obvious: "Overall, the county is pretty rough for Republicans."
Cryor, a moderate Republican who has sometimes voted against Ehrlich, says a struggle for reelection is nothing new: "One has to always work to keep one's seat." But she noted that she has received endorsements from the Montgomery County Education Association, Progressive Maryland and other groups and that she was the leading vote-getter among candidates for delegate in the 2002 general election.
If the Democrats defeat Cryor and lose no other seats, the delegation would be entirely Democratic for the first time since at least the early 1960s, according to David Warner, a senior legislative librarian at the General Assembly.
As of the July 3 filing deadline, 76 candidates were vying for the eight Senate and 24 House seats in the eight districts in Montgomery. In Districts 14 and 15, neither party will have a primary election for candidates seeking seats in either house of the General Assembly. Democrats will hold primaries to select delegate candidates in Districts 16 through 20 and 39, and for the party's Senate candidate in District 19. Republicans will hold a single primary for Senate in District 19. The lone Green Party candidate will only contest the general election.
In District 19, the retirement of longtime Sen. Leonard H. Teitelbaum (D) has prompted a three-way Democratic primary among Dels. Adrienne A. Mandel and Carol S. Petzold, and newcomer Mike Lenett, a consumer protection attorney.
Teitelbaum has blessed Mandel's candidacy, while Lenett has secured the backing of a long list of local groups, including the Montgomery County Education Association, Service Employees International Union Local 500 and the Montgomery County Career Fire Fighters Association.
On the Republican side, two candidates are seeking to help end the Democratic near monopoly in the county's delegation and create a "viable two-party system," said Mike Ryman, a retired federal criminal investigator.
Ryman is running for Senate on a slate with two delegate candidates -- John R. Joaquin and Tom Masser -- and said, "We're offering an alternative."
In this Democratic stronghold, pollster Keith Haller, president of Bethesda-based Potomac Inc., said, "It's almost unimaginable that a Republican could come in. It would be a miracle."
District 20 has the highest profile primary contest in the county: American University law professor Jamie Raskin's attempt to unseat Ida G. Ruben, a Democrat who joined the state Senate in 1987.
Raskin is making use of his national political connections, including U.S. Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), who appeared at one of Raskin's town-hall-style meetings.
Ruben, the Senate president pro tem, is running on her experience and as Montgomery County's highest-ranking lawmaker in the General Assembly.
Raskin is not the only upstart. In District 39, newcomer Saqib Ali is seeking to unseat one of the three Democratic delegates running for reelection: Charles E. Barkley, Nancy J. King and Joan Frances Stern. As of January, Ali had raised $63,000 in the past year -- more than the combined total of the three incumbents.
Del. Peter Franchot's (D) decision to take on state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer leaves one open seat in District 20. Among the 10 candidates for delegate are three Capitol Hill aides -- Aaron Klein, Lucinda Lessley and Heather R. Mizeur -- and two veterans of Annapolis lobbying -- Tom Hucker and Diane Lee Nixon.
The two other District 20 incumbents -- Dels. Sheila E. Hixson and Gareth E. Murray -- are seeking to retain their seats.
"You'd need a micrometer to distinguish positions on issues like education," Haller said of the crowded field, "so it's more about leadership and personality, and what people are looking for in a state legislature at this juncture."