SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
County council races: Follow the money
Nine months ago, Bryan P. Sears of the Towson Times broke an eyebrow-raising story: Two Baltimore County development attorneys — one the son of term-limited County Executive James T. Smith Jr. and the other one of Mr. Smith’s former law clerks — had selected candidates to back in three separate County Council races and had held high-dollar fundraisers for them. Now, with the Democratic primary a week away, it’s worth revisiting that report to see exactly how much impact the efforts of Michael Paul Smith and David Gildea have had on what is shaping up to be the council’s biggest makeover in nearly two decades.
The three candidates the attorneys backed are Tom Quirk, who is running in the 1st District, centered around Catonsville; Gordon Harden, running in the 5th District, which stretches from Towson to Perry Hall; and Cathy Bevins, running in the 6th District, which includes Essex and Middle River. All three are Democrats, and all three have raised enough money to run well financed campaigns. Among the 38 people running for council this year, Mr. Quirk has raised the fourth most money ($73,674), and Ms. Bevins and Mr. Harden came in 10th ($58,670) and 11th ($57,859).
It’s difficult to say with certainty how much of that fundraising success can be attributed to the efforts of Messrs. Gildea and Smith, but state campaign finance reports suggest that all three owe at least 40 percent of their take to the two attorneys... http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/2010/09/county_council_races_follow_th.html
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