11/15/2006

Election Wrap
By Bob Lassahn

With the absentee vote counted (provisional ballots and overseas absentee ballots will be tabulated this week) as of Friday, November 10 most of the election races are decided. The outstanding ballots are not likely to affect the outcomes save for the local Worcester County State's Attorney race.

In the statewide races Democrat (D) Martin O'Malley bested incumbent Republican (R) Robert Ehrlich by a margin of 827,678 votes (53%) to 716,622 (46%) to take the governor's seat. For Attorney General Douglas Gansler (D) bested Scott Rolle (R) by a margin of 894,066 (60%) to 575,612 (39%) and for Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) beat out Anne McCarthy (R) 894,066 (60%) to 608,061 (40%).

In the governor's race Worcester County voters chose Ehrlich over O'Malley by a margin of 12,943 (65%) to 6,915 (35%), but the statewide totals swung the decision in O'Malley's favor.
For U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin (D) defeated Michael Steele (R) by 847,238 (55%) to 683,187 (44%) in the statewide totals, but Worcester County voters preferred Steele by a margin of 12,198 (61%) to Cardin's 7,439 (37%).

For the U.S. House First District incumbent Wayne Gilchrest (R) held onto his seat, defeating challenger Jim Corwin (D) by 161,478 (68%) to 75,470 (32%). State Senator, Legislative District 38B incumbent J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R) ran unopposed.
For the two seats in the Maryland House of Delegates, District 38B the totals show Jim Mathias (D) and Norm Conway (D) as the winners. Mathias gleaned 14,908 (27%) and Conway 14,088 (25%) to overcome challengers Michael James (R) with 13,859 (25%) and Bonnie Luna (R) with 13,347 (24%).

Breaking down the delegate race by county Worcester voters delivered Mathias 10,286 (28%) votes and James 9,366 (26%), with Conway at third with 8,600 (24%) and Luna last with 8,098 (22%). In Wicomico County voters showed a slightly different preference giving Conway 5,488 (28%) of the votes and Luna 5,249 (27%), with Mathias finishing third at 4,622 (23%) of the vote and James coming in last with 4,493 (23%).

In the local Worcester County Commissioner races: in District 1 Robert Cowger (D) beat out Randolph Beauchamp (R) by 1,196 (68%) to 566 (32%) taking the seat vacated by Sonny Bloxom. In District 2 incumbent James Purnell (D) retained his seat with 1,198 (72%) votes defeating challenger Dennis Klingenberg with 474 (28%). District 3 incumbent Bud Church (R) bested challenger Kathy Phillips (D) by 1,822 (59%) to 1,260 (41%). District 4 incumbent Virgil Shockley (D) gleaned 1,253 (62%) of the votes to best challenger Ted Elder (R) with 768 (38%). District 5 incumbent Judy Boggs was unchallenged for her seat.

The District 6 race was won by Linda Busick (R) with 1,259 (55%) against 1,016 (45%) for Arlene Page (D). Incumbent Tom Cetola (R) attempted a write-in campaign to retain his seat after a defeat by Busick in the primary, but failed to garner sufficient support. District 7 incumbent Louise Gulyas (R) bested challenger Ellie Diegelmann (D) by a margin of 1,680 (63%) to 971 (37%).

Worcester County Sheriff Charles Martin (D) secured another four year term by defeating former Ocean City police officer Ron Haslam (R) by 10,412 (62%) to 6,438 (38%).

Worcester County voters have a real nail-biter going with the State's Attorney race. At the end of Election Day incumbent Joel Todd (D) held a one vote lead over challenger Beau Oglesby (R). When the absentee ballot count was completed on Thursday night Oglesby had taken the lead by two with the vote count standing at 9,746 to 9,744. Voters will need to await the count of provisional and overseas absentee ballots to know who will emerge victorious.

Bill Shockley (D), Dale Smack (D) and Linda Hess(R) were successful candidates for Judge of the Orphans’ Court.

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