Primary Election Results: BoE & Dem. Central Comm.

These are initial top-line thoughts with a bit of hastily assembled historical data to provide some context.  Don't worry, I will get to the other races soon enough.

Let’s start with the Howard County Board of Education.  And yes, the precinct counts are still coming in...and the numbers don't include the absentee or provisional ballots yet.

Vicky Cutroneo placed first, as was anticipated in certain circles (with 19,914 votes as of this writing) … not a bad haul for a non-presidential election year primary.  By means of comparison, Cynthia L. Vaillancourt, if I may be so formal, was the top BoE vote-getter in the 2014 primary with 15,851 votes.  Cutroneo goes into the General Election as the candidate most likely to win a seat on the Board of Education.  So, enjoy that front-runner status!   

Bob Glascock grabbed the second spot (16,951 votes), which was a mild surprise.  Clearly his years of experience and deep connections in the HoCo education scene combined with his presence on the Apple Ballot helped vault him ahead of all but Cutroneo.

Robert Wayne Miller finished third (15,903 votes) which is about right.  Chao Wu’s fourth place showing (15,001 votes) was an eye-brow raiser.  Yes, he had some resources and yes, I heard that he had a decent ground operation.  That said, I considered him a “total wild card” and assumed he would finish anywhere between 6^th and 10^th place, with 8^th as the most likely position.  The question remains:  can he hold onto the 4^th spot in the smaller field of 8 in a higher turnout General Election? This author is skeptical.

Finishing in fifth and sixth places were Jen Mallo (13,026 votes) and Sabina Taj (12,799 votes).

Recent BoE election history indicates that candidates who finish out of the top 3 or 4 in the primary can still move on to win in November.  In 2014, Christine O’Connor finished 6^th in the primary but went on to secure a strong fourth in the general. In 2010, Vaillancourt was 6^th in the primary and also placed a solid fourth in November.  In short, both Taj and Mallo have cause for optimism.

Rounding out the field of 8…Anita Pandey in seventh place (9,636 votes) and Danny Mackey (9,633 votes).    

The other big winners of the night?  The HoCo Forward slate.  As of this writing, it looks like they crushed it.  The eight HoCo Forward men were the top 8 vote-getters (with Gabriel Moreno and Josh Friedman apparently rounding out the top 10, but again, votes are still rolling in).  Meanwhile, the eight HoCo Forward women also secured the top 8 spots…followed by Margaret Weinstein and Alicia Altamirano (a Spartan Tendency sweep).  Congratulations one and all.  To those who did not secure election to the Central Committee this time around, you ran strong campaigns and you should be proud of your accomplishments and service to the Democratic Party.   

In solidarity.