After posting about the Howard County Democratic Central Committee candidates I’d be remiss if I didn’t post the DCC election results. So without further ado here’s the list in decreasing order of votes; this is from the unofficial election results as of 12:32 am on September 15, with 113 of 116 precincts reporting:
| Candidate | Votes | % of Total Votes | % of Democrats Voting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kathy Macfarlane | 10,146 | 7.84% | 46.6% |
| Carol J Chase | 9,144 | 7.07% | 42.0% |
| Ethel B Hill | 9,127 | 7.05% | 42.0% |
| Kristen M Neville | 8,661 | 6.69% | 39.8% |
| Diane Banner | 8,290 | 6.41% | 38.1% |
| Deanna Peel | 8,159 | 6.31% | 37.5% |
| Catherine Zomlefer | 7,957 | 6.15% | 36.6% |
| Abby R Hendrix | 7,751 | 5.99% | 35.6% |
| Michael C McPherson | 7,702 | 5.95% | 35.4% |
| Clarence Lam | 7,054 | 5.45% | 32.4% |
| Ethan Moore | 6,994 | 5.41% | 32.2% |
| Jonathan K Branch | 6,613 | 5.11% | 30.4% |
| (following not elected) | |||
| Willis E Gay | 6,145 | 4.75% | 28.3% |
| Daniel Besseck | 6,037 | 4.67% | 27.8% |
| Bill Adams | 5,924 | 4.58% | 27.2% |
| Rich Corkran | 5,363 | 4.15% | 24.7% |
| Kevin Treine | 4,177 | 3.23% | 19.2% |
| Jerome S Lozupone | 4,140 | 3.20% | 15.2% |
The second column is the percentage each candidate got out of the total of 129,384 votes cast for DCC candidates, while the third (and I think more informative) column is the percentage of votes for each candidate relative to the total number of Democrats who turned out to vote (21,752). (As an aside, 14,653 Republicans and 1,399 independents also voted.)
Some observations on the results:
- As noted above, there were 129,384 votes cast for DCC candidates by the 21,752 Democrats voting, so each Democratic voter on average voted for six candidates out of the 12 possible slots. By comparison there were 74,515 votes cast for Republican Central Committee candidates by the 14,653 Republicans who turned out, so each Republican voter on average voted for five Central Committee candidates out of the nine possible slots. I wonder if Republicans were slightly more interested in and/or knowledgeable about the Central Committee races?
- Kathy Macfarlane, the top vote-getter of the DCC candidates, is also the mother of Byron Macfarlane, who will be the Democratic candidate for Howard County Register of Wills. I have no idea if or how this is connected with her success as a DCC candidate—or for that matter Byron’s success in getting the Register of Wills nomination. (
By the way, could the MacFarlanes please be more consistent in the spelling of their name? On Byron MacFarlane’s web site he spells it “Macfarlane” with a lower-case “f” on the home page, and then “MacFarlane” with a capital “F” on other pages. The Board of Elections has “MacFarlane” for both candidates, so I presume that’s the canonical spelling.Note that per Byron’s comment below, “Macfarlane” is the correct capitalization, contrary to what was listed on the Board of Elections ballots and results.) - Of the ten DCC candidates endorsed by the Western Howard County Democratic Club all but one (Rich Corkran) were elected.
- Of the seven candidates endorsed by African Americans in Howard County (AAIHC) all but one (Willis Gay) were elected.
- Of the six DCC candidates endorsed by the Stonewall Democrats of Central Maryland four were elected and two (Daniel Besseck and Kevin Treine) were not.
- As previously noted, I couldn’t find a complete list of endorsements by the Columbia Democratic Club. However of the DCC candidates who I found were endorsed by the Columbia Democratic Club, all were elected.
- Of the DCC candidates who had an online DCC campaign site, all were elected. Also note that Jonathan Branch (who had a web site) was the last DCC candidate elected, and Willis Gay (who did not) was the first DCC candidate not elected, with a margin of 468 votes separating the two. Compare this with the approximately 800 page views my post on the DCC candidates received. My hypothesis is that despite Sarah’s pleas having an online presence isn’t really a necessity for DCC candidates (Kathy Macfarlane certainly did great without one), but it may (repeat, may) make a difference for marginal candidates trying to attract enough support to put them over the line.
And with that I’ll conclude my amateur foray into Howard County Democratic Central Committee affairs. Congratulations to all of the new Democratic Central Committee members, and good luck to the DCC in helping get Democrats elected in this and future Novembers.
Byron Macfarlane - 2010-09-16 05:13
Frank, Thank you for your reporting on these election results. While the Central Committee is probably the least known political entity in the county, it serves a vital function in building the local Democratic Party. To address the spelling of my last name, it is, indeed, Macfarlane, with a lower-case “f”. My family regularly has that misspelled or mis-capitalized and we try to have it corrected as often as possible. The Howard County Times article on the Register of Wills primary should have the proper spelling if (or when) you read it Thursday. Thanks again.
hecker - 2010-09-16 12:41
Byron: Glad you liked the post. As I’ve stated, I did this and my previous post as a resource for local Democrats who don’t have time to get out to HoCo Democratic party events or read party-related mailing lists. Also, I’ve corrected the capitalization of your and your mother’s names. Incidentally, I was incorrect in my comment about your name being capitalized differently on your web site; it was actually a third-party endorsement page that had it wrong.