With the deadline to file as a candidate in Aberdeen’s city election looming, only five people have stepped forward so far to run for four city council seats.
Three candidates are vying for the mayor’s office.
The deadline to file for either office is 5 p.m. Monday. Election Day is Nov. 2.
The three candidates for mayor, as of Thursday, are Michael Bennett, Michael Hiob and Barbara Osborn Kreamer.
Bennett, 61, the incumbent mayor, is a retired lieutenant in the Maryland State Police and a former fire chief and president of Aberdeen Fire Department. Elected in 2007, he is seeking his second two-year term.
Hiob, 50, the current city council president, is an environmental enforcement inspector for Harford County and was formerly an engineering technician at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
Kreamer, 60, is a former state delegate and Harford County Council member, who was the first woman to be elected to Harford County Council.
She was a candidate for lieutenant governor of Maryland in 1994 and is currently an English instructor at Harford Community College and Baltimore City Community College.
With Hiob’s decision to run for mayor, one council seat is open in this election. The other three incumbents, Ruth Elliott, Ron Kupferman and Ruth Ann Young, are seeking re-election
Sandra Landbeck, a city planning commission member, and Bruce Garner are the other two candidates. Garner ran unsuccessfully for the city council in 2007; this is Landbeck’s first try for city elected office.
In the 2007 campaign, there were also three candidates for mayor, as Bennett handily defeated incumbent Fred Simmons. The third candidate was Nicole Burlew, who was a college student at the time.
There were 10 city council candidates in 2007, including all four incumbents, one of whom lost.
The polling place at the Aberdeen Senior Center will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.