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HdG election returns 3 incumbents

Bill Martin, Fred Cullum and Jim Miller top vote-getters

BY L’OREAL THOMPSON

Posted 5/05/10

(Enlarge) From left, Fred Cullum, Bill Martin and Jim Miller (Photo by Matt Button | Aegis staff )

Following Tuesday’s city election in Havre de Grace, incumbents Bill Martin, Fred Cullum and Jim Miller were re-elected to the city council.

The unofficial election results for the three city council seats are:

Bill Martin................................794

Fred Cullum.............................548

Jim Miller.................................504

John Correri Jr....500

Sharon Duncan...401

Betty Coakley.....262

Out of the city’s 7,699 registered voters, 1,171 participated in Tuesday’s election, which included the touchscreen machines and provisional ballots. Absentee ballots will be counted on May 6 at 10 a.m. at the Harford County Board of Elections in Forest Hill.

Since just four votes separated Miller and former mayor and councilman John Correri for the third seat, the ballots still to be counted could alter that outcome.

“I think it’s important for people to come to vote,” Doris Lyttle, a Havre de Grace resident, said as the polls were closing. “When it’s an off-year and there’s no mayoral election, you find people don’t care as much.”

Nevertheless, Lyttle believes it’s important for people to vote.

“This is our government,” she said. “They’re the ones talking about taxes and water bills and rates. It’s important for those people to support what the people want.”

Kevin Racine agreed with Lyttle.

“I think with the growing community, I think people would come out and exercise their right to vote,” Racine said.

Jim Ringsaker, who said he voted for Martin, Correri and Miller, was disappointed in the low voter turnout.

“I think it’s appalling,” Ringsaker said. “We have citizens fighting and dying every day for our right to vote... It’s a disgrace to our country.”

Ringsaker said he was also disgusted with the city’s overall apathy.

“People fought and died so I could come here today,” he said, adding politics is local. “...the president doesn’t control your water bill.”

Cullum is serving his seventh term. He served six consecutive terms after he was first elected in 1995. In 2007, Cullum ran for mayor and lost to Wayne Dougherty, the current mayor. Cullum ran for the city council again in 2008 and won.

Miller is serving his second term. Martin was elected to his first term two years ago.

Correri served as acting mayor after former mayor David Craig left to become county executive in 2005. He has more than 20 years of political experience.

Coakley previously severed on the city council from 1999 to 2001. She was re-elected in May 2001, but resigned a month into her second term.

Duncan, who owns Vancherie’s Cafe, in the 400 block of Union Avenue, had never run for public office before this year.

Havre de Grace council members serve two-year terms. The remaining council members — Council President Randy Craig, Mitch Shank and Brenda Guldenzopf — were elected in 2009. Their terms and the mayor’s term will end in 2011.

In addition to voting for three council members, city residents also voted on a ballot question concerning Citizens Care and Rehabilitation Center, at 415 S. Market St.

The question asked residents whether they approved of the proposed sale of city property to the Harford County government for $1 by negotiated contract for the use of the rehabilitation center; 985 voted in favor of the sale and 157 voted against.