Council candidate Livesay retiring as Police chief to avoid conflict with Hatch Act

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-md.ho.livesay20may20,0,6034233.story?coll=bal-local-howard

That three-way Republican primary for the western Howard County Council seat between Livesay (with his name recognition), Greg Fox (who is backed by most party officials), and Jim Adams (whose only advantage is likely to be top listing on the ballot) should be interesting. This has been safe Republican territory ever since single-member districts for the Council were adopted and it would surely take an overall Democratic landslide in the county to make it any different this year.
The likely Democratic candidate candidate for the seat (Don Dunn) had better hope that the GOP primary gets so divisive that a lot of supporters of the losers vote for him out of spite. It surely happened eight years ago in the County Executive race when the GOP primary contest was won by a relatively-moderate Columbian (Dennis Schrader) over longtime western county conservative Charlie Feaga. In winning his first term as Executive then, Jim Robey carried western Howard County precincts in the 1998 general election that no Democrat as a rule will carry. Precinct 4-1 in Lisbon is about as Republican as it gets in the county and Robey carried it that year.