As Howard County entered the 1990s, it seemed as if the progressive liberalism of Columbia Democrats was about to usher in a decade-- at least-- of dominance in Howard County. Columbia Democrats held two of the five seats on the County Council, and center-left Democrats, Angela Beltram and Shane Pendergrass, held Howard County's District 1 and 3 seats, respectively, and County Executive Liz Bobo seemed assured of re-election and would become an early front-runner for the 1994 Democratic nomination for Governor.
The voters of Howard County had other plans. And elected Ecker to the Executive's seat and Darrell Drown defeated Beltram for the District 1 seat.
A former senior administrator in the Howard County Public School System, Ecker was affable and friendly and had a soft-spoken demeanor. And in line with the "good ol' boy" network in Howard County. And his campaign pioneered what others in future decades would realize as the way to the Executive's seat-- get everyone who hates the person in power pulled together. In this case, that meant ranging from homeowners who were angry over the high rate of development in the 70s and 80s (during which Bobo was on the Council and Executive, and including people who were direct beneficiaries of that development!), to local businesspeople whose businesses were being destroyed due to larger retailers coming to Howard County, to PTA leaders who were concerned with development's impact on Howard County's schools, to people angry over singular, yet severe, local injustices, such as the death of Columbia man Jon Bowie. And there were those with even less superficially altruistic opposition. People who were openly angry about "Columbia taking over Howard County" and about making Howard County more accessible to minority groups and the champion of too many liberal causes.
It barely took a year for the hatred in Howard County to show its face during the Ecker Administration. Early in 1992 a gay man named Bob Healy sought appointment to the Howard County Human Rights Commission, which at that time had never had (at least not openly) a gay member. County Executive Ecker's assistant, Gail Bates, openly opposed the nomination along strongly fundamentalist lines, which caused Ecker to instead nominate a gay woman named Jan Nyquist to the seat on the Commission. While Ecker attempted to salve the wound by removing Bates from the selection process, Bates kept her job, the damage was done, and Howard County's veil of being tolerant of gay people was as thin as it could be.
Meanwhile, the anti-development forces took over. Anti-development sentiment had been successful in ensuring that Columbia's last village, River Hill, would be built without rental housing, and was working to gum up the works of the development of what would eventually become the community of Maple Lawn. In fact, the anti-development forces were so high that Susan Gray, an anti-development attorney in Howard County, became the 1994 Democratic nominee for County Executive, running on a platform of-- you guessed it-- anti-development sentiment. In that campaign she defeated a former Democratic Party Chair, Sue-Ellen Hantman, who had previously run for the Maryland House of Delegates.
As one may remember, 1994 was the mid-term election of Bill Clinton's first term as President, and was known as the "Contract With America" cycle. The local election cycle in 1994 saw the biggest Republican tidal wave in Howard County, before or since. In part thanks to many, many Democrats crossing party lines-- publicly and privately-- Ecker destroyed Gray for re-election, Drown won re-election to Council District 1, Dennis Schrader won election to the open seat in Council District 3, and Marna McLendon became the new Howard County State's Attorney, giving the local GOP it's first (and only) control of the County Council and first State's Attorney seat. In the case of the courthouse, Sheriff Michael Chuichiolo and Registrar of Wills Kay Hartleb both switched parties soon after their return to their offices, which they were both re-elected to as Democrats.
The second Ecker term was generally dedicated to making Howard County friendlier to small business, including an emphasis on downtown Ellicott City, development of Timbers of Troy golf course, and on the redevelopment of Savage Mill. It also saw a recognition of Howard County's aging population, as the first senior housing developments in Howard County were created.
However, something else was happening in Howard County during the second half of the 90s. The county, especially Ellicott City, was becoming more diverse, but in the form of Korean immigrants who were moving to the Centennial and Mount Hebron High School Districts to live. As this population increased during the decade, Korean businesses and churches formed. And, as families could afford to send money back to their relatives in Korea, or pay for travel, Korean families in Howard County grew more numerous and took up a greater percentage of Ellicott City's population. Howard County, specifically Ellicott City, started to become a desired location for immigrants from Korea.
Also during the late 90s, Jim Robey, now the Chief of Police in Howard County, was retiring after a 30-year career in the Howard County Police Department. He didn't stay retired for long, as he became a Democratic candidate for Howard County Executive in 1998, replacing the retiring Chuck Ecker, who himself was mounting a Republican primary challenge to 1994's standard bearer, Ellen Sauerbrey, for Governor. While it had been assumed by local Democrats that the Republican candidate for County Executive would be Delegate Bob Kittleman, Delegate Bob Flanagan, Senator Chris McCabe or even Senator Marty Madden-- all stalwart Republicans and who, in the case of Kittleman and Madden, had some crossover appeal-- Republicans instead nominated Dennis Schrader, an experienced business executive finishing his first (and only) term in Howard County's Council District 3, in the southeastern portion of the county.
The failure to run a more seasoned candidate was a huge tactical error by Howard County's Republicans. Robey trounced Schrader by 55 to 45 percent in the general election, and Guy Guzzone defeated an Ecker aide, Diane Wilson, to reclaim the County Council District 3 seat for the Democrats. Democrats regained control of the local executive and legislative branches one term after losing them.
NEXT: Good ol' Howard County Chooses Civility, and modern-day Howard County starts to form
