The process to elect a new mayor for Cambridge will take a bit longer with the former Cambridge Commissioner Steve Rideout nor state Senator Addie Eckardt winning the needed majority without a runoff election.
Rideout received 486 votes and Eckardt received 403 votes, 35.21% and 30.32%. LaShon Banks-Foster received 266 votes (20.02%); Robert Larimer got 120 votes (9.03%); Laurel Atkiss received 61 votes (4.59%); and Lee Travers had 11 votes (0.83%).
The runoff election to be held on Sept. 20.
Patrick Hornberger says
I’m amazed at the low voting count for the Mayor of Cambridge, but that is another story for others. What has concerned me for years has been Cambridge’s reluctance to bring in new ideas with a vision for the immediate future – not the next decade. The town has continuously hoped for a renaissance that never seems to come. If candidates at the state level such as Senator Eckardt, representing the area for decades didn’t bring that renaissance with new creative ideas why does one think she will do more as Mayor?
I don’t know either candidate, I can’t vote in Cambridge, but I’ve followed the painful crawling progress of Cambridge since I left the area in the 1950s. Upon retiring on the Shore, in the first part of 2000 after writing a book on Chesapeake lighthouses, a classmate of mine and a few locals came up with the concept of putting a replica lighthouse at Long Wharf, as some small way to promote the town. You would have thought we were asking for the construction of a brothel on Long Wharf.
Other than the mayor, who was cautiously supportive, some of the city fought the concept with little understanding of its potential. The head of the so-called Historic Commission came to physical blows in the parking lot with one of the supporting City officials over the lighthouse. The Maryland Historic Trust had to intervene. Nasty letters abounded. Curiously, another nearby tourist attraction fought it. The West End group said the visiting ships would object. Residents near the waterfront said it would block their view. Some said it would be an abomination that would fail. On and on.
Even the State of Maryland objected at first, but after numerous meetings with every environmental group, then-Senator Colburn and I wrote a bill that allowed for a municipal structure to be built over water. The bill passed- it was the first legislation of its kind in Maryland. Other than Senator Colburn, no other local representative pushed for the structure until, of course, the reality of its building became evident. The Choptank River lighthouse now stands at the City marina as shown on this SPY opening page.
The morale if there is one? With new waterfront opportunities coming, open your minds, forget your own turf, forget the past and elect candidates with a vision, not just caretakers for the next few months – Cambridge can’t wait much longer for that renaissance.
Patrick Hornberger
Original Chairman/Founder of the Choptank River Lighthouse, Cambridge
Past Editor/Publisher of Maryland Magazine, Maryland Department of Economic Development