Sen. Adelaide C. Eckardt (R-Middle Shore) has heard the chatter — that she’s likely to be challenged in the Republican primary by Del. John F. “Johnny” Mautz IV in the June 28 GOP primary.
Mautz hasn’t said anything publicly yet — or filed to run for any office. But the general consensus is that there will be a member vs. member contest, with Mautz making the case that Eckardt’s record isn’t sufficiently conservative. Mautz did not immediately respond to a message left at his legislative office Friday.
Eckardt, who won the Senate seat by ousting then-Sen. Richard Colburn in the 2014 Republican primary, after serving in the House for 20 years, is clearly not thrilled at the prospect of running in a race against Mautz. But she’s trying to be philosophical about it.
“Whatever it is, it is,” she said. “It’s just politics, and that’s what we all get into. I did it myself [against Colburn].”
Eckardt said she was eager to serve four more years in order to finish the work she has been focusing on, from island restoration in the mid-Chesapeake Bay to restoration of oyster beds to shoring up health care and child care services on the Eastern Shore.
“I think we can have a transition after that,” she said. “I’m a hands-on, frontlines kind of person and I stay close to my communities.”
Eckardt serves on the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, the panel with perhaps the most bipartisan spirit in the legislature. Asked about the possibility that she’ll be attacked from the right, Eckardt said she preferred to “focus on the issues that we all agree on” and lamented the increasing prominence of “the extremes in both parties.”
by Josh Kurtz
Sheila Buckmaster says
What a treasure she is.
Four more years!
SFB