Buisness Monthly Article on my campaign
A Different Sort of Democrat
John Bailey is a different sort of Democrat, too. Until last month, he was a Republican and a candidate for delegate in district 12B, the west Columbia area represented for 16 years by Del. Liz Bobo. Bailey has switched parties, and is now running against Bobo in the primary.
“I personally don’t feel the Republican Party fits my needs anymore,” said Bailey, 33. He said he followed the lead of his parents, who were Republicans. “The party seems to be going further to the right.”
Bailey teaches government at Paint Branch High School in Montgomery County and says the stands of the two parties on education influenced his decision.
“I don’t see anything looking at cutting back on education [spending] that I think I could support,” Bailey said. He also objects to the shifting of teacher pension costs to the county school systems, as Senate Republicans proposed and the state Senate has passed as part of the budget.
“The Democrats are much more in tune to what’s going on in the county,” Bailey said. “I’m much more socially liberal than the Republican Party. … The Republican Party seems much more interested in saying ‘no’ to things. And that’s doesn’t feel right. It’s very much ‘no, no, no.’ ”
While Bailey had to change his registration and filing status, he didn’t have to change his web site, www.VoteJohnBailey.com, since he said it never mentioned he was a Republican.
Bailey is a member of the Hickory Ridge Village Board and, unlike Bobo, he supports the high-density development of downtown Columbia as proposed by General Growth Properties and approved by the county council.
Bobo, 66, was unfazed when told of Bailey’s party switch last month. “I will be ready for a serious campaign regardless,” Bobo said. “I will take this campaign very seriously.”
Bailey will hold a fundraiser April 15 with former Howard County Executive Chuck Ecker, who switched parties himself, running as a Republican to defeat Bobo’s re-election bid for executive in 1990.
After she won a three-way Democratic primary for delegate in 1994, Bobo has faced no primary opponents in what is arguably the most liberal Democratic area of Howard County. It’s filled with the 1960s social progressives who were attracted to Columbia in its early days and helped shift Howard County politics to the left. She has won increasing majorities against Republican opponents in three re-election contests.
