The Howard County Tech Council held their “End of Summer Bash” at the Columbia Town Center lakefront last night and a smattering of District 13 Republican candidates showed up to work the tech crowd.The first politico I encountered was Jody Venkatesan who is attempting to challenge Jim Robey for his state senate seat. Jody needs first to get past Kyle Lorton in the Repub primary. I asked him about the dust up in Explore Howard about his business credentials which he casually dismissed as silly season politics.
“I’m not a CPA and I never claimed to be,” he told me. The misperception may stem from the fact that he is a partner in a CPA firm and that he was an internal auditor for Marriott. He was also in counter intelligence with the 902nd Military Intelligence Group at Fort Meade.
Is counter intelligence an asset for serving in Annapolis?
I also spoke with J’Neanne Theus who is running as a Repub for one of the District 13 House of Delegates seats. I’ve known J’Neanne for a long time. Years ago she worked as a personal trainer at the Colosseum Gym in Columbia. She faces both a tough primary battle with Jeff Robinson, Ed Priola, and Loretta Gaffney and a nearly insurmountable task of wresting a seat away from one of the entrenched Dems, Guzzone, Pendergrass and Turner.
The pub pundits think that Ed Priola has the best chance of any Repub in cracking this solid blue slate.
I also got a chance to meet Charlie Moore, candidate for sheriff, along with his lovely bride, Donna.
I left when the speeches started to grab a quick bite at Clyde’s before heading off to the District 4 / District 12B candidate’s forum across town and the Blue Team.
