New faces everywhere: A look ahead at politics in Baltimore County

No one can really predict anything in politics, but one thing seems certain: This time next year, there will be new faces preparing to take over many Baltimore County offices.

County Executive Kathy Klausmeier is not seeking another term. Several County Council members aren’t running again, and the council is growing by two members per a recent charter change. And the longtime state’s attorney faces two formidable opponents nearly four years after he nearly lost to an opponent with little prosecutorial experience. Here’s a look at the races shaping our county.

County Executive

Three Democratic councilmen are vying for the top job in the county — Izzy Patoka of Pikesville, Pat Young of Catonsville, and Julian Jones of Woodstock. Young has opted to try to qualify for public financing of his campaign; Jones and Patoka have both been prolific fundraisers. Nick Stewart, also of Catonsville, is an attorney, former school board member and housing advocate; he is challenging them for the Democratic nomination. Whoever wins that will go up against a Republican, though registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans. Attorney Rob Daniels is running as an independent. Patrick V. Dyer and Kimberley Stansbury are running as Republicans.

“That race is shaping up to be a real barn-burner,” said Donald I. Mohler III, a longtime Catonsville resident who served as county executive for several months in 2018 after his boss, Kevin Kamenetz, died while in office. Mohler says Stewart brings exciting energy to the race, and Young is bucking tradition by running a small-donor-only campaign, while Patoka and Jones can boast long records of public service.

At issue: school overcrowding, a lack of affordable housing (or multifamily housing for mid-income earners), a wide range of environmental issues that include the stench from Back River’s sewage treatment plant, overloaded pipes near Green Spring Station and reliable transportation. The candidates held several debates toward the end of the year. Look for mailers, TV ads, social media posts, and some polling in 2026 to see where the race stands.

State’s Attorney

Baltimore County has elected only two state’s attorneys since 1975. Scott Shellenberger, who holds the position now, is 66. He has been in the job since 2007. He joined the office in 1983, stayed a decade, left for 13 years, and then returned in 2007. Victims’ rights advocates have criticized him for not taking sexual assaults seriously enough. The county has slowly been working through a backlog of rape kits and testing them. After Shellenberger dispatched police officers to a Towson University student’s home in an attempt to dissuade her from pursuing charges against college baseball players who she said sexually assaulted her and her friend, the county had to pay her $50,000.

Last election, Shellenberger nearly lost to Robbie Leonard, an attorney active in Democratic circles who had limited prosecutorial experience. Shellenberger attributes that close election to the mood in the county, and country, at the time. In the months after George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, Americans were skeptical about police and prosecutors. He thinks that moment has passed.

His two opponents this time are running on their own records. Sarah David is a deputy Maryland state prosecutor who has focused on public corruption. Lauren Lipscomb runs Baltimore’s conviction integrity unit, from which she pushed for the exoneration of incarcerated individuals convicted of crimes they did not commit. Both say the state’s attorney’s office, which does not have its own website apart from the county’s page, needs to be modernized.

County Council

Of the seven council members now in office, only Mike Ertel, a Towson Democrat, and David Marks, an Upper Falls Republican, have confirmed that they are seeking reelection. Republican Todd Crandell has not declared his intentions, and Republican Wade Kach said he’s retiring. The three remaining Democrats — Patoka, Young, and Jones — are giving up their seats to run for county executive.

That means there could be seven seats with no incumbent in the race that are entirely up for grabs. The County Council redrew the districts, but the Baltimore County Board of Elections has been slow to ensure that candidates can file in the districts where they are running. The filing deadline is Feb. 24. Between now and then, more candidates are likely to jump into the race.

There’s a really good chance we are going to see racial, gender, and generational diversity that we’ve never seen before," Mohler said. “Seven new council members – that is certainly unprecedented in Baltimore County."

The council is currently composed of all men, and all but Jones are white. The candidates who are running so far include five women of color and one Latino man. The favored candidate for Kach’s seat is Del. Nino Mangione, who leans more conservative than the current Republicans on the council. At the state level, he has introduced bills concerning gender-affirming care.

Delegates and senators

Baltimore County’s west-side delegation has always been diverse, due to the large Black, Jewish, and Asian populations that have favored the Pikesville corridor. But the east-side’s representatives are now beginning to reflect the growing diversity there. State Sen. Carl Jackson was appointed to his seat after Klausmeier was appointed county executive a year ago. Del. Kim Ross then was appointed to Jackson’s seat. They are the first Black representatives in their respective districts.

Jyoti Mohan is running to replace Mangione in the northern district of the county. A longtime advocate for immigrants, she said she was inspired to jump in the race to represent concerns that are not always associated with the more well-to-do northern districts. Those include transit, aging infrastructure and affordable housing for seniors.

Said Mohler: “It’ s going to look very different, and it’s going to feel very different, and I think people in Baltimore County should be really excited about what’s taking place.”

Correction: This article has been updated to correct that a Don Mohler statement referred to Julian Jones and not a different candidate.