After launching an exploratory committee and announcing her run in June, Anne Arundel County Council District 7 member Jessica Haire officially entered the race for county executive earlier this month, hoping to replace current County Executive Stuart Pittman and fend off several Republican challengers, including local businessman Chris Jahn and former Del. Herb McMillan.
Haire said she decided to run after speaking to her constituents about their frustration over decisions from the past three years under the Pittman administration, like tax increases and inefficiencies with local government processes.
“The No. 1 concern I get from constituents is often something like, ‘my trash didn’t get picked up on time,’ or ‘I’ve put in for an inspection with inspections and permits and I can’t get an inspection for three weeks,’ or ‘I filed a site development plan six months ago and I’m still waiting on a response from the county,’ ” Haire said. “It’s those kinds of very basic efficiencies that are seemingly missing from the county right now.”
Haire said she thinks this might be a situation of “too many cooks in the kitchen,” as the county’s offices have gotten over-staffed, and could be remedied by bringing different departments together to work more collaboratively on residents’ issues.
Another area in which she’d work on improving communication is education.
“We need to give parents their voice. Parents feeling like they are yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, in all aspects, and the county just isn’t listening,” Haire said.
She said parents she’s spoken to want to be more involved in decisions about their kids’ education, mental health and wellness.
Her constituents have also been worried about tax increases, she said, and the potential for that trajectory to continue upward.
“We have to stop the tax increases that Mr. Pittman has put in. The past two budgets have had enormous structural deficits and that is not sustainable. It’s not fiscally responsible, so we have to right the budget,” she said.
Haire said she thinks her experience on the council makes her uniquely qualified to take on these challenges as county executive. She hopes her more hands-off government approach will appeal to those who have been unsatisfied with Pittman’s leadership style
“My view is that government is governing best when it governs least,” Haire said.
The 2022 election primary is scheduled for June 28, with the general election to follow on Nov. 8.
