And some of you are breathing a sign of relief. Jonathan Husband, the Engineering and Environmental Services manager in the county’s Special Services Department, has announced today that he is running for County Executive.
[Husband] said he has been planning his run since 2007. Husband assumed it would be an open seat after former County Executive Chris Coons’ second term ended, but that changed when Coons became a U.S. senator in 2010. Clark was automatically elevated from county council president as Coons’ replacement and is now running for his first four-year term.
I don’t know Jonathan Husband, and I didn’t know of his plans. I suspect he kept those plans close to the vest. I hope he has used that time since 2007 (5 years!) to craft a great network of support and build a campaign warchest. Yes, you can tell I am highly suspect of this claim that he has been planning the race for 5 years. If was planning to run, he should have started making himself visible the moment Chris Coons resigned.
What I suspect happened is he was thinking about running, but then Coons got himself elected to the U.S. Senate and Clark succeeded to the Executive position, meaning that Clark would be running as an incumbent with an improving economy, a more difficult task for someone with no political history or name recognition. So Husband resigned himself to not making the race. But now the toxic Gordon is running and Clark looks vulnerable, with Shahan not proving to be the third choice salvation, so there is an opening for him after all.
Yeah, that’s what went down. Let’s not pretend otherwise.
So I look forward to hearing from Husband in the campaign. Here’s hoping that his campaign catches fire.