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3-term former member gets nod from GOP panel

Baltimore Sun

He would replace Kittleman; Confirmation vote scheduled for Monday

By Larry Carson, Sun Staff

November 11, 2004

Three-term Howard County Council veteran Charles C. Feaga was chosen to return for another two years to represent the sprawling western county last night in a closed-door vote of the nine-member county Republican Central Committee.

The 71-year-old farmer and politician was chosen from among five applicants to fill the vacancy, beating out a bevy of younger contenders, all of whom waited nervously together for the outcome in a third-floor Columbia office lobby.

Feaga is scheduled for confirmation by the four County Council members at a public hearing Monday. He would replace Allan H. Kittleman, who resigned Oct. 20 to take his late father's seat in the state Senate.

"I felt a little bad for some of the guys who didn't get it," Feaga said after party Chairman Howard M. Rensin announced the result of a 45-minute deliberation by the committee.

Feaga said his choice will put the party in a good position for the 2006 election, even though he might not run for a new term under Howard's term limits law.

"It will give each person a chance" to run for the office, he said, adding that his goal is to whittle the field to one candidate for the relatively safe Republican seat and unite the party behind that candidate.

"It's important for the Republican Party not to have a primary" in 2006, he said, so that members can work toward expanding into new county offices.

The choice of Feaga to replace Kittleman represents the sixth elected office occupied by a Republican to change hands by appointment in Howard since 2002, including all four Republican General Assembly seats and one of the two County Council members.

Rensin said the committee took three ballots to make the choice, but he refused to reveal the final vote. He had told the candidates earlier that whoever got a five-vote majority would get the seat, and said Feaga won on a mix of factors, including personal popularity and party strategy.

Feaga's workload will be heavy, with a tough round of multiple zoning decisions - including requests for higher housing and commercial densities at Turf Valley and Maple Lawn Farms - facing the council over the next several months.

County Republican insiders had felt the choice realistically narrowed to one between Feaga, who represented the district from 1986 to 1998 before leaving for an unsuccessful run for county executive, and K. Gregory Fox, 37, a Constellation Energy sales executive who ran for the District 4 seat in 1998.

Fox lost to Mary C. Lorsung, a Democrat, and his home was moved into the 5th District after redistricting following the 2000 Census.

Feaga would not be eligible to run for the seat in 2006, because of a county term limits law, though some Republicans have theorized that choosing him made sense because it would give voters a chance to pick their favorite for a relatively safe Republican council seat in two years.

Steven H. Adler, 51, managing partner of Savage Mill and the GOP nominee for county executive in 2002, was another strong contender, even arranging to move from his home just over the district line into the rural 5th District if he got the nod.

Three other candidates submitted resumes for consideration, including tax protest leader Patrick Dornan, 43, of Ellicott City and John Taylor, 49, a Highland slow-growth activist who ran for council twice.

Dornan said last night that he plans to run for the seat in 2006, and Fox said he might run, too.

Ananta Hejeebu, 39, who ran for the District 2 seat in 2002 but moved to Marriottsville this year, also had sought the seat, but withdrew from contention Tuesday.