Low Turnout, Cox Crew, Secret $ and Slams Shaped Cecil County Primary; Miller Confirms Win to Return to Council

NEWS ANALYSIS Low voter turnout, a confusing state election schedule that pushed the primary election to the dog days of summer, and secret campaign money that financed a slew of negative and juvenile, cartoonish glossy flyers combined to make the recently concluded local election the nastiest since the infamous nose-biting incident at the polls not that many years ago. But the chief target of this year’s attacks, County Councilor Al Miller (R-3) survived, with 51.5 percent of the vote, and did so while walking the high road– without resorting to the sort of cheap shots orchestrated and financed by Del. Kevin Hornberger (R-35B). Kevin Hornberger assembled a “slate” of candidates trying to take over the Council to create a compliant majority to support his wife, Danielle Hornberger, the county executive whose $98,000 a year salary will be on the line in the 2024 election. Danielle Hornberger will still get a majority on the Council that will be sworn into office in December, but there will still be two independent voices—Miller and, depending on the issue, current Council President Bob Meffley (R-1). But it remains to be seen if Hornberger’s chief ally and advocate–Jackie Gregory (R-5), the current vice president of […]