District 3 Underdog Says Incumbent McIntire Has Conceded Defeat

UPDATED—First-time candidate Todd Huff said tonight that four-term incumbent County Councilman T. Bryan McIntire's camp has conceded defeat in the County Council District 3 Republican primary.

Huff told his supporters during a victory speech tonight at Padonia Station bar that he was the Republican nominee and that it was time to get ready for the November election. His Facebook status tonight read:  "Its OFFICIAL Bryan T. McIntire has conceded the race to US!! Thank you so much for everyone's help, support and encouragement!!! WE DID IT!!"

"This win—besides the fact that it's huge—really brings the message that I've been trying to say all along … is that you don't need big bankroll money to win in politics," Huff said. "You just need great ideas, energy and fortitude to make something happen."

Huff added: "Everybody kept telling me, 'You can't beat Bryan, he has too much money.' Bullshit. I just proved it."  

Reached at home by phone, McIntire was surprised to hear that he had conceded. "I haven't made a concession to anyone," McIntire said. "If it appears that Huff won, then I will congratulate him in the morning."

Huff's announcement was a bit of surprise considering that the six-person race for the Republican primary in District 3 was shaping up to be a tight race between McIntire and Huff.

When it happened, only 18.75 percent of the vote was counted at 10:13 p.m. McIntire was leading with 422 votes to Huff's 416. By 12:10 a.m. today, Huff had captured 46 percent of the vote; McIntire had 32 percent. 

Huff's campaign workers had been saying all night that their candidate was much farther ahead based on information from poll workers. And their predictions panned out.

Huff had been watching results at the Padonia Station bar, where a Patch reporter was stationed, while McIntire was hunkered down at home.

Huff said his campaign workers first felt good about the results when they learned that they had won at the polling place at Pinewood Elementary, which is McIntire's home turf. McIntire voted there at 10 a.m.

Huff told Patch that McIntire's staff called to concede shortly before 10:30 p.m. 

After McIntire's aides called, Huff then told his supporters that he, not McIntire, was going to be the Republican nominee in the District 3 general election in November.

A McIntire campaign worker who was at the campaign headquarters of county executive candidate Joseph Bartenfelder tonight cried to a Patch reporter that McIntire had apparently been defeated.

"Todd Huff ran a better race. Everybody played well and we congratulate Todd for his victory," said Marcie Goodman, a senior legislative aid for McIntire. "He was a true gentleman and we appreciate that."

McIntire, 80, has represented the northern Baltimore County district for 16 years and has been considered to be the favorite in the race. With a sizeable campaign war chest of $221,000 at the end of August, McIntire's campaign was able to spend far more than any of his Republican opponents. Huff said he raised about $45,000.

But Huff, 42, had beat out McIntire for the endorsement of the 42nd District Republican Club, showing signs of the anti-incumbent mood that pundits have said is sweeping the nation. The 42nd District includes Timonium, among other beltway communities in the 42nd Legislative District.

The district encompasses the county's largest geographic area, stretching from the Timonium area up to the Pennsylvania border and fanning out across the entire northern expanse to Harford County and Carroll County.

McIntire had said throughout the campaign that his challengers were more interested in running this year to attain name recognition for when he doesn't run again in four years.

"It doesn't bother me," McIntire had told Patch. "I think they all have one thing in common, and that is they realize that I probably won't run again [in four years], and they want to get a head start … for the next election."

His competition begged to differ.

"I'm in this race to beat him," Huff told Patch last month. "This isn't about me getting a name for the next time out. I'm in this to beat him."

Aside from Huff, McIntire also faced challenges from Jim Christina, 52, a podiatrist who from Cockeysville; George H. Harman, 66, an environmental consultant and former state employee from Reisterstown; Jeff Srnec, 51, an electrical engineer from Carney; and Glen A. Thomas, 64, an educational consultant from Phoenix. Srnec and Harman's campaign finance reports were not available online.

Democrat Ben Sutley ran unopposed in his primary and had been eager to learn who he was going to face in the November election. 

"I see Mr. McIntire as my strongest competition because he has 16 years of fundraising in the bank," Sutley said.

Sutley has an available cash balance of $21,000, according to campaign finance reports. 

Goodman, McIntire's aide, said she trusts that Huff would maintain McIntire's legacy of preserving open space in northern Baltimore County.

"He has big shoes to fill and we hope that he will admirably do so," Goodman said. "All you need to do is drive and you see the 72,300 acres that he's preserved and all the great work he's done. In our opinion he's the greatest councilman that Baltimore County has had in the history of charter government."

Goodman said McIntire built a staff that was like "family."

"It feels like we don't know what's next for the family and that's hard, personally," she said.