Ken Kerr Wants to Serve Community in Annapolis

Ken Kerr

George Wenschhof

Although a familiar cliché in politics, Democratic candidate Ken Kerr was sincere when he told me his running for Maryland state delegate in district 3-b was motivated by his desire to serve and make the community a better place.  He added “I look at it as almost a duty to serve”.

Two years ago Dr. Kerr, who teaches at Frederick Community College, won a nonpartisan Frederick county-wide election to the school board. He informed me he would resign from that position if he won the state delegate race.  Otherwise, he would continue to serve on the school board for the remainder of the four year term.

Ken told me four years ago redistricting resulted in making voter registration between Republicans and Democrats in district 3-b almost even, with approximately 4,000 undeclared or independent voters who will likely have an important impact on the outcome.

In spite of the effort to turn the district blue, Republican William “Bill” Folden would win four years ago, beating Democratic candidate Stephen Slater.  In this election, neither Folden nor Kerr have a primary opponent so they will cruise to the general election held on November 6, 2018.

I asked Ken if he had been “recruited” to run for the seat by the state Democratic Party and he informed me that he had been contacted by a staff member in speaker Michael E. Busch’s (D) office last year.  He added it took about six months to make his decision.  Obviously, Democrats would like to capture this seat and they indicated they would offer support to Dr. Kerr’s campaign.

I would follow up with Ken and ask, “Do you support a nonpartisan redistricting manner to be used by the state of Maryland”?  He responded with “Yes, I support a national or regional approach to nonpartisan redistricting”.

Dr. Kerr’s education experience surely led to him sharing with me his desire to create apprenticeship programs with businesses for high school students, including dual enrollments with community colleges.

He supports the recently approved state funded two years of additional education and would like to expand this to a full four years.  Ken would also like to expand the career technology center, by adding another facility in southern Frederick County.

He told me “I strongly support funding for universal Pre-K for 4 year olds - it is understood the early years are very important in a child’s development”.

Kerr also wants to establish an earned income tax credit at the state level that mirrors the federal earned income tax credit that will help working families.

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision to allow states to determine whether to allow sports betting, I asked him his position on this issue.  Dr. Kerr told me “I would support legalizing sports betting and want money to go to education”.  He added “the state is not capturing any money from the underground betting that happens now”.  In addition, Ken felt fraternal organizations should be allowed slot machines.

In regards to medical marijuana, Ken said he supported this along with full decriminalization.  He told me “the state should also keep an eye on states with legalized recreation marijuana to see how effective these policies are before Maryland moves to legalize”.

I asked him if he supported the $16 million in state funding for the proposed downtown Frederick hotel and conference center and Dr. Kerr said “Yes, a conference center is needed downtown and the hotel will provide a place for tourists to stay after shopping and eating”.

In an email following my interview, I asked Ken, “Do you support the state ban of the sale of assault style weapons and high capacity ammunition clips”?

He responded with “I am not in favor of confiscating anyone's guns. What I propose is--if you have an AR15 or similar, you can keep it. It's yours. But it's ONLY yours. You can't sell it, you can't transfer it. Enjoy it while you live, because it dies with you. Beyond that, we ban future sales and limit clip sizes. Civilians do not need weapons of war.”

The ninety minute interview passed quickly.  You can visit his campaign website at www.kenkerratdeleagte.com and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kenkerrfordelegate/

---------- 

Editor’s Note:  The Maryland primary election will be held on June 26, 2018 and the general election will take place on November 6, 2018.