Rolle Wins After Dropping Out

George Wenschhof

In an interesting turn of events, former State's Attorney Scott Rolle emerged as one of the two winners in the Maryland district 3-a state delegate Republican primary.

Upon learning who had filed in the district 3-a delegate race, I had predicted a win for Patrick Hogan and Scott Rolle in the Republican primary. That was before Mr. Rolle announced he would be dropping out of the race to pursue an opportunity with the Discovery channel.

His decision to drop out came after the official state deadline to withdraw, so his name appeared on the ballot which I mused in a recent column, would be interesting to see how many votes he received.

Interestingly, Rolle's decision not to run came after two articles appeared in the Frederick Gazette Newspaper questioning his residency in the district and pointing out some business financial difficulties he had recently experienced.

Reporter Katherine Heerbrandt wrote about financial problems associated with a business start up here on July 15. This came after questions pertaining to his residency came to light.

One week after the Gazette article appeared, it was reported in the Frederick News Post, Rolle has dropped out of the race. You may read that article here.

Now, after absentee and provisional ballots have been counted, Rolle has finished second in the Republican primary, nine votes ahead of Chris Huckenpoehler.

Look to see a change of mind by Rolle as Maryland Republican leaders will see the opportunity to win both seats in district 3-a.

The other Republican to win in the district 3-a primary is former delegate Patrick Hogan. Hogan lost in a close contest to delegate Galen Clagett (D) by about 200 votes in the 2006 election after serving one term.

The 2006 election saw the return of Sue Hecht (D) as a delegate. This coming after waging an unsuccessful battle against Republican state senator Alex Mooney in district 3 four years previously. Hecht has announced her retirement, making her open seat an strong possibility for a Republican pick up. The other Democratic candidate in district 3-a is Candy Greenway.

Stay Tuned...

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