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CUMBERLAND — On July 4, Mark Fisher became a free man.
Fisher, a Cumberland Republican, announced on Independence Day that he was withdrawing as a candidate for the House of Delegates District 1B seat. Now, the race is down to incumbent Kevin Kelly, fellow Democrat Kevin Shaffer and Republican Mary Beth Pirolozzi.
While Fisher’s name still appeared on the Maryland State Board of Elections list of candidates Friday, he already has submitted a notarized certificate of withdrawal. Candidates have until July 16 to withdraw and have their names be removed from the Sept. 14 primary ballot.
“I am definitely withdrawing,” he said.
In the meantime, Fisher is using his website previously intended for an informative campaign as a platform to discuss the issues across Cumberland and Allegany County on the levels of local, county and state governments.
Fisher is no stranger to the demands of a political campaign. He faced Kelly in the 2006 gubernatorial general election. Fisher earned 44.2 percent of 11,660 ballots cast for District 1B, including write-in votes. Kelly won with 55.7 percent of the vote.
Fisher said Friday the 2006 race was based upon “a nonpartisan approach as practical” as the state office would allow. With a Republican challenger in the primary, that same approach wouldn’t work this year. In addition, he and Pirolozzi “would have been competing among the same people for votes and funding.”
“It would have been a very interesting primary,” Fisher said, “but it would have weakened us financially” before the November general election. “Unfortunately, the two-party primary system ... is designed to weed people like me out.”
With a single move, Fisher became free of the burden of campaigning but obligated himself to providing the general public a single forum to become informed on a wide-ranging array of issues. Fisher, who is a building inspector, said he plans to record interviews with 43 candidates in eight contested local races. Those interviews will address economic development, land use and comprehensive planning, alternative energy possibilities and other topics of the day specific to each race.
Fisher’s first interview was with Bill Valentine, a Republican candidate for Allegany County commissioner from Little Orleans. The audio of the entire interview is available online at www.markfisher.us. That domain soon will be www.alleganyobserver.com. Either address will take you to the same place.
“I am pursuing my online candidate forum. From the response so far, it is filling a much-desired need,” he said Friday.
Fisher has labeled his website “election central” and said he hopes to complete all the interviews in July. After the election, the site could include commentary and still will track elected officials.
Kevin Spradlin can be reached at kspradlin@times-news.com.
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