Thursday, February 10, 2011

Pocomoke City Elections...The Race Is On.......

POCOMOKE CITY -- The deadline to file and run in Pocomoke's upcoming April election has passed, with three people seeking to be mayor and two running for District 3's seat on the City Council.

Lynn Duffy, Bruce Morrison and Frank Ward will be running for mayor, while Bobby Brittingham and Donald Malloy have filed to run for the District 3council seat.

Morrison, who was elected to City Council for District 3 in 2005, says his years of experience in budget meetings and meeting with citizens uniquely qualifies him.

"I have been a councilman for six years and a resident all my life," says Morrison. "This is going to be a real tough budget year. State money is drying up, county money is drying up and assessments are down... but I don't want to see taxes raised."

If elected, Morrison said he would like to reduce crime through continued use and implementation of crime cameras, community meetings once a month and encouraging citizens to take pride in their community.

Duffy, another mayoral candidate, is a counselor with Lighthouse Counseling and Consulting Services in Pocomoke City. She is running for mayor to reduce crime, encourage public input in government and prevent overspending by City Hall, she said in a news release announcing her candidacy.

"The deaths last year of young people were needless," Duffy said in her statement, "and the town needs to not look away or hold meetings discussing events but deal directly with proactive steps developing a plan of action."

Duffy mounted an unsuccessful campaign to be Pocomoke's mayor in 2005, the year Mike McDermott first won office. She also ran to be a City Council representative in 2006, but came in second out of three candidates. She is a past president of the Pocomoke Chamber of Commerce.

Duffy has launched a campaign website, duffy4pocomoke.com, and named supporters to positions of campaign manager, treasurer, web manager and campaign chaplain in her statement.

Ward, who also filed to run for mayor, could not be reached for comment by press time.

The city council seat for District 3 is up for election this year, after being held by Morrison for several years.

Brittingham, a District 3 candidate who served as a sheriff's deputy for 25 years, says specific issues such as preventing erosion and flooding at Cypress Park, as well as general issues such as reducing crime, are his reasons to run for the vacant seat.

Malloy, who was a Pocomoke councilman during the 1960s, says he originally filed after being asked to do so by friends because no one else had filed at the time.

"I'm running because the seat is open and I think I can be of some use to the city," says Malloy, who is a retired electrician. "I would like to keep Pocomoke going on the path it's on."

In an interview, recent mayor and current state Delegate Mike McDermott said he supports Morrison's and Malloy's bids for office.

The deadline for registering to vote in the April 5 election is March 4.

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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:35:00 AM

    It's nice for Bobby to have goals but there isn't much he, or anyone else, can do about flooding at Cypress Park. It became a park because it was a swamp, unsuitable for building or much of anything else. I commend town leaders of the past for making what they did of it, but that's about as far as it can go without spending huge amounts of money, either for fill or a seawall.

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  2. Anonymous1:02:00 PM

    "McDermott said he supports Morrisson's and Malloy's bids for office"

    Well, that's nice, but I support everyone's bids for office. It's nice to see we have competition for these offices. Too often in the past nobody cared and the seats became almost hereditary. I'm sure each candidate has his/her own opinion of how things should be done and they should put forth those ideas and let the voters decide. Congratulations to those who stepped up to the plate whether or not you prevail. There will be winners and those who will not win, but there will be no losers.

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  3. Anonymous3:53:00 PM

    I hope this election remains civil and not all kinds of bogus accusations tossed out and around like was done with the last state and county election.
    Those who were posting all the ANON allegations did so much harm to the candidates and caused more than one to lose.

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  4. Anonymous7:14:00 PM

    I think they should dredge the park out a little, put in some boat slips a place to fill with gas and a nice tiki bar and restaurant (not owned by the city) and people will come up. People dont venture up the river much b/c they don't have nice place to stop off at until the golf course or snow hill. Then the water would have a place to run off too and Pocomoke may start thriving again. Just my thouths anyway.

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