District 39 seat draws a crowd

Application deadline is Monday, with a decision expected on Tuesday

‘‘This is a big race,” said Milton J. Minneman, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee, which will forward its pick to the governor next week. ‘‘It’s acting like a presidential race with all kinds of candidates, all kinds of things they’re sending and endorsements coming in left and right.”

The applicants includes two relative unknowns — Arthur H. Jackson Jr. of North Potomac and Robert J. Tublin of Montgomery Village — and four veterans: District 39 Dels. Saqib Ali of Gaithersburg, Charles E. Barkley of Germantown and Nancy J. King of Montgomery Village and former delegate Gene W. Counihan.

District 39 includes North Potomac, Darnestown, parts of Germantown, unincorporated Gaithersburg and Washington Grove.

The central committee will hear brief presentations by the candidates on Tuesday. Its 23 members will vote and forward the winner’s name to Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who has 15 days to make the appointment.

Jackson, 51, a small-business consultant, served on the Fairmount Heights Town Council from 1975 to 1986. He also was a regional vice president for the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

‘‘I think the Democratic Party in Montgomery County needs more diversity,” Jackson said. ‘‘There aren’t any African Americans in the state Senate representing Montgomery County.”

Jackson said he would focus on resolving the state’s $1.5 billion budget deficit and propose legislation to promote women and minority business start-ups in the county.

Tublin, 50, a professional jazz musician, was once a lobbyist for the county, where he later worked for the Department of Health and Human Services as a contracts administrator. He has volunteered for a number of candidates including U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington and Rockville Councilwoman Susan R. Hoffmann, a candidate for Rockville mayor.

‘‘I can affiliate with the plight of the average homeowner or renter in my district,” Tublin said.

Tublin said he would work to strengthen the state’s drunk driving laws, reform the mortgage lending industry, cap increases in condominium fees at the rate of inflation and push for an increase to the cigarette tax to help close the state budget gap.

Ali, Barkley and King have all filed applications with the committee. Counihan said he planned to file by today.

King declared herself a candidate — twice — before reversing herself each time. Now, she said, she is in for good.

‘‘I know it looks to people like I really flip-flopped around on this thing,” she said. ‘‘The truth of the matter is I have been negotiating for a while.”

The negotiations, with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach, involved whether King could continue to have a voice on education matters, something she said she has ‘‘been guaranteed.”

The delegates and Counihan each said they have met with Miller, who will assign the new senator to one of four Senate committees.

Hogan was vice president of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. His departure means not only the loss of one of the Senate’s most respected voices on fiscal matters, but could mean that the county will lose a seat on the powerful committee.

Counihan would not discuss his conversation with Miller, but suggested that he may have an inside track on a seat on Budget and Taxation.

‘‘[Miller] teased me about creating the third seat for Montgomery County [on the Budget and Taxation] 13 years ago because of me,” Counihan said. ‘‘And he teased me, ‘You didn’t even come and get it.’”

After serving District 39 for three terms in the House of Delegates, Counihan ran for the Senate seat in 1994 against Hogan, then a Republican, and lost by about 2,000 votes.

He maintained a presence in Annapolis, retiring in December after 13 years as a lobbyist for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority.

‘‘I stay in Annapolis during the legislative session,” said Counihan. ‘‘I’m not an occasional show-up there.”

Ali, in his second year as a delegate, touted his stands on slot machine gambling and the death penalty.

‘‘I’m opposed to slot machine gambling because I believe it balances the budget on the backs of the poor,” he said.

Ali is not sure of which committee he could serve on if selected, but said he ‘‘could be that one vote that brings an end to the death penalty in Maryland.”

A vote to repeal the death penalty died in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee earlier this year by one vote.

Barkley, who was chairman of the county House delegation until this spring and is chairman of the House Appropriations capital budget subcommittee, promoted his experience in Annapolis and said he is ready to take the next step in his political career.

To Apply

Send a resume and cover letter by 5 p.m. Monday to the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee’s headquarters, 3720 Farragut Ave., Third floor, Kensington, MD 20895, by e-mail to MontgomeryDems@msn.com, or by fax to 301-946-1002.

Call 301-946-1000.