Lawton nominated to replace Hurson

Friday, Oct. 14, 2005

Jane E. Lawton, who oversees cable franchises for Montgomery County government, has been nominated to succeed John A. Hurson as a delegate for District 18.

The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee will forward her name to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), who by law must make the appointment from the names submitted by the committee.

Lawton’s selection was something of a surprise. The District 18 Democratic Caucus had earlier nominated Samuel L. Statland, secretary of the county’s Board of Elections, for the position.

The caucus voted six times before Statland received a majority vote. The committee had four ballots before Lawton was selected.

In 2002, Lawton ran unsuccessfully for delegate in the district, a campaign hurt by reports that she had accepted at least $1,700 in donations from several Comcast and Starpower cable company officials or their families. The contributions were legal, according to state election laws.

A former mayor of Chevy Chase, the 61-year-old Lawton still lives there. She was a special assistant to County Executive Neal Potter, and a special assistant to U.S. Speaker of the House Carl Albert.

She said Wednesday she will leave her position as cable communications administrator after a transition. She has been in that job since 1995.

Hurson, who had been a delegate since 1991, had been the chairman of the Health and Government Operations Committee. He left the legislature on Oct. 1 to become a cosmetics industry lobbyist.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis said Thursday that Lawton will most likely be assigned to the Environmental Matters Committee to replace Del. Kumar P. Barve (D-Dist. 39) of Gaithersburg, who has moved to Health and Government Operations.

Lawton said she hoped to work on a bill that would limit the emissions of coal-fired power plants.

An opponent of the legalization of slot machine gambling, Lawton said she wanted to see the state add paper trails to its electronic voting machines, to increase the confidence of voters.

District 18 comprises Kensington and parts of Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Rockville, Silver Spring and Wheaton.

Nine people sought the position. Besides Lawton and Statland, other candidates were Victor Weissberg, a member of the Central Committee; Adam W. Luecking, who teaches leadership courses at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy; and Jeff Waldstreicher, an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson.

Four others dropped out of the race before the central committee’s vote: Kensington Town Councilman Alfred Carr; Steven P. Hollman of Chevy Chase, a lawyer with Hogan & Hartson; Dr. Dana Beyer of Chevy Chase; and Michael Griffiths, a dentist from Silver Spring.