Baltimore County elections, Venezuela's earthquake, police accountability and ice cream

Voters there had plenty to decide.

Party nominations for county executive, nine county council seats.

That's up from the current seven, thanks to a voter-approved referendum that expanded the body, as well as state's attorney, sheriff, and its entire delegation to the Maryland General Assembly.

John, welcome back to the show.

Always

good to be

here, Matt.

Thank you.

Well, there were plenty of candidates who declared victory in the hours or days after June 23rd.

Plenty, though, were still sweating out all the counting of mail-in ballots that took two weeks to tally when those races were outstanding until Monday.

What happened when everything was certified? Who was still sweating it out?

Well, as far as sweating it out, I would say one of the interesting races was the state's attorney's race.

There was really no sweating out there, which was that Sarah David won that race handily.

But the incumbent, Scott Schellenberger, decided not to at least publicly concede.

And so we waited.

Sarah David decided not to claim victory until the election was certified.

That didn't happen until Monday of this week.

And then the next day, Schellenberger did win.

did concede and offered to help with the transition.

Now, Schellenberger's held that office for close to two decades, and in particular, he's been a thorn in the side of his fellow Democrats who sought reforms on juvenile crimes and charging.

How were these candidates different? What will Sarah Davis bring to the office? This is what she said this week.

We worked really, really hard.

And we always made sure that we were on message and that we were talking to the residents of Baltimore County.

And I think that the hard work there and the engagement with the community is really what resonated in this race.

So what's the difference between these two? Well, specifically what I can talk about is transparency.