With Councilman Keith Hartzell’s official announcement Monday that he is running for mayor of Ocean City, it gets an open secret fully out into the open.
We hope this bodes well for what we expect to be a long campaign for the May 2022 election.
It has been obvious Hartzell has been distancing himself from Mayor Jay Gillian’s administration since the late fall, when buzz started increasing that he was contemplating challenging the three-term incumbent.
That has become more pronounced throughout 2021.
What had been a quiet and harmonious relationship between the mayor and City Council during Gillian’s terms in office – filled with near unanimous votes and mutual support – has changed.
Whether it has changed for better or worse will be decided by voters in the spring.
Given the recent press release attacking Gillian issued by Council President Bob Barr, who has been joined at the hip with Hartzell during the councilman’s “listening tour” over the months, the political warfare was already coming out into the open. The discord moved from disagreements to sniping at council meetings to the recent outright rejection of a new Public Safety Building brought forward by the administration in its five-year capital plan.
The good thing about getting the race out into the open is that it removes the subtext from actions by various members of City Council.
It should be obvious to all that decision-making not only about what they feel is best for the resort, but about who is best fit to serve as mayor in the eyes of the council members.
Voters will get to see this play out in coming months and should be paying close attention to what is going on throughout Ocean City government and possible ulterior motives for statements and actions.
Gillian built his mayoralty on a unity-in-the-community theme, avoiding the infighting that plagued former mayors and councils. That had been the case for 11 years of the mayor’s tenure.
Hartzell has not only overlapped during Gillian’s time in office, he predated it, being elected to City Council in 2006 and re-elected three times.
Both men are extremely well-known quantities in Ocean City politics and both have extolled the virtues of America’s Greatest Family Resort and their love for it.
Voters will get to see how that love and respect is demonstrated in how the two men campaign for mayor.
Both men have long records in office upon which they can be judged. We want to see them articulate their visions for the future.
Voters should also be judging the candidates’ backers and if they are being used as surrogate attack dogs so the candidates can keep their hands clean.
Hartzell and Gillian will have to answer for them too.
We can only hope the race doesn’t devolve into the campaigns of personal destruction we have witnessed in past bitter fights for mayor.
That will not demonstrate a love for Ocean City.