Republicans strengthen hold on Eastern Shore delegation

47 ABC –  The country in recovery mode after a long hard fought election season, but also in discovery mode finding out more about important races and critical decisions.

On the Eastern Shore, Republicans were victorious and moving forward that commonality could be good going forward. In Maryland there’s 17 new state Senators and 38 new Delegates, so there is change in Annapolis, change we will see in January.

And yet only one of those 55 new leaders will represent the Eastern Shore.

“We’ve had big changes, 17 new members in the Senate alone out of 47. That’s a lot of new members and how we build relationships, how we find common ground is going to be critical moving forward to set the legacy and set the stage for where we want to be four years from now,” explains newly re-elected incumbent Sen. Addie Eckardt.

In a new role is Delegate Mary Beth Carozza who defeated incumbent Senator Jim Mathias for that 38th District Senate spot. With another Republican added to the Senate floor representing the Eastern Shore, Eckardt hopes local leadership can strengthen their positions.

“Everybody has something to contribute in the legislative process and that’s why its good to be on the ground listening to people both all sides to be able to bring it together to work together when we get to Annapolis.”

Newly re-elected Delegate Carl Anderton agrees when it comes to representing the shore on the House of Delegates floor.

“We’re just going to continue what we started four years ago and now we know a little more about how the process works and of course having the governor in the governor’s mansion for four more years will make it much easier. We have a great team with the lower shore delegation from Chris Adams to Johnny Mautz, Sheree Sample-Hughes, Charles Otto down in Somerset, you know, the boys up in the northern shore and newcomer Wayne Hartman.”

Both agree having Governor Larry Hogan back for a second term will help the Eastern Shore.

Eckardt explains, “Our governor has laid the base. He’s put good sound people who are going to be clear about the mission of the departments whether it’s health or commerce or natural resources or the environment or housing.”