Editor’s note: The Frederick News-Post is profiling candidates in Frederick County’s state legislative races and for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District in the Nov. 8 general election. For profiles of candidates for county offices and other election coverage, go to fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage.
Angela Ariel McIntosh, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission scientist in Rockville and first-time candidate for political office, said Maryland is in a “crisis mode” caused by government overreach.
She decided in 2020 to run for legislative District 3 in the state Senate, about six months after the state issued restrictions on businesses and residents in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although McIntosh said she wasn’t initially against the lockdown, as time went by and the restrictions remained, she became concerned.
“There are many, many people — I would dare say most people — in this state, who want a complete turnaround from the direction where we are heading,” McIntosh said. “Because the direction where we are heading is in a direction of despotism and tyranny.”
McIntosh ran unopposed for the Republican nomination.
Del. Karen Lewis Young is McIntosh’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 8 general election. The candidates are competing for a seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Ron Young, Lewis Young’s husband, who is not seeking re-election.
In District 3, which spans communities north of Frederick to Urbana, Democrats outvoted Republicans about 2 to 1 in the gubernatorial primary.
McIntosh said she is asking voters to look past political labels during the general election and focus on candidates’ views.
“I am one of several very concerned people who believe we are sailing on the Titanic right now, and we need to get off of it,” she said. “And we will not get off of it if we keep electing the same people who have put us on this Titanic.”
McIntosh and nine other Republican candidates for state office outlined their legislative priorities this summer in a “Contract with Maryland.” McIntosh posted it on her Facebook page.
She and the other candidates pledged to advocate for reinstating the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, which state lawmakers voted to repeal last legislative session. In doing so, the lawmakers revoked special protections that police officers previously received when facing criminal prosecution.
The candidates also said they would advocate for changing how the state General Assembly operates by adding term limits to state lawmakers and reducing the legislative session from 90 days to 60.
Shortening the legislative session would make the General Assembly more efficient and save taxpayer dollars, McIntosh said, and restricting lawmakers to two term limits would diminish either party’s ability to dominate the legislature for a long time.
“We decided that two terms would be long enough to accomplish any legislative goals a person got elected to accomplish, but it wouldn’t create a dynasty within the Maryland General Assembly the way we have dynasties now in the Maryland General Assembly,” McIntosh said.
McIntosh and others Republican candidates want to decrease what honorably discharged disabled veterans have to pay in property taxes.
As a veteran, McIntosh said, she understands the sacrifice that members of the armed forces make for their country. While she was serving in the first Gulf War, she said, her schedule was easy to remember: She worked 14 hours for 14 straight days, then had two days off.
The legislation she and other Republicans outline in their Contract isn’t meant to be vindictive, McIntosh said, but rather help protect Marylanders’ personal liberties.
“If a person is in a crisis, the doctor is not going to hand them a Band-aid and an aspirin,” she said. “The doctor is going to do some invasive stuff to manage that crisis, to stop it, and to set a condition where that person can heal. That’s what we’re trying to do in the area of legislation.”
