First she was in, then she was out, then, she was in again and now, officially, Sarah Lacey says she is ending her campaign for the Anne Arundel County School Board District 1 seat.
While she had until the official deadline of August 6 to make a decision, the former candidate who came in second to current District 1 school board representative Gloria Dent and ahead of Hunter J. Voss, an economist, said Wednesday she has filed the paperwork to remove herself from the November ballot.
“After reflecting on the results of the primary and considering my previous electoral experience, I still believe I could win in November if I choose to remain campaigning,” she said. “However I respect Ms. Dent’s contributions to the board, and I am comfortable with her continuing to serve in that capacity.”
Dent said Lacey called and explained her decision to officially end the campaign.
“I told her if that’s her choice then it’s fine, I was comfortable either way,” she said. “But I appreciate her reaching out to me, as a person. She thanked me wished me all the luck.”
Lacey, a former County Council member and state Senate candidate, said she originally was compelled to enter District 1’s school board seat because it didn’t look like anybody else was going to run.
“I believed I was well qualified to serve on the Board of Education, but I never wished to campaign against her [Dent],” she said.
But when the Anne Arundel County Teachers Association endorsed Dent in March the only thing that kept Lacey on the ballot was that the deadline to have her name removed from the ballot had passed she said. Instead she simply suspended her campaign but did not file the necessary paperwork.
Following the primary election results, Lacey was set to go head to head against Dent in November.
Dent, the incumbent, landed 34% of the vote while Lacey received 24.6%, according to unofficial results from Maryland.gov.
With Lacey dropping out, Voss now will be on the ballot in November.
Unofficially, Voss, a Linthicum resident, barely beat out Cierra Harlee, a Brooklyn Park resident and Baltimore City teacher by 118 votes.
Voss, who had not heard about Lacey leaving the race said he found the news “interesting” but declined to comment beyond that.