David Sgambellone Runs For Anne Arundel County Council In District 2

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — It's election season in Maryland. Early voting runs from Thursday, Oct. 27 through Thursday, Nov. 3. General Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8. Voters can also return their ballot by mail or place it in a dropbox.

Residents can learn when, where and how to can vote by clicking here. Voters can see which districts they live in and view their sample ballot by using this tool. Patch's full voter guide is posted here.

Patch asked County Council and county executive candidates to complete a questionnaire outlining their priorities. Anne Arundel County Council District 2 candidate David Sgambellone participated in our survey. Sgambellone's unedited responses are posted below.

Name

David Sgambellone

Campaign website

https://www.sgambelloneforcoun...

City or town of residence

Hanover, MD

Office sought

County Council, District 2

Party affiliation

Libertarian

Education

B. S. of Computer Engineering

Occupation

Computer Engineer - 14 years of experience

Family

Married with three kids. Maxwell 4 years old, Madeline 3, and Lucy 2.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Age

38

Previous public office, appointive or elective

I have been the President of my HOA. However not being a career politician is an asset. I can much better represent the American people.

Why are you seeking this office?

1. I have been interested in political science since I first started voting at 18. I actually enjoy reading philosophy and economics and rather than be an arm chair philosopher I have determined to make a positive difference in my community. Every year brings bigger government and less freedom. This is the agenda of both major parties. It matters little between them who is elected as they both have visions of America they are trying to impose on those who disagree with the hard force of the law. In doing so, each party increases the size and power of the government at the expense of the citizenry. It’s time to reverse the trend.

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is ___, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is childhood education. There is nothing that we can do that will do more for the families of Anne Arundel county than to further school choice programs. The government school system is much less efficient and effective than the private sector counterparts. Education is the key to individual success, and the ability to choose the education that best meets your children's needs is the key to education. Currently school choice is only available to the elite; it needs to be extended to everyone, including historically disadvantaged communities. In addition to providing higher quality and individualized curriculum though competition, school choice will also end the damaging battle going on at school boards over things like mask mandates and critical race theory, as parents can choose the school that suits them, and their children, best. Teachers will also benefit from the ability to choose the type of school at which they teach as schools compete for the best teachers. This choice will encourage innovations as successful schools will get more business and unsuccessful ones will go out of business. This is how we work together to improve the quality of education.

To further this I support letting parents choose where the money allocated for their children goes. Currently Anne Arundel County funds the schools with about 850 million dollars a year, which works out to about $10,000 per student. (The school system also gets money from state and federal sources, spending in total about $15,500 per student, but this additional $5,500 is beyond the scope of the county council.) I propose refunding this tax money to any parent who uses private or homeschooling as an alternative to the public schools. This will make school choice available for many people who previously could not afford to send their children to the school of their choice. And it won't defund the schools, because every student who takes advantage of the school choice program means one less student the public school system needs to support. This would also force government schools to be more competitive thereby improving the quality of education.

What do you plan to do to address traffic and overcrowding in Anne Arundel County?

Congestion and overcrowding are becoming a problem. Many county residents want slower or no growth because they see the problems that growth has caused under our current zoning laws.

The problems are the result of well intentioned but mis-guided attempts to plan our community, often with a large amount of the tax payer’s money.

Reducing zoning restrictions will help the housing crisis by allowing multi-family homes to be built where the demand is high and thereby lower housing costs for everyone. And the builders, if given the freedom to innovate, have more incentive than zoning boards to make the housing aesthetically pleasing to the community because that's the best way to sell houses.

Also allowing mixed zoning will ease parking and road congestion problems. Currently people are all forced to drive to one part of the county for work and then home to another part at the end of the day. This very inefficient system clusters us all together needlessly. Many businesses can easily be mixed with residential neighborhoods without a problem.

Some problem area such as bottleneck entry ways onto peninsula areas may need to be additional rules, but we can grow without compromising our communities. We just need to let people innovate and do it.

What do you plan to do to address the ongoing school bus driver shortage?

The school bus driver shortage needs to be handled by allowing market forces to take effect. Right now it is impossible to say how much money a school bus driver should make as the requirement of providing the service and the exclusive nature of the contracts makes the decision effectively arbitrary, basically whatever people in the right position 'feel' is correct. The easiest way to bring in market forces is through school choice programs which will allow people to send their tax money to competitive private schools where they will have the option of paying the cost for bussing services if wanted.

What does campaign finance say about your race?

It will say it is a grassroots movement with no corporate donors or PACs.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

The two major parties have let this county down. 150 years of Republican and Democratic rule has got us where we are today. It is time for real change, and I am the only candidate in this race that represents real change that can bring real benefits to our community.

If you are challenging an incumbent, in what way has the current officeholder failed the community?

Most recently the incumbent, Picard, voted against a citizens review board for police conduct, which as a Democrat seems particularly bad. She has also voted in favor of lock downs that killed small businesses at a time of economic turmoil, and raised taxes. But the more important points are what I can do help the community. To name a couple, reducing zoning laws will help with the housing problem and stimulate economic growth and school choice will drastically improve education opening up opportunities people never knew before. These are strong and tangible benefits of freedom.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

Congestion and overcrowding are becoming a problem. The problems are the result of well intentioned but mis-guided attempts to plan our community, often with a large amount of the tax payer’s money. Getting government out of the way by reducing licensing and regulation is how economic development is encouraged. Reducing zoning restrictions will help the housing crisis by allowing multi-family homes to be built where the demand is high and thereby lower housing costs for everyone. Allowing mixed zoning will ease parking problems as everyone is not clustered in specific designated areas as designated times.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I am a successful engineer, solving problems is what I do. I have also served will on church council and as president of my HOA. I know if given the chance I can serve with esteem on the County Council.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

That I, and people in general, are more than capable of solving our problems if we are given a chance and apply ourselves. We don't need the government coming to the rescue for every inconvenience.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

If we are going to change the way things are done we need to stop voting the same people and parties into office over and over. If you want real change, you need to change the way you vote.