When Bonnie Cullison was encouraged to run for a Maryland General Assembly seat in 2010, she told her wife, Marcia, not to worry. If elected, she promised she would serve only one term.

“I have to confess that I seriously broke that promise,” Cullison said in a short, emotional speech on the House floor Wednesday. “But these have been some of the most amazing times.”

After 16 years, Cullison plans to retire after this session.

Cullison said she has enjoyed her time in public service but that it is time for her to focus her energy on spending her “golden years” with her wife.

Cullison, 71, lives in Aspen Hill and has represented the midcounty region — which also includes Laytonsville, Derwood, Shady Grove, Olney, Glenmont, Wheaton and other neighborhoods — for four terms.

Now the question is who might replace Cullison as a delegate in District 19. She represents the district alongside fellow Dels. Charlotte Crutchfield and Vaughn Stewart, and Sen. Ben Kramer. An otherwise sleepy year for Montgomery County legislative seats is expected to heat up.

However, the timing of Cullison’s announcement leaves a tight turnaround for contenders to campaign for the seat, because the state candidate filing deadline for the June primary is Feb. 24.

As of Friday, just one candidate had filed to run in District 19. Christa Tichy, an electrical engineer and secretary of the county’s Democratic Central Committee, filed to run for the seat Friday, according to state elections board records.

Tichy told The Banner on Friday that she filed to run and withdrew her council candidacy once she found out Cullison wasn’t running.

She said she’d always been more interested in the state legislature but “wouldn’t run against an incumbent that was doing a good job.”

Tichy said she believes her experience can have a greater impact at the state level and she would prioritize legislation on education and unions.

Republican enters County Council District 1 race

Former Montgomery County Republican Central Committee Chair Reardon Sullivan will run for the District 1 County Council seat, he told The Banner in an email Friday.

“This race isn’t about ideology or labels,” Sullivan said in a statement. “We can be compassionate, practical, and fiscally responsible at the same time.”

Sullivan was the Republican nominee for county executive in 2022. There hasn’t been a Republican on the Montgomery County Council since 2006, and there has never been a Republican council president. The last Republican county executive left office in 1978.

Sullivan was the driving force behind the term-limit referendum that amended the county charter to restrict the executive to two terms. He is pushing a new ballot initiative to limit county spending.

Sullivan said, if elected, he will donate 30% of his net salary to the Montgomery County Police Foundation and UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO.

CAIR leader calls for Palestinian education following MCPS graffiti

CAIR’s Maryland director, Zainab Chaudry, called on the state’s education leaders to include lessons about Palestine in public schools.

Chaudry’s plea came after Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian graffiti was scrawled on a Montgomery County high school campus.

“Hate does not begin with graffiti. It begins with ignorance — when entire peoples are reduced to slogans, stereotypes or erased altogether from our educational frameworks,” Chaudry said.

Lessons about Palestinian culture do not equal political advocacy, she said.

“When students are not taught who Palestinians are — their history, culture, language and lived experience — Palestinian students become symbols instead of human beings,” Chaudry said. “The reality is that students are already encountering dangerously harmful narratives about Palestine — in social media, in group chats and in our schools.

“The question is whether Maryland’s public education system will respond with silence — or with responsible, guided education.”

School leaders condemned the graffiti incident at Whitman and pledged to create opportunities for conversation and healing. The school’s principal, Gregory Miller, shared resources with the campus community about how to talk about hate speech and Islamophobia, including videos about Muslim culture.

The district’s policies call for investigating and responding to all alleged hate-bias incidents at schools.

Elrich warns of a potential increase in ICE activity

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich told residents to prepare for an influx of federal immigration agents, similar to what has occurred in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon.

“Everybody needs to be sober and real about this,” Elrich said during a media briefing. “ICE is hiring up. We’ve heard reports that there are going to be 250 agents coming into the city and that Montgomery County, Baltimore City are two of the targets of those agents. So don’t get too comfortable or passive about thinking that what we’re seeing now is just what it’s going to be. It’s bad, but it’s not what you’re seeing in these other jurisdictions. Their plans are to come here and operate the way they’ve operated every place else.”

Elrich has been particularly outspoken on the Trump administration’s immigration policies and has supported legislation from the County Council to restrict U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

He also condemned the shooting death of Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.

In a statement last week, he called the federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota “tragic and deeply troubling.”