As Steve and Linda pulled up to our house I waved to them. They got out, and for a moment, I got choked up. They’ve become like surrogate parents to me! They’re so loving and sweet. Every time I see them, Steve says, “We’re your biggest fans in Howard County, Akbi!”

We said our hellos and I said, “Steve let me look at you! You look even cuter than usual!” And he did! Anyway, they came in and we sat down to talk about Steve’s bid for Delegate in District 9A. Boy, the Bolens and I go way back. They were some of my first friends after getting involved in local politics in 2018. We’ve remained very close ever since. Through, COVID even, which wasn’t easy! I just adore them…but that’s not why they came over the other day.

Wait! First I have to say this: Scott Berkowitz is a big Steve and Linda fan too. That means a lot, I think! That’s not connected to anything else in this article, but I still wanted to mention it.

New, Now, Next

One thing I love about Steve is that I’m always learning new things about him. On this day, I learned he’s a big advocate for mental health issues and people on the Autism spectrum in particular.

Related: See what Del. Eric Ebersole (D-12) told us about legislating in Annapolis!

“I’m interested in mental health care for veterans, first responders, and police officers, and I’m also a board member of the Howard County Police Department Citizens’ Advisory Council. I’m also involved with the Howard County Autism Society. And we have a good friend who is on the Asperger’s Spectrum,” Steve said with a glimmer of pride in his dark eyes.

Steve said what might be the most adorable thing any person I’ve interviewed has said. He said his greatest accomplishment was marrying Linda. And then he got a little misty!

“I didn’t know what I was missing in my life until I met Linda,” he told me. They looked at each other for just a second, their eyes filled with…well, true love!

I don’t know how many readers know this, but I’m obsessed with Midwestern accents! So many people that I feel are a little piece of my heart have one! And so it is with Steve. I just can’t get enough of them!

“Steve really genuinely wants the people that he comes in contact with, his friends and his extended network, to be successful,” Linda told me nodding and looking over at him, which underscored how deeply she felt this was true and how much she wanted to make sure I knew this.

When I asked Steve what he most would want a reader of this article to know, he said that it’s that he loves to help people.

“I’ve always been a service-oriented person, since I was a kid in the Cub Scouts, all the way to my work with the federal government,” he said. He added that he sees his political advocacy and candidacy as a continuation of that through-line in his life.

Another thing I learned about Steve for the first time is that he has an identical twin brother. I wondered if that twin brother was as warm, funny, supportive of his friends, and just as much of a cutie patootie as Steve! I also wondered what Steve and Scott were like as kids.

“You never know, Akbi, I may be Scott,” Steve said then with a big Cheshire Cat grin. I doubled over with laughter and almost knocked over the glass of water sitting in front of me. Steve is so genuine and from-the-heart normally that when he is wacky and sly–well, it’s freaking hilarious!

Twintastic!

Then Steve did that thing that ALL twins do. He had to tell me he’s older than Scott, his brother, by seven minutes. Because I’m so close with Steve, I teased him about this.

“Yeah, you two are the same age, Steve. Ain’t no seven minutes older.”

The three of us had a good laugh about that.

Before all this politics stuff, Steve was in national security. He became passionate about it after 9/11. Linda was involved in this same field, and that’s how they met.

“Steve has the perfect combination of relevant experience and a commitment to our shared values to be an exceptional delegate,” Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson,b Jr. told me when I asked him why he thought Steve would be a great candidate.

For some reason, then I flashed back to one of the many times Steve, Linda, and I have hung out. It was about a year ago and things were just opening back up. I had missed seeing my friends so much. Steve and Linda and I sat on two adjacent benches in Cedar Lane Park. We had a really nice time just talking and laughing. I thought, “Thank God for these two!”

“After I retired from from government, I wanted to keep serving the community and I thought one way to do that would be to run for office, to help set policy, to help people. So my main motivation, and it’s always been this, is just to help people.” So simply put and yet when you get to know Steve, you know he understands this goal of “helping people” comes in many forms and takes time and dedication.

Steve told me that as soon as he gets to Annapolis, he’ll have his eye on bills that provide support for people with mental health issues.

And: Leslie Salgado, director of the local Friends of Latin America, had quite an enlightening talk!

Last election cycle, I was kind of bummed that Steve and another good friend of mine, Natalie Ziegler, were competing for the same spot. But they became fast friends and supporters of each other. And that has remained true.

“Of course, it would be a great reward if I won. But whoever wins, I’ll be supporting them,” he said. I can tell you this is true! Steve is so not about self-aggrandizement. I think the self-promotion part of running for an elected position isn’t something Steve’s a big fan of. But early on into the 2018 cycle, I saw Steve blossom into a candidate with great poise and aplomb who somehow promoted himself in a very humble way.

Proper environmental stewardship is so important to Steve. It’s so California of him–he was born in Los Angeles but moved before he was one to Detroit, where he picked up that accent I can’t get enough of. Linda was also born in Los Angeles. But they didn’t meet until they worked for the federal government. They joke that it toke them 40 years and 2,000 miles to meet each other. Some may call that fate, soul mates, kismet. I am among those people who would. These two are perfect for each other! Another thing that makes their meeting seem like fate is that they met at a conference Steve wasn’t originally scheduled to go to. He was filling in for someone.

“Maryland can be at the forefront in this area. We have the technology with our proximity to Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, and the Applied Physics Laboratory,” Steve said. And I could tell he was just itching to introduce bills that would provide for a sustainable future. He said that, yes, when he’s elected, he’ll look at putting policies in place that provide for clean energy, for example.

School Is Way Cool!

Another passion of Steve’s is supporting unions, especially teachers unions.

“Both my parents were teachers,” he said with a proud smile. “I will support the right for teachers to include classroom size in their collective bargaining agreement,” he said. “We have to have smaller classroom sizes.” Supporting teachers starts with listening to them, he said, asking them what we can do to support them.

He circled back then, to mental health advocacy. Just the day before we met, he’s spoken to a teacher who said schools need to offer more mental health supports to students. In fact, if Steve had a large sum of money to do anything with, he said he’d split it between two gifts to two local organizations: The Howard County Autism Society and National Association for Mental Illness Howard County.

Steve is also a big Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) advocate. He and I have had a lot of conversations about it since we got involved in local politics in 2018. You can always find Steve down at Annapolis on “Gun Day”, the day when most bills on GVP are heard. He always has on his red Mom’s t-shirt over a Izod-esque tee. A very 80s fashion choice that Steve favors and that I’m a big fan of. Of course, “Gun Day” won’t be a thing this coming session. The General Assembly is doing away with specific days for certain advocacy topics. I assume that means a bill could be heard any time from January to April, regardless of what it’s about.

Steve said during his bid for delegate in 2018, the main challenge he faced was never having run for office and learning about it as he did it. This year, as so many people have told rocoinhoco, it’s been running during a pandemic.

As Democrats, Steve said, we’re always taking about tolerance. But Steve prefers to frame discussions about diversity, equity, and inclusion in terms of compassion. He told me a little bit of compassion goes a long way in understanding what motivates people, and how best he can help them live their best lives! There’s that word–“help”–again! I think Steve should say from this day forth that “helping people” isn’t his main thing, but “compassion” is. And THEN “helping”!

“There are so many dark forces working against people. I think we need to be open and compassionate,” he told me. Steve said that during his tenure with the federal government (and I can’t get too specific about his work, as it was with the CIA) he saw that there were “a lot of bad things going on in the world”. And the next obvious step for him was running for office to improve those things.

Tell Me…Er, Maybe Not

Steve and Linda said they could tell me more about their work with the CIA (him) and the DOD (Linda). “But then we’d have to kill you,” Steve said. I think I laughed so hard I cracked a rib. Steve and Linda–well, if either of them has ever even hurt a fly, I’d be shocked.

These days, an average day in the life of Steve-y B goes like this: wake up and plan campaigning for the day, working on things like designing campaign literature; do the door knocking, phone banking, and event-going. And then winding down by writing thank you notes to people who’ve helped him along his way. And that brings me to Steve’s favorite thing about running for office in both 2018 and 2022. I imagined then that Steve does the planning out of the lovely condo he shares with Linda in Western HoCo. Fun! I went over to drop something off for Steve once and they insisted I come in. So kind.

“Getting to meet people and make new friends (“like you, Akbi!”) has been the most rewarding aspect in running for Delegate in 9A both in 2018 and 2022,” Steve said. Linda nodded in agreement. They even said it’s one of the most enriching things in their lives to have met me. Wow–I don’t think anyone’s ever said anything so dear to me. Until Steve said what I think may be the kindest, sweetest thing anyone’s ever EVER said to me: “The world wouldn’t be the same without Akbi in it!”

Studies and Buddies

Also: Guy was our first interview here at RoCoInHoCo, and still one of the most memorable.

Steve studied Electrical Engineering during his grad school days, getting a Doctorate in it from Michigan State University. Before that he got his Bachelor’s from Lawrence Technical and Technological University in Michigan. I thought, well, I’m sure he did a great job, but if I had to pick a area of study for Steve it would be Heartfelt Compassion Studies.

hanks for reading! Check back with us each here at rocoinhoco.com every week as Robert, Colleen (and pup, Moses) get to know the many facets—one each week–of this prismatic place called Howard County. We want to take you along with us, so follow us on Twitter at @rocoinhoco, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram at @rocoinhoco.