City of Bowie Elections 2011: At-Large Candidate Profile: Todd Turner

Editor’s Note: In Tuesday’s Bowie city elections, there are four contested races – , , and . Patch is running profiles on the nine candidates in the four contested races. For mayor and District 1, the incumbents are running unopposed. The final installment: The three At-Large candidates vying for two seats.

It’s probably difficult to argue against the point that Todd M. Turner, an attorney, is an expert on local government. It’s an expertise that Turner, 44, has spent his entire adult life building.

His day job is that of legislative officer for the Prince George’s County Council. He has been Bowie’s District 3 Council member since 2005, where he is also the council’s representative to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Turner was a constituent services director for a county council member and a legislative analyst for Maryland Senate President Mike V. Miller.

In his native New York City, Turner worked for New York’s City Council as a lawyer reviewing the city’s economic development policies. And he was director of community services and constituent outreach for a New York state senator.

He entered college intent on a career in economics. That all changed when, at 21, he became an intern to a special assistant of New York Mayor Ed Koch.

“There I was conducting research on legislation for the mayor of New York,” said Turner. “When it came to having an impact on things, I thought at the time that it didn’t get any better than this.”

He and his wife, Anita Gauhar Turner, also an attorney, live in the Longleaf section of Bowie with their daughters, Rachel and Maya.

Turner points to getting people involved in the decision making processes of the city, such as his e-mail legislative update and his holding of town hall meetings, as his greatest accomplishments on the council.

If he is elected to the At-Large seat, he said he would again help to balance Bowie’s budget and see to it that services “continue to be provided to people in an equitable manner.”

He said he would also be an advocate to preserve the former Bowie Racetrack as open space for recreational use should it close down as a horse training facility.   

Since that internship two decades ago, Turner said his fascination with using the nuts and bolts of government to impact people in what he describes as a positive fashion has continued to grow.

“There is a joy in providing constituent services, in involving people in their local government. Now that I’ve been serving District 3 residents for a few years, I’m ready for a promotion to become an At-Large council member.”