CANDIDATE PROFILE: Diane Lawder

When decided to run for City Council, she did so by “jumping in with both feet.”

In a sense, those feet haven’t really hit the ground since she started running.

Lawder has been in Havre de Grace since 1989, but her family name has been a part of Havre de Grace since the 1800s.

As a forensic scientist with the Maryland State Police, Lawder describes her day-to-day duties as follows: “I have an issue, look at what’s presented before me, and I’m able to come to a conclusion based upon what’s presented before me.”

While she says her career and the role of a City Councilwoman are two entirely different duties, the two tasks involve a lot of the same logic—gather information, evaluating and making a logical decision.

“I can offer sort of like I do for my job, an unbiased approach,” Lawder said. “Lets look at the issue, figure out possible solutions, come to a common-sense resolution and say, ‘Does this work for everybody?’”

Lawder was born and raised in Andover, MA, moving to Harford County in 1989 as her father took a job promotion. She graduated from C. Milton Wright in 1991 and got her associates of science in criminal justice at Harford Community College before earning her undergrad and masters in criminal justice at the University of Baltimore.

Lawder’s husband, Billy, works for the City of Havre de Grace. They have a seven-year-old son, Will, who attends Havre de Grace Elementary School.

“He loves it. He thinks it’s awesome,” Lawder said of her son’s view of Mom running for public office. “For anything else, win or lose, I’m showing him, you know what, I’m going to go for it. If I win, great, if I lose, I didn’t lose because I put my best effort into it. You have to show them that losing is not actually losing. If I’ve learned anything about it, I’m teaching him, if you want something, go for it. If you don’t get it, it’s OK.”

Lawder has never run for political office. She’s one of three female challengers for City Council among six candidates—two of which are incumbents. Lawder thinks the council has done a good job, but she thinks citizens want some fresh faces on council. But she’s not willing to stoop to mudslinging to make it happen.

“No matter what, whether I get elected or don’t get elected, I refused to compromise my integrity to become elected. That’s one thing that I’ll never do,” she said. “I’ll speak honest with the people and I’m hoping that’s what they’ll see and that’s what they want—an honest person.”

Lawder’s main stance is protecting city employees and city services. She’d also like to bring the whole community together, aiming to unify downtown Havre de Grace and the citizens from outside of city limits.

“Its so difficult to think, how have they gone on this long, because nobody is on the same page,” she said. “You need somebody to bring everybody together.”