CANDIDATE PROFILE: Lori Maslin

's father used to say of her: “You were never afraid of hard work.”

That’s what has brought her to where she is today: owner of a handful of Havre de Grace-based businesses and a lawyer in charge of her own Philadelphia-based practice.

It’s also what has brought her to the decision to run for City Council.

“I thought bout it over the last 5 or 6 years. Its just been percolating there,” she said of her decision to run for council.

Maslin feels she brings two things currently lacking on council—a business sense and a woman’s perspective.

“When I decided to run, I didn’t decide to run because I had a pet peeve or a particular issue that was gnawing at me. I ran because I thought there was lacking on the City Council a business perspective, a perspective that only a woman can bring,” she said. “I know that sounds silly in a certain respect. Men and women look at things differently. We think of things differently. It’s been described that women are nurturers and men are hunters. Whatever it is, we look at things differently. We live in a world that’s about 50-50. We’re not back in the dark ages where women stay home and raise the kids. We have issues that, just like everywhere else, are important to everybody. I think we need all perspectives.”

Maslin has a very straightforward personality. She doesn’t shy away from that. And she thinks it might be one of her strengths if she were to be elected to City Council.

“The reality is going to be, you may not like a position I’m going to take, but you’re going to know what my position is, you’re going to know why I have that position, and I’m going to be honest about it. I’m not going to tell you something you want to hear because you want to hear it, and I’m not going to tell you something because you gave me a campaign donation. And I don’t want you holding that over me, and I don’t want to hold it over you. So I’m not taking any campaign money.”

Maslin has been the only candidate to publicly say she’s completely funding her own campaign.

While she doesn’t fault the other candidates who are fundraising, Maslin simply sees it as a chance to run her campaign as she does her practice

Everybody has their competing interests and everybody has their supporters. I’d like to come into it kind of clean,” she said “I have a budget just like anybody else. I have the luxury, because I own my own business, that I get to pick and choose what I do, how I do it. Will I have to work a little harder for the expenditures of this campaign? OK.”

She said she’s understanding of the time commitment to the job. Her husband, Chuck, served as a City Councilman. In fact, she’s aiming to be the fourth Maslin—the others being her husband, and two Maslins from the early 1900s—to be elected to the Havre de Grace City Council.

Maslin said her regular day off from her law practice is Wednesday, when a number of meetings with Council are held. And she has the flexibility to work from home when necessary.

As for her goals if elected—Maslin is focused on making Havre de Grace better as a whole.

“I don’t really have any agenda, other than seeing Havre de Grace move forward to be a better place than it already is,” she said. “I don’t have any specific issue.”