Outsider still looking in...

Before deciding to quit your day job for a career in politics, make sure you actually meet the requirements for the position you've set your sights on. Exhibit A of how not to do it, recently-resigned state official Tom Snyder of Ellicott City.

Although he is a registered Republican, he said he wanted to run a slow-growth campaign for county executive as an independent, which requires collecting 1 percent of registered voters' signatures on petitions, about 1,600 names.

That would be no problem, Snyder said. But he had forgotten that Howard County executives are required by law to be county residents for at least five years. Snyder and his wife, Elizabeth, bought their house in April 2003, though he said he had moved to Howard in 2001.

After determining that he does not meet the residency requirement, Snyder decided to give up his campaign before it began.

Whoops. I'll admit to being a little upset that he's not running. The way I see it, the more candidates the better (more for me to write about).

Of course, Snyder's qualifications were in doubt long before the Sun bothered to write about it. Howard County Blog #1 had the scoop a few weeks ago. Behold the power of blogs.