Friday • June 12, 2026
“Rules for Thee, But Not for Me”: The Weaponization of “Ethics” in Howard County
By Steven Keller
What does the word “ethics” mean anymore in Howard County? Today, the day after early voting began in the 2026 Primary Election, the Baltimore Sun published a feature article about a pending ethics complaint against County Councilmember Deb Jung related to the significant fiscal oversight work and investigation of pay-to-play politics that she has been conducting as a Councilmember while running as a candidate for County Executive — a complaint branded by Councilwoman Jung as “a “political stunt” by the developers of the project who have also donated to her opponent.”
While quick to cover this politically-timed complaint, despite the fact that it was still pending and should have been confidential, The Baltimore Sun and all other major media outlets in Maryland have completely ignored how County Council District 2 candidate Jessica Nichols and District 13 state delegate candidate Amy Brooks violated the ethics policy of their own county employer — the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS). After a thorough review was conducted by the HCPSS Ethics Panel in 2023, Nichols and Brooks were found guilty of violating the HCPSS Code of Ethics (Policy 2070) by using their positions as HCPSS employees to influence the last election cycle .
To this day, the only media entity to publish information about these confirmed Ethics violations by Howard County Council and State Delegation candidates has been HoCo Watchdogs.
Despite this recent, well-documented violation of HCPSS Ethics Policy, The People’s Voice, LLC, a local civic organization and political action committee (PAC) that hands out political endorsements entitled “The Ethics Ballot” each election cycle for candidates whom they deem “will put community interests over special interests”, went ahead and endorsed Jessica Nichols as County Council District 2 candidate in 2026 anyway.
This begs the question: What does the “Ethics” in “The Ethics Ballot” actually stand for?
Even though “ethics” isn’t explicitly defined anywhere on “The Ethics Ballot” criteria website, the disclaimer on their website implies that they understand voters will interpret “The Ethics Ballot” endorsement title as meaning that the candidate has been deemed to be “ethical” after thorough scrutiny:
“DISCLAIMER: The Ethics Ballot endorsement does not claim that candidates who are not endorsed are not ethical, just that our endorsement decisions are done as objectively as possible and that we assess integrity in our evaluation criteria as described above.”
Any reasonable Howard County voter would expect candidates graced with the endorsement title of “The Ethics Ballot” to have a track record of exceptionally “ethical“ behavior in both private and professional life — first and foremost, to never have violated any Ethics policies established by their employers.
Surprisingly, the word “ethics” appears in none of the questions on The Ethics Ballot Questionnaire , an important tool that The People’s Voice sends to political candidates each election cycle and uses for deciding on who “The Ethics Ballot” should endorse.
To genuinely evaluate a political candidate for an “Ethics”-branded endorsement title, Question #1 on The Ethics Ballot Questionnaire should be: “What do the terms ‘ethics’ and ‘ethical’ mean to you, both personally and as a candidate for office? Describe how you will best employ ethical behavior and policies to improve Howard County, if elected.”
Question #2 should be: “Have you ever violated the Ethics policy of any personal, professional, or political organization or business that you are (or have been) a member or employee of?”
How can Howard County voters make informed decisions at the ballot box when major media outlets give prominent coverage to politically timed confidential ethics complaints while largely ignoring publicly confirmed violations by other candidates, and when organizations that brand their political endorsements around the concept of “ethics” give those violations a pass?
Howard County residents need local media outlets that apply the same level of urgent scrutiny to every political candidate and political endorsement groups that wield the influential word “Ethics” in their title with the greatest of responsibility and adherence to consistent, clearly defined (high) standards.
Only with such basic consistency and transparency can any genuine meaning to the term “ethics” be restored to governance in Howard County.
Read the original HoCo Watchdogs article on the HCPSS ethics violations by County Council candidate Jessica Nichols and State Delegate candidate Amy Brooks here:
Read the follow-up Facebook post that details the conclusions by the HCPSS Ethics Panel that found them in clear violation of HCPSS Ethics Policy 2070 here:
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