Ron Gunzburger

Ron Gunzburger

Democratic Party

Candidate, Annapolis City Council Ward 1

Elections and appointments

Next election

September 16, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

George Washington University

Law

Vermont Law School

Personal

Profession

Attorney

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

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Personal LinkedIn

Ron Gunzburger (Democratic Party) is running for election to the Annapolis City Council to represent Ward 1 in Maryland. He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on September 16, 2025.

Gunzburger completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Ron Gunzburger earned a bachelor's degree from George Washington University and a law degree from Vermont Law School. His career experience includes working as an attorney, senior advisor, law enforcement senior commander, prosecutor, political website creator and publisher, congressional aide, dot-com chief operating officer/general counsel, and a campaign and communications consultant.

Elections

2025

See also: City elections in Annapolis, Maryland (2025)

General election

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

The primary will occur on September 16, 2025. The general election will occur on November 4, 2025. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.

General election for Annapolis City Council Ward 1

Thomas Krieck is running in the general election for Annapolis City Council Ward 1 on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Thomas Krieck (Unaffiliated)

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Annapolis City Council Ward 1

Incumbent Harry Huntley, Ben Bramsen, Ron Gunzburger, Kathleen McDermott, and Genevieve Torri are running in the Democratic primary for Annapolis City Council Ward 1 on September 16, 2025.

		Candidate
		Harry Huntley
		Ben Bramsen
		Ron Gunzburger
	Submit photo	Kathleen McDermott
		Genevieve Torri

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Gunzburger received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

• Annapolis Professional Firefighters Local 1926
• LGBTQ+ Victory Fund

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Ron Gunzburger completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gunzburger's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Ron has worn a lot of professional hats over his 40+ year career ... experiences Ron can put to good use helping his Ward One neighbors.

THE GOVERNOR'S DIRECTOR OF COVID-19 RESPONSE STRATEGY. From the start of the pandemic, Ron worked closely with Governor Larry Hogan to successfully steer our state safely though the two-year state of emergency. The Washington Post rated Maryland's response as the best in the nation.

LAW ENFORCEMENT SENIOR COMMANDER. Ron was general counsel and executive director (civilian) for six years in Florida at one of the largest public safety agencies in the nation ... making tough decisions daily for a massive county police, fire rescue, and corrections agency with 5,400 personnel and an annual budget exceeding $1 billion ... and one that pioneered major justice reforms.

ATTORNEY. An attorney since 1988, Ron previously served as an Asst Public Defender, an Asst Florida Attorney General (RICO Unit), a civil litigation partner in a top-100 national law firm, and as general counsel/COO of a dot-com. He is licensed to practice law in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Florida.

CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT AND ACTIVIST. Starting in the 1980s, Ron was a professional campaign consultant in over 130 Democratic and nonpartisan campaigns. Additionally, the Stonewall National Museum recognized Ron as a "South Florida Gay Rights Pioneer" for his equality activism in the 1980-1990, interviewing Ron in 2018 for their oral history collection.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• A BETTER ANNAPOLIS:

  CITY DOCK. Move forward NOW on resiliency to stop the frequent flooding at City Dock ... without the costly and massive proposed "Maritime Welcome Center" building. We need to reach community consensus on the MWC before moving forward, and do so in a way that complements historic Burtis House and the old legacy of a working waterfront.

  CITY HALL. We need a more customer-friendly City Hall, with less red tape and bureaucratic delays.

  CITY GOVERNMENT. Let's make City Hall more professional, more efficient ... and less political. This will involve proposed charter changes to how we run our city.
• A SAFER ANNAPOLIS: RECRUIT AND RETAIN THE BEST COPS AND FIREFIGHTERS. We need to be competitive with Anne Arundel County with salary parity for sworn police officers and firefighters so we can have the best public safety personnel in the region. RESTORE OUR NATIONAL POLICE CERTIFICATION. The City lost its national CALEA police certification in 2024. We must earn it back, as it is the gold-standard of policing professionalism. ADDRESS FIRE/RESCUE STAFFING STRESSES. Staffing shortage in our fire department impact response times ... and lives. We need a real plan to meet the national best practices (NFPA) for staffing levels and response times. COMPLETE BIKE LANE CONNECTORS. This is long-overdue, and needed now.
• A MORE AFFORDABLE ANNAPOLIS: The average Annapolis taxpayer pays nearly 44% more in city taxes today than just 8 years ago. It is time to stop the skyrocketing of our city taxes and spending! FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. Ron will always fight against ANY increases in our city taxes. And that means reducing the city's homestead assessment increase cap from 10% down to just 2%, to protect people from being taxed out of their own homes. FIX THE PARING PROBLEMS DOWNTOWN. A fairer and friendlier parking system in our city that prioritizes residents over vendor profits. REPEAL THE 10-CENT PAPER BAG FEE. Repeal this city-mandated fee. STOP WASTEFUL CITY SPENDING. Ron will always be good steward of our public dollars and cut wasteful spending.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

PUBLIC SAFETY and FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. Two areas I with which I have extensive professional experience in state and local government, law enforcements, and the private sector.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

INTEGRITY. Everything else flows from that: trust, character, and transparency.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Be accessible. Listen to residents. And to fight like hell on the council for the interests of Ward One residents.

What legacy would you like to leave?

A better, safer, more affordable Annapolis for the residents. I'm not looking to build costly vanity projects. Time sweeps all those away. I just want to make people's lives a little better and little easier.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Man walks on the moon (1969). I was six years old.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Delivering newspapers for my local hometown newspaper. Also city summer day camp counselor. This was all back in my teens. I left home and started college right after my 17th birthday, and graduated law school by the time I was 23 (youngest in my class). While in college at GWU I worked as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill throughout my time in school. After law school, my first job was serving as an Assistant Public Defender. In that capacity, I was promoted to the felony division in less than six months after trying a dozen cases before juries (winning 11 of 12). In the felony division, I tried over 50 circuit court (felony) cases tried to jury verdicts, and tried roughly 100 bench trials, covering everything from third degree to first degree felonies punishable by life. I held that job for three years (longer if you count the summers in worked there as a "certified legal intern" before graduation).

Are there any little-known powers or responsibilities held by this office that you believe more people should be aware of?

Quite the opposite: If someone can go through their daily life without having to ever think about their local government ... without grumbling over crime in their neighborhood, or taxes, or potholes not getting fixed, or recurring flooding downtown ... then that means the job is getting done right.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

Lots of backgrounds can translate well into a role like this. However, it does help to have some years of real experience in reading/overseeing meaningful budgets, understanding legal issues, managing large organizations and staff, directing programs. There is no substitute for real experience. Some real LIFE experiences are also useful.

Being a homeowner - a city taxpayer - gives one an important perspective, too, as it is our money the city is spending. It is not "the city's money." It is hard for a councilmember to truly conceptualize the impact of spending other people's money if he or she is not a city taxpayer.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Lots of individuals have endorsed my campaign. See our campaign website's endorsement page for the full list.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Annapolis City Council Ward 1

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