Prince George’s County (Map, News) - Douglas J.J. Peters, who has represented the 4th District on Prince George’s County Council since 2002, will leave Council at the end of this month.

The Desert Storm veteran and father of six won the Democratic nomination in September for the 23rd District seat in the Maryland Senate and faces no opposition in today’s general election.

Are you excited about joining the Maryland Legislature?

We have two more council meetings left, so my first order of business is to make sure that the new county councilperson, Ingrid Turner, will have a smooth transition and to make sure she is up to speed and can hit the ground running.

I will have a month between the end of council and the General Assembly starting, and I will use that time to bone up on issues and find out where the Prince George’s delegation is on issues. It is going to be a useful period of time.

How did you get into public service?

A few years ago my partner and I sold our record-storage business and I made enough money to retire. I do this because I enjoy it.

I enjoy solving problems for people. The pay has nothing to do with it because I enjoy helping people so much.

What County Council accomplishments are you most proud of?

The living wage bill was big and the adequate public facilities bill was big. We worked together and helped each other out with the budget. I think we did a good job of spreading resources throughout the county.

What will be the first issues you tackle in Annapolis?

We want to address the issues with the board of elections and the problems the county has been having with elections.

And I want to work on the electricity rate increases.

We have to have rate caps. There are a few bills that the county proposed last year that did not pass and I would like to revisit those. I am looking forward to taking my knowledge of the county and bringing it to the Senate.

Candidates are usually very nervous on Election Night. Can you relax without an opponent?

The primary was a really tight race and I had two great opponents. We are working together now to elect a Democratic governor and a Democratic U.S. Senator. That’s our focus now. - Joe Rogalsky