BY KEN ROSSIGNOL
THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY
Coming just three days after a boisterous public hearing over the growing war over how the incumbent St. Mary’s County Commissioners have allowed an industrial Mega-Pot Factory to be installed in the critical areas in a farming community, a bombshell exploded on the last day to file. A former president of the board, grocery store owner Tommy McKay, walked into the election office and threw down his marker to win back the post he won twenty years earlier in 2002.
Many residents of St. Mary’s County were so furious over the failure of the St. Mary’s Board to hold public hearings on the medical marijuana factory in Abell that, in recent weeks, a groundswell has been boiling in the county’s political pot. Former St. Mary’s Commissioner Frances Eagan was urged to run for District Three, which composes the Seventh Election District, the Fourth Election, and the Fifth Election District, stretching from Colton’s Point to Golden Beach.
Eagan, one of the Commissioner’s Public Forum presenters, provided her statement to Mike Alderson Jr to read and sent the unedited version, which was longer than the three minutes allowed for citizens at the public forum with THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY. Eagan’s fiery commentary can be read with the whole story about the forum. Following the public forum, Alderson filed as a candidate in the Republican Primary to be held on July 19, 2022.
McKay is taking on Commissioner President Randy Guy. Until Friday, April 15, 2022, Guy only had two opponents, neither of whom were stirring up much positive talk about their chances at unseating Guy. Political newcomer William B. J. Hall III is in the race, as is Rita Weaver, a St. Mary’s School Board member.
It is unlikely that the presence of Weaver or Hall will get much notice in the three months until the primary election, as McKay will likely ride the wave of the opponents of the massive marijuana grow facility that Charlie Mattingly has installed on his farm in Abell.
In an interview on Friday after McKay filed, Guy was asked about the furor over the Pot Factory and why the public was left out of having any say about the placement of the manufacturing building, encompassing over an acre in size.
“We have asked the Planning Commission to hold a public hearing, and it is set for May 9,” Guy told THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY. Guy said that the State of Maryland dictates the placement of the growing facilities.
Mattingly said in an interview that his business is entirely legal, and they have jumped through all the regulatory hoops required.
McKay first ran for public office in 2002, and his fellow GOP commissioner candidates Kenny Dement, Larry Jarboe, Joe Gass, and Vernon Gray. McKay, Dement, and Jarboe won that year with Democrats Tommy Mattingly and Dan Raley.
In the 2002 election, McKay beat incumbent Democrat Julie Randall by a wide margin, with 15,403 for McKay to 9,902 for Randall.
Kenny Dement sent far-left Democrat Joe Anderson packing with 13,340 votes to 11,535.
Larry Jarboe won the second of four terms he served as St. Mary’s Commissioner by whipping Marcell Brooks, the Democrat; the party found to be the sacrificial lamb to the ever-popular sawmill owner. Brooks disappeared during the campaign and was finally located somewhere on the Gulf coast. Jarboe garnered 14,166 votes to 10,550 for Brooks, who may have been looking for states willing to be annexed to St. Mary’s County.
Republican Joe Gass ran a hard race against Tommy Mattingly and lost by a close margin. Mattingly received 12,525 votes to 12,406 for Gass. Close races in St. Mary’s always saw good participation from residents of the nursing home, with one loyal Democrat always seeing that a couple of dozen patients managed to fill out their absentee ballots, even if they were napping.
Ridge grocer Dan Raley won his second term in 2002 by beating Taxpayer Association President Vernon Gray with 12,880 votes for Raley to 10,142 for Gray. Green Party candidate Bob Lewis picked up 1,742. That same year saw the election of a Republican Governor for the first time since Spiro Agnew won in 1966.
McKay decided to take on Senator Roy Dyson in 2006 and was defeated by the long-serving Democrat who was first elected to office in 1974 as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, later served five terms as Congressman from the First District of Maryland, and then was elected to the State Senate in 1994. McKay ran in 2010 for the post of Commissioner President, as did Randy Guy, who lost to McKay in the GOP Primary. McKay then lost in the General Election to Democrat Jackie Russell.
In 2014, both Guy and McKay tried their hand to attain elective office, with Guy running for Commissioner President and defeating incumbent Democrat Jackie Russell. McKay opted for a chance to win the seat of retiring Delegate Johnny Wood in the three-way GOP Primary against Bryan Puff Barthelme and Matt Morgan. With McKay and Barthelme splitting the local Countian vote, Morgan ran a strong and effective campaign and won. Morgan came close to defeating Wood in 2010, which is likely what made Wood decide to quit.
With Guy losing a race for school board in 2002 and commissioner president in 2010, he is not far behind McKay in racking up bruises and scars in election battles. McKay has his work cut out for him in trying to upset a two-term incumbent in a Republican Primary, as many Republicans don’t like to kick their own.
McKay, however, is a cany politician who has survived the tough days of retailing and can spot the wave of rebellion over the Pot Factory, much like the way the cavalier attitude of the St. Mary’s Board came close in 1993 to allowing a stump dump in Huntersville to be opened in fragile lands adjacent to the critical area.
The Stump Dump proposal being pushed by Ron Pickett was steaming along. He was a member of the family of Congressman Steny Hoyer and developer John K. Parlett, the wheeler-dealer developer. The public furor over the Stump Dump was strong and led Larry Jarboe to make his first bid for office and do the unthinkable – beating Democrat Eddie Bailey.
At this point, the race for Commissioner President in St. Mary’s will go down to the wire as a horse race. Many voters are expected to choose either Randy Guy or Tommy McKay and not throw away their votes on the other two candidates who have little chance of winning.
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