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Southern Maryland a rout for Republicans

Friday, Nov. 10, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Gary Smith⁄The Gazette Democrats found Tuesday night’s returns plenty to cheer about in Charles County. Celebrating at the American Legion post in La Plata were (from left) County Commissioner Gary Hodge, Robin Finnacom, Orphans Court Judge Lorraine Berry and school board member Bobbie Wise.

But that didn’t happen.

In 12 state legislative contests, only one Republican — Del. Anthony J. O’Donnell (Dist. 29C) of Lusby — survived. At the local level, Democrats swept all five seats on the Charles County Board of Commissioners, gained one seat apiece on the Calvert and St. Mary’s boards and ousted a longtime Republican Charles County sheriff.

The offices that the GOP took away from Democrats were minor: St. Mary’s County sheriff and Calvert County state’s attorney. The carnage was so thorough in Charles that the highest-ranking GOP official is John Rutherford, chairman of the county Republican Central Committee.

‘‘I think we just got our heads handed to us on a plate last night,” said Frances P. Eagan, a former St. Mary’s County commissioner.

Republicans invested heavily in a pair of county commissioner presidents who were thought to pose significant threats to incumbent Democrats in a region that boasts a recent conservative voting streak. Those hopes went belly-up, too.

The District 29 Senate contest was a clash of two political lions who have deep roots in St. Mary’s County. St. Mary’s County Commission President Thomas F. McKay raised more than twice as much money as incumbent Democrat Roy P. Dyson in a race that many believed would come down to the wire.

Instead, Dyson of Great Mills hammered McKay 65 percent to 35 percent, a pounding that surprised most observers. The margin of victory speaks to Dyson’s popularity in a district that has trended Republican in recent years, but has continually backed him in previous stints as a state delegate and congressman, said Zach P. Messitte, a St. Mary’s College of Maryland political science professor.

‘‘Roy Dyson is an institution and he is part of the earth down here,” Messitte said.

Even if McKay ran the perfect campaign in the ideal Republican climate, unseating Dyson still would have been a tall order, he added. ‘‘This guy is above politics. He’s playing in a different stratosphere.”

Former St. Mary’s County commissioner Barbara Thompson learned that when she challenged Dyson in 2002. But she fared better than McKay did on Tuesday, losing 58 percent to 42 percent.

‘‘I think the Democrats got out the vote better than the Republicans,” Thompson said. ‘‘... I certainly expected it to be much closer.”

Although disappointed, Mc-Kay said he has few regrets. Momentum was difficult to sustain over the 10-month campaign. ‘‘We just didn’t have the high energy level over the last two months of the campaign,” he said.

Several Republicans said state and local candidates could not overcome the national trend against the GOP.

‘‘It was a huge national wave. Maryland is not immune ... to what’s going on in America,” said Kevin Igoe, a former state Republican Party executive director who is now a political strategist based in Calvert County. ‘‘This is a blue state that [on Tuesday] was even bluer because of the national political environment.”

Calvert County’s most promising Republican met that reality as commissioner President David F. Hale fell to Del. Sue Kullen of Port Republic in District 27B. Democrat Kullen won a surprisingly easy victory, 57 percent to 43 percent.

The incumbent was at or near the top of the GOP’s hit list after she was tapped in 2004 as a political unknown to succeed George W. Owings III. A skilled campaigner, Kullen said the victory was an affirmation of what she has accomplished in two years.

‘‘I think the bottom line is hard work pays off. I knew it was a targeted seat. I knew I had two years to hit the ground running, to do a good job and to make a good impression,” she said.

More bad news befell Republicans across the Patuxent River in Charles County. Democrats swept all four legislative seats in District 28, unseating Republican Del. W. Daniel Mayer, who fell 5,000 votes shy of Democratic challenger Peter F. Murphy of Bryans Road.

Voters put more emphasis on party affiliation than candidates’ credentials on Tuesday, said Mayer of Newburg, blaming his defeat on the unpopular war in Iraq and the GOP’s congressional scandals.

‘‘I think the people that came out and voted in this election had one thing on their mind and one thing only, and that was to get rid of the Republicans,” Mayer said.