Political Commentary by David Noss
| The New Faces of St. Mary's County Government | |
 |
|
| Incumbent Jack Russel, right, leads challenger Tommy McKay by only 14 votes for the presidency. | |
 Cindy Jones (R), District 1 |
 Dan Morris (R), District 2 |
 Larry Jarboe (R), District 3 |
 Todd Morgan (R), District 4 |
CALIFORNIA, Md. (November 2, 2010)—All 32 precincts have reported in St. Mary's County and the unofficial tallies are in.
It looks like we'll have to wait until the absentee ballots have been counted before we know who will be the president of the county commissioners. As it stands now, incumbent Jack Russell (D) leads Tommy McKay (R) by only 14 votes. Russell has 14,722 to McKay's 14,708. I don't think anyone saw this coming.
McKay formerly held the seat prior to Russell. He did not seek re-election as he had decided instead to run against Roy Dyson for the state senate in the 29th district.
For the other four commissioner seats, only incumbent Larry Jarboe (R) will be returning next year. The antics surrounding his Town Hall Alliance appear to have had little negative impact on his campaign. He defeated challenger Bill Mattingly (D) by 15,268 to 13,960.
Cindy Jones (R), who defeated incumbent Kenny Dement in the primary, swept the vote with 18,582 to Elfreda Mathis' (D) 10,551. Jones was heavily involved with the campaign of Collins Bailey against Steny Hoyer two years ago.
Dan Morris (R) beat Arthur Shepherd (D) by a comfortable margin of 15,729 to 13,255. Morris will fill the seat of Thomas A. Mattingly, Sr. (D), who did not run in the election due to term limits.
Todd Morgan (R) won by a wide margin over Mary Washington (D) — 17,673 to 11,693. Morgan is financial whiz kid, largely responsible for helping grow Eagan, McAllister Associates into a local mega success story, prior to being bought out by SAIC. There's never been a better man in local government when it comes to the ability to analyze a budget. Morgan will fill the seat of Daniel H. Raley (D), who did not run in the election due to term limits.
Let's see what this new Red Dream Team can do about reducing spending and getting the property taxes down now that the bottom has fallen out of the housing market, resulting in drastically lower valuations than those used to justify the large tax increases over the past few years.
Results for all offices in St. Mary's are available on the government website.