BULLETIN: 36th Dist. Candidates' Forum–a Surprise Amidst the Yawns
CENTREVILLE– Candidates for the three state Delegate seats and lone state Senate seat at stake in this year’s elections fielded questions from the audience here Tuesday night at a League of Women Voters forum, with the surprise of the evening the strong performance by Steven Mumford, a first-time candidate from Chestertown seeking the Democratic nomination for Senate.
Mumford, with an eclectic background that includes work as a professional dancer and membership in the Screen Actors Guild, was knowledgable about local Kent and Queen Anne’s County issues, including the “FASTC” project that would have brought a federal State Department security training center to a large Queen Anne’s County farm. The project was initially welcomed by local officials but they backpedaled after pressure brought by local anti-growth groups and the federal government withdrew the proposal.
Mumford said that while the 400 or so jobs the facility would have brought to Queen Anne’s were “lost” to that county, the project might still be salvaged and located in Kent or Caroline counties in the 36th District. He said he had talked with local economic development officials who were working with some local farmers interested in offering their property for the facility. “It’s not a dead issue yet,” he said.
His opponent in the Democratic primary, Robert Alt, the former mayor of Elkton, admitted he was clueless about FASTC: ” I don’t know much about this issue but I’ll try to learn more,” he said.
Mumford also addressed problems with the Kent County recycling program and Bay Bridge-related traffic problems on Kent Island.
The forum, sponsored by the Kent and Queen Anne’s chapters of the League, had Democratic candidates appearing on one panel and Republicans on a separate panel. In addition to Mumford and Alt, Democrat William Manlove, of Cecil County, a candidate for Delegate in Dist. 36, also participated. The lone no-showDemocratic candidate was Arthur Hock, candidate for the Kent County Delegate seat in the district.
Republicans attending were incumbent Sen. E.J. Pipkin; Del. Richard Sossi, incumbent Delegate from Queen Anne’s County and his GOP primary opponent, Stephen S. Hershey; Jay Jacobs of Rock Hall, running for the Kent County Delegate seat; and incumbent Del. Michael Smigiel of Cecil County. Donald Alcorn, who is opposing Pipkin in the GOP primary, did not appear.
(The Cecil Times will file a complete report on the event later.)
Thanks for being there last evening. I felt it was a well planned event.
Without question, this was a tough question for me to answer. I was aware of FASTC, but i still am unable to make an opinion after reading about the issue for the last couple of hours. I truly believe these issues must be handled at the county or municipal level. I would support the decision of the local elected officials
Sincerely
Rob Alt
Candidate for State Senate
Thanks for your comment. We will be filing a longer, more detailed report on other issues where you had strong responses. Feel free to come back and comment on the next report.
Thank you Cecil Times for being there to help keep the citizens informed of the issues.
Sincerely
Rob Alt