As a Republican whose public statements have often drawn criticism from Democrats over the years, I was surprised by what occurred at the Talbot County Republican Central Committee’s recent “Pasta and Politics” event.
The invitation advertised an opportunity to hear from “the five Republican candidates for County Council.” The problem is simple: there are not five Republican candidates in this race. There are six.
The sixth candidate is Lynn Mielke, the only woman in the field and the incumbent member of the Talbot County Council. Ms. Mielke was present at the event but was not invited to speak. When the speakers were introduced, the Central Committee chairman explained that the committee had used a scoring system to choose the five candidates they support. The scoring system, according to the chairman, was based on factors such as voting records, attendance at party events, donations to the party – a questionable criterion — volunteering, attendance at events and ideological consistency with the Central Committee’s definition of Republican.
Primary elections exist so Republican voters—not party committees—can decide which candidates should represent them. Until this week, I was under the mistaken impression that party committees were prohibited from favoring one candidate over another in primaries. When a party organization presents a partial slate of candidates while excluding another Republican who has filed for the same office, it inevitably raises questions about whether party insiders are attempting to limit voters’ choices to candidates who adopt the insiders’ positions on issues.
That approach also overlooks an important fact. In the last County Council election, Ms. Mielke received the second-highest number of votes overall. Whatever disagreements some activists may have with particular votes taken in office, dismissing a candidate with a proven record of electoral success is a curious way to strengthen the party’s prospects.
Republicans have traditionally believed in competition, open debate, and the ability of voters to make their own decisions. Attempting to narrow the field through endorsements or ideological litmus tests risks sending exactly the wrong message to the broader electorate.
Talbot County Republicans should be confident enough to give every Republican candidate equal visibility and opportunities to present their record and ideas to voters. If our principles are as strong as we believe they are, we should not fear letting voters decide.
David Montgomery
Easton
Hilarious. You can’t make this stuff up ….
[But oh, wait, I’m wrong … just look at what now passes for ‘normal’ at the national level.)
Mr. Montgomery’s comments are so last century. A Republican Party interested in equal opportunities or the will of voters disappeared in 2016 and has not be heard of since. Today’s Republican Party should rename itself Trump’s Party because that is what it is. It is laughable to think Trump is interested in equal opportunities or voters. Mr. Montgomery should wake up, smell the coffee, and give up hope for a civil Trump Party.
Michael — You are absolutely right. Today’s Republican Central Committee in Talbot County is out of step — our Stepp — with Talbot County values. It’s time to turn down the volume on the national political noise in the country and focus on getting the job done for Talbot County voters. Perhaps, in the wake of the Trump take-over, Talbot’s Republican Central Committee and its marionettes Stepp and Gunsallus are simply not up to what the county needs.
David,
My sincere thanks and appreciation for pointing out the hypocrisy. I supported Lynn’s candidacy before and will do so again. My hope is that other registered Independents and even registered Democrats recognize that Lynn is a dedicated public servant who works diligently to properly represent all Talbot County citizens.
“County Before Party” works for me!!!
Richard — Ever since the days I began cycling with you some 15 years ago around Talbot with the CCBC group that later became C3, I’ve admired your no-nonsense and shrewd analysis of local affairs and conditions. Let’s put the needs of Talbot County voters before party shenanigans. Talbot deserves better.
I support Lynn Mielke’s candidacy for Talbot County Council. She is an independent thinker who looks out for the best interests of all Talbot County Citizens. Richard Marks said it best “County Before Party”
I have found that Lynn Mielke carefully reasons her way through issues rather than simply blindly following a party line. Especially at a local level, I thought that’s what we expect from our elected officials. That is why I will be voting for Lynn Mielke again.
David Montgomery’s letter deserves a response from an unexpected quarter: a Democratic candidate for County Council.
He is right on the facts, but there is something more to say about how this happened. The Pasta and Politics dinner at Scossa wasn’t an accident of oversight — it was the product of a deliberate scoring system created by Republican Central Committee Chair Shari Wilcoxon to determine which candidates were sufficiently loyal to the party machine. The criteria, as the chairman explained at the event, included voting records, attendance at party events, donations to the committee, and ideological conformity with the committee’s definition of what a Republican is. On those measures, Lynn Mielke — the only sitting council member excluded from the committee’s preferred slate, and the candidate who received the second-highest vote total in the last county election — did not make the cut. Her fellow incumbents Callahan and Stepp passed the test. She did not.
This is worth pondering for a moment. Ms. Mielke has spent her first term doing exactly what a careful, serious county council member should do: reading the fine print on zoning decisions, insisting that infrastructure planning precede development approval, protecting Talbot’s fiscal reserves from the growing burden of unfunded state mandates, and pushing for an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance so taxpayers aren’t left holding the bill after developers walk away. On those issues, her record is serious and her positions are defensible — positions that thoughtful people across the political spectrum can examine and respect.
Chair Wilcoxon has a different standard. Her committee’s preferred alternatives include Dave Stepp, who organized an election conspiracy event in a Talbot County government building — under the great seal of this county — featuring a speaker who spread misinformation about Maryland’s elections. They also include Frank Gunsallus, who was resoundingly rejected by his own Easton community by more than two-to-one in the highest-turnout Easton election in recent memory, after his campaign sent mailers the Town of Easton formally fact-checked and rebutted as utterly false. The candidates offered the opportunity to speak with the opportunity to speak to their own party faithful scored well on Chair Wilcoxon’s party machine loyalty checklist. Ms. Mielke did not. In short, Republicans who have titled against alleged election interference are carrying out such interference against their own party faithful.
This is not a new pattern. In 2022, when an outside group declined to endorse Stepp and others, Wilcoxon posted publicly: “SHAME on David Montgomery and Lynn Mielke.” Four years later, she chairs the committee and has designed the scoring system to make that judgment official. The dinner at Scossa was the mechanism; the loyalty test was the purpose.
Talbot County Republicans should ask themselves what kind of party they want. The one that scores incumbents on donation history and event attendance, excludes the candidate with the strongest vote total, and promotes a council member who used a government building to spread election conspiracy theories? Or the one that trusts its own voters to make that call?
As a Democratic candidate, I am not here to choose the Republican nominee. But I will say this plainly: Ms. Mielke’s approach to governance — careful, evidence-based, focused on long-term fiscal consequences rather than short-term political signals — is the kind of approach Talbot County needs from its council members regardless of party. The Republican Party machine that silenced her at Scossa is not interested in what Talbot County needs. Voters of every registration should remember that in November.
Brian Naranjo
Democratic Candidate, Talbot County Council
St. Michaels
Brian, thank you for your very thoughtful comments about Councilwoman Mielke.
Well said. I agree.
The big issue in Talbot is land use. Talbot has serious problems: child hunger, economic exclusion, housing barriers, distant services, isolated seniors, family economic exile, drug addiction, congested towns, car dependency, and widening wealth gaps. These come from an oppressive land use system that blocks where people can live, work, and build anything for themselves.
Most land should stay agricultural. But there is almost no space for small business, light manufacturing, or union labor anywhere in the county. Housing and jobs are constrained by exclusionary zoning, and in many cases conservation zoning is used as a barrier to keep out marginalized and disadvantaged people. Adequate public facilities ordinances are often used to reinforce that same scarcity. The result is labor suppression, limited upward mobility, and dependence instead of opportunity.
It’s encouraging that candidates are starting to rethink where growth belongs, especially in unincorporated areas. That needs to be real, not rhetorical. Villages need to expand, roadways need businesses, county codes and plans need reform, and residents need access to jobs, services, and housing. Without that, nothing in Talbot ever improves, no matter who is elected.
I don’t see what Mary Smith’s comment here has to do with the Republican Party snubbing Lynn Mielke, whom voters have favored more than any other candidate, save one. In her comment Mary Smith lists a wide range of problems facing Talbot and seems to attribute all of them, including childhood hunger, to an “oppressive land use system.” Reminds me of the old saying, If the only tool you have in your toolbox is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Is the connection here that the Republican Party bosses who snubbed Mielke also see the solutions to Talbot’s problems as loosening land use restrictions to promote development? For 50 years, Talbot’s comprehensive plans have sought to preserve the county’s rural, agricultural character.
You’re right, it’s not about a party or a candidate. In Talbot, “rural character” has been the hammer for 50 years, and regular people are the nails – shut out of housing, jobs, and opportunity. Everyone is paying the price for that exclusion, and it’s long past time to question it.
Mr. Montgomery’s commentary hollers out about the rigidity of the Republican Party’s Cult attitude against having an open mind or voting one’s conscience or doing the right thing. Isn’t this is clear reflection of the state of the National Republican Cult? Republicans (especially women) speaking out on an issue of conscience in Washington or an issue of morality find themselves publicly ridiculed by the president and perhaps receive death threats.
For an incumbent county council member to be snubbed in a public event because her party “loyalty” index didn’t quite add up, it shouts out a warning to the public the kind of priorities any elected Republican must support, regardless of what they may believe personally.
Clearly, state and local Republican Party machinery are reflections of radical Trumpism. Leave your creativity and open mind at the door. We saw what happened with Council members Divilio and Pack.
Republicans everywhere are circling the wagons this November. State and local Republicans should have to explain how Trump’s “punishment” of blue states like Maryland helps the Republican voters who live in blue states like Maryland. Apparently, they see y’all as collateral damage. I hope none of the 25,000 Marylanders who lost their jobs to DOGE in 2025 were part of your family.
Democrats certainly have our our priorities, but not marching orders. “Liberal” is defined as “willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; open to new ideas” and “relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise”. Independents and thoughtful Republicans can also join us in voting to defend the Constitution and our democracy.
I support Lynn Mielke. She has been an wxcellent council person.
Voting for unconstitutional DEI as a Republican is not very smart , neither is forfeiting needed Federal funds .
I find it absolutely laughable that democrats want to interfere with the Republican organization bylaws and philosophical standards and comment on a meeting that they did not attend .
I left the Talbot Republican Central Committee in early 2025 when the current chair rose in influence and power. It is now a microcosm of what I see as problems with both parties. Both Ds and Rs play exclusively to what they believe is their base because that is where their most likely voters are. They are the far right and far left of the political spectrum. They effectively invite the polarization that is making compromises impossible. If more moderate voters on both sides got involved, and supported more moderate candidates with dollars and volunteerism, we would see more moderate candidates elected. Sadly, most moderates are not engaged, and don’t want to endure the inevitable ad hominem attacks on those who enter public life.
The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
You seem to either have amnesia or purposeful forget , that the American people and about over 95% of the Republican Party voted overwhelmingly in 2024 for Donald Trump , and gave him an overwhelming mandate to ferret out the truth , corruption and legal law fare that consumed the Biden Presidency. Your so called Silence and moderation , nearly got Trump killed twice , while standing idly by as the Biden and Obama administrations rebuilt the Ayatollah’s arsenals .
Ah yes, and the earth is actually flat and baby Jesus played with dinosaurs. Correct?
Paul — You need to go back and check your facts. While Trump won a landslide in the Electoral College — an institution designed to deliver resoundingly clear victories — he did not secure a massive mandate in the popular vote. Trump won 49.8% of the popular vote in 2024, securing a plurality just short of the slimmest of all possible majorities. Trump did win 94% of the votes of registered Republicans. In Talbot, however, Trump won by only 6 votes, suggesting Talbot is considerably more moderate than other allegedly red areas. Talbot voters want moderation, not the radicalism that the Republican Central Committee in Talbot serves up.
There have been some very thoughtful responses to Dave Mongomery’s letter. I have known both Dave and Lynn for many years. They make well-reasoned comments and votes on issues on importance to Talbot County. They use the facts. They don’t play with them. The Central Committee Members inserted themselves in the town election and were handed a political defeat. Taking sides in the Primary is not the role of the Central Committee.
As a member of the Republican Central Committee of Talbot County, I was present at the “Pasta and Politics” gathering in Easton on March 17 of which Dr. Montgomery has written. First of all, a correction. Mrs. Wilcoxon, our Chair, did not mention anything about “donations to the party” as part of the criteria for a GOP candidate in Talbot County. The word she used was “support.” We have many who give of their time, talents and advice even when short of funds. Monetary donations to the party are not part of the criteria for running for office in Talbot County.
At the dinner on March 16, Dr. Montgomery’s brusque and boorish interruption of the opening remarks in order to champion Councilwoman Mielke almost led to him being escorted out by the gentlemen present. It was only respect for his age and for his office as town councilman that allowed him to remain. As for Ms. Mielke, the Central Committee is under no obligation to a candidate who, while claiming to be a Republican, usually votes with the Democrats, including support for the unconstitutional and now discredited DEI. While she is free to run for reelection, with the obvious support of the Democrats, we are not obligated to give her a forum at a private GOP event, in which people come to hear the thoughts of those who are known to be conservatives. I hope the Democrats who are supporting Ms Mielke will give her a forum since she clearly believes as they do.
Republicans seem to be violating Ronald Reagan’s gold rule: don’t speak ill of Republicans. The schism between the present day MAGA radicals controlling the Talbot party today are not a good fit for the county.
Correction: March 16 not March 17 was the date of the Pasta and Politics event.