It was unfortunate that every voter in Maryland’s First Congressional District did not get to attend Sunday’s debate on the Mid-Shore between Representative Andy Harris and former Army Ranger and businessman Jesse Colvin. Patient voters began to line up in the blustery wind two hours before the debate, but attendance at Easton’s Talbot Public Library was limited to a capacity of about 200, so many were turned away. Voters who missed the debate will be able to access the 90 minutes on the sponsoring League of Women Voters website.
What you would have seen are two totally different candidates vying to represent the First District. One, Congressman Harris, came across as talking down to his constituents, occasionally lecturing them as though he knew better than those who had elected him, which drew murmurs of discontent several times from an audience obviously out of sync with the incumbent. Jesse Colvin, on the other hand, clearly was in tune with his audience, after months and tens of thousands of miles traveling the First District to meet thousands of them in in shops and on the docks, in Town Halls and in shopping malls.
One might presume that the audience was predominantly made up of Democrats but that is not true. There were many like this Republican and my wife, an Independent, who came because we truly wanted to compare the two candidates. We came early, knowing the small hall would be sold-out, and we are glad we did. What we saw was a definite shift in voter preference toward Country over Party, rather than blindly voting D or R because one always has.
What we witnessed was a young empathetic knowledgeable caring Servant Leader who wants to represent and advocate for all his neighbors in the First District, compared to an ideologue who clearly did not care for the concerns of most of his constituents. We have voted for Andy Harris three times, but not a fourth. It is clearly time for a change to a new generation of citizen leader, and we urge our First District neighbors to join us in wishing Representative Harris a happy and fruitful retirement.
Philip J. Webster
St. Michaels
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