Democrats pick Russell for commission president

Bush, Hubscher in tight GOP race

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Reid Silverman Jack Russell, left, and Merl Evans, two of three Democrats running for commission president, met by chance at Great Mills High School on Tuesday and shared some election-day experiences. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

In the Republican primary, Joseph B. Bush Sr. of Mechanicsville led by less than 100 votes in an unofficial vote count in a contest with Dennis Jack Hubscher of Hollywood, with absentee votes still uncounted.

‘‘Our campaign has been well above board,” Russell said. ‘‘I think it’s been a very well-conducted campaign.”

Whoever wins, he said earlier Tuesday when the outcome was still in doubt, ‘‘I would hope the other two will help the winner with resources.”

Russell said of what appeared to be a low voter turnout, ‘‘It’s all the more obligatory for us to really buckle down and do a good job for the county. It’s an indictment people have given up on the system.”

Tuesday morning, Hewitt summed up the campaign among the three Democrats. ‘‘It’s been very issue-oriented, very civil. It’s been the kind of campaign I like. St. Mary’s County will be well served by any of the three of us. I hope to be the top vote-getter, but I will support whoever the top vote-getter is.”

The action was mostly in the Democratic primary, but that doesn’t mean the winner of that race will win in November, Zach Messitte, political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, said.

‘‘I would say that’s the conventional wisdom, but in this county, conventional wisdom doesn’t always hold,” Messitte said.