Dyson given role as leader

Senator picked as vice chairman

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006

Sen. Roy Dyson will become vice chairman of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs committee, joining Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and Sen. Thomas ‘‘Mac” Middleton in seats of power in the 47-member chamber.

Miller (D-Calvert, Prince George’s) has presided over the Senate since 1987, and he has announced that this will be his final four-year term. Middleton (D-Charles) chairs the influential Senate Finance Committee.

‘‘I’m very honored,” Dyson (D-St. Mary’s, Calvert, Charles) said Tuesday, a day after he was officially introduced as vice chairman in a caucus meeting. ‘‘It was very flattering. I think it’s going for be very important to Southern Maryland.”

In his new role, Dyson pledged to continue championing environmental and agricultural issues, particularly further restoration of the Patuxent River and other Chesapeake Bay tributaries. He is the Senate representative to the Maryland Environmental Trust and serves on two panels that oversee open-space preservation efforts and water-quality initiatives.

The leadership opening was created by the departure of the panel’s chairwoman, Sen. Paula C. Hollinger (D-Baltimore), who lost a Democratic congressional primary. Miller tapped her deputy, Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-Baltimore), as a replacement, leaving the No. 2 seat vacant.

Dyson is one of four other returning Democratic senators on the 11-member committee. Miller cited Dyson’s environmental stewardship and his election law expertise as reasons he got the nod.

Geography also was a factor. ‘‘Southern Maryland needs additional representation in the front of the Senate,” Miller said, referring to the chamber’s seating arrangement in which leadership occupies the first two rows.

Dyson has co-chaired the Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas Commission, which governs environmental regulations in the at-risk watershed, and has been a longtime advocate for agricultural preservation

‘‘He’s backstopped Senator Hollinger on a number of issues,” Miller said.

Dyson also possesses an understanding of federal environmental initiatives, having served five terms in Congress. ‘‘He’s brought his strengths and his knowledge to work in the Maryland Senate,” Miller said.

Dyson is among a group of 10 senators first elected in 1994. Only seven other senators — four Democrats and three Republicans — have served longer, including Miller, who came over from the House of Delegates in 1975.

A landslide victory earlier this month over St. Mary’s County Commission President Thomas F. McKay boosted Dyson’s credentials, Miller acknowledged. Republicans targeted the seat and McKay (R) raised about $200,000 in an attempt to unseat Dyson, but the incumbent received 64 percent of the vote.

‘‘Their faith in him deserves a position of leadership in the Maryland Senate,” Miller said of District 29 voters.

The leadership triumvirate ensures Southern Maryland is well represented in shaping policy and indicates the region has gained more clout than other rural areas of the state, said Zach P. Messitte, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

That’s particularly important since no statewide officeholder is from Southern Maryland, he said.

‘‘I think Southern Maryland has the sense that it is the region on the rise, economically, politically and socially; it’s becoming a very desirable place to live and I think the political representation now matches that,” Messitte said.

The significance of Senate leadership cannot be overstated, said two former Democratic officeholders from Southern Maryland.

‘‘If you don’t have some clout in the legislature, you’re a backbencher and we’ve got three people in leadership,” said former comptroller Robert L. ‘‘Bobby” Swann. ‘‘They’re not back-benchers.”

That extra clout can only bring positive results to Southern Maryland, Dyson said.

‘‘We are obviously one of the emerging areas of the state, this certainly gives all three [senators] a chance to voice the concerns of Southern Maryland,” he said. ‘‘A lot of the issues that have been on the back burner may now start to come forth and we’ll start to address them.”

The elevation of Dyson surprised former senator J. Frank Raley, who said the conservative Democrat has ‘‘usually been a lost ball in the high grass” in Annapolis.

With Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) set to become House Majority Leader on Capitol Hill in January, the political clout of the region is as high as it has ever been.

‘‘There’s sort of this era of good feelings right now in Southern Maryland,” Messitte said.

Echoed Raley: ‘‘Southern Maryland has really bloomed, there’s no question about it.”

E-mail Alan Brody at abrody@somdnews.com.