Retired marine takes aim at Dyson's Senate seat

Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

Steve Waugh of Lusby is a retired Marine. Formally announcing his candidacy Wednesday night at Lenny's restaurant in Hollywood, the challenger for Maryland's District 29 senate seat played military march music and called on a fellow Marine to testify for him.

But Waugh said he is learning to think less like a soldier following the chain of command and more like a driven political activist. And that new way of thinking has inspired him to mount a Republican bid for the seat of Sen. Roy Dyson (D-St. Mary's, Calvert, Charles).

"It's been kind of a slow burn," Waugh said in an interview before his candidacy announcement, which drew more than 100 friends and supporters. "It takes awhile, but after awhile you discover that you're allowed to have an opinion."

Waugh said he has been retired for four years after serving two decades as a U.S. Marine Corps officer. After watching the country slip into severe recession and unemployment and seeing Maryland's government raise taxes to maintain spending levels, Waugh said, "I got tired of yelling at the TV."

Waugh settled in Lusby in 1997 with his wife and two sons and currently works at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Lexington Park.

Waugh's first act of political independence was to volunteer as a bus captain for the Jan. 13 tea party protest in his hometown of Annapolis. Fellow tea partier Julie Van Orden told the audience Wednesday that Waugh described his experience as jumping on a grenade that someone had rolled down the aisle.

"That's Steve; he'll jump on a grenade for you," Van Orden said.

"My first impulse was, ‘Whose campaign can I just get out and help?'" Waugh said.

But, when he contacted the local Republican Party, Waugh got more than he bargained for. Now, he is jousting Dyson, a four-term incumbent who handily defeated former St. Mary's County Commission President Thomas F. McKay in the 2006 election. St. Mary's County voters favored Dyson 69 to 31 percent and Calvert County voters backed Dyson 55 to 45 percent.

"I recognize I'm coming right out of the chute," Waugh said, adding that he would have preferred to start with a "more humble" office.

But Marines stand up to the challenge at hand, said retired Marine Lt. Denis Oliverio, who testified on Waugh's behalf at Wednesday's event.

"We're taught, if it's not right, stand up and fix it," Oliverio said.

And Waugh said, "I think this is going to be a striking anti-incumbent year. People are angry. They're not just frustrated, they're angry."

Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman (R-Carroll, Howard) said he drove more than two hours Wednesday to throw his support behind Waugh.

"I'd have driven 10 hours to get down here," Kittleman said, adding that he has a good gut feeling about Waugh. "I knew Steve was going to win this race within five minutes of talking to him. …I'm wishing we could duplicate him."

Waugh's campaign platform is largely concerned with bolstering small businesses, lowering business taxes, increasing the speed of permitting and creating jobs. He calls for lowering the state's budget back to its 2006 funding levels and rolling back the 2007 business tax hike.

Waugh said he realizes that his plan is more of an axe than a scalpel, but, he said, "I think what we really need this time is a tourniquet."

Waugh declined to take any direct swings at Dyson when interviewed, saying, "The time for contrast will come later." However, he landed a few punches during his announcement speech.

"If you have been in Annapolis since Gerald Ford was president, you are a career politician, and you are out of touch," Waugh said, referencing Dyson's three decades in politics. "He's run 12 campaigns, and we're untrained patriots, but so were the Founding Fathers."

jfriess@somdnews.com