Mechanicsville, MD- Retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Clarke Guy of Mechanicsville, MD has officially thrown his hat into the 2018 Election for a seat on the St. Mary’s County Commissioners District 3. Guy will be challenging incumbent John O’Connor as an unaffiliated candidate. No unaffiliated candidate has ever won an elected office in St. Mary’s County before and Guy hopes to change that. When asked about the unaffiliated status, Clarke said,” Politics does not belong in local government. It belongs up the road in DC, our local government is different. The issues are our issues and we should take action based on what our conscience tells us is the right thing to do for each other.”
Clarke is a graduate of the Chopticon Class of 1993, the class vice president, and spent a year afterwards working in Prince Frederick for prominent attorneys and studying to be a paralegal at Charles County Community College, La Plata (now College of Southern Maryland). In June of 1994, he left for Air Force basic training to serve his country and protect our way of life.
While serving in the Air Force from 1994 to 2002; with stops in Biloxi, Mississippi, Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri, 4 years in Germany and time spent in San Antonio, Texas; he was finally stationed near home on Andrews Air Force Base. The pull to return to St. Mary’s was greater than ever. He was married in February 1998 to Claudia Bautista, of Chicago, and had two young children (Connery, CHS ‘17 and Caridad, CHS ‘18), which were about to enter school in 2004. He knew if they were going to be in Maryland that they needed to raise their children in St. Mary’s County, the land of pleasant living. They moved to St. Mary’s County in 2004 and built a house on an old family farm off of Old Baptist Church Road, only about 250 yards and over the old railroad tracks (Three Notch Trail) from his childhood home.
After being moved again by the Air Force in 2011, they returned in 2013 and Clarke started to become more involved within the community by joining the Mechanicsville Lions Club, where he was honored to have been chosen as the President (King Lion) for the 2017/2018 office year. He is also a member of the VFW, American Legion, Veterans of Helen and Moose Lodge organizations.
Clarke attended the first St. Mary’s County Citizens’ Academy, from September-November 2014, where he learned about the county government and could continue to support his neighbors by finding the services they needed.
Clarke retired from the Air Force as a Chief Master Sergeant (CMSgt), the highest enlisted rank (E9), on February 1, 2016 after 21+ years; where the opportunities afforded him the ability to earn an Associates Degree in Personnel Administration in 2002, a Bachelors in Business Administration in 2012 and an MBA in 2015. His assignments in the Air Force also gave him the ability to lead at every level of the Air Force organizational structure and within very high levels of the federal government, in the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In November 2016, the St. Mary’s County Commissioners appointed him to the Planning Commission; where he represented the northern part of the county and provided his insight on various planning and zoning aspects throughout the entire county. Ensuring that every concept plan that came before the commission benefited the citizens of the county.
His decision to join the race for the District 3 seat was one that came from his frustration with the lack of and last minute information given to the citizens of St. Mary’s County. ” Board Docs and agendas weren’t posted until the night before or the morning of the meetings,” said Guy,” Citizens need the information in order to make informed decisions.”
” As lucky as we are to have the Staff we have, the Commissioners must provide a strategic vision and direction that is sorely missing,” Guy says. ” The government is running the Commissioners, not the Commissioners running the government, it’s time to change that. We know what the issues of this County are, and we need to go after them; we cannot wait for the staff to bring them up Tuesday mornings.”
Some of the issues Guy feels passionate about are a more focused budget, lower property taxes, adequate and equitable fees for county services, smarter growth and transportation. ” We’ve built one road in 20 years, and it’s still not finished. This county is driven by transportation.”
The 2018 Gubernational Primary Election is Tuesday, June 26, 2018 and the General Election Tuesday, November 6, 2018. For more information regarding the St. Mary’s County Primary and General Elections, please visit The Board of Elections .