Dr. Robert “Bob” Schaller launched his campaign for St. Mary’s County Commissioner from District 2 on Sunday with a fundraiser at Olde Breton Inn in Leonardtown. Schaller is the only Democrat who has filed for the race that also has Mike Hewitt as the sole Republican filer. Deadline for filing is Tuesday at 5 p.m.
About 350 people reportedly attended the four-hour-long pancake breakfast that featured Schaller performing with his group Geezer and also giving stump speeches reminding attendees that he grew up just a mile away in one direction and now lives a mile away in the other direction.
Schaller was former director of the county’s Department of Economic and Community Development. He was fired in 2011 over a letter sent to the school board urging them to award contracts to local businesses. That came after the county adopted its own local business preference3 policy.
Schaller currently directs the Patuxent site of the Florida Institute of Technology. He has an MBA from Loyola University and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University. He has taught at College of Southern Maryland, Sty. Mary’s College, Notre Dame of Maryland University and University of Maryland University College.
He is currently president of the Business, Education and Community Alliance, which gives out numerous scholarships to local high school students. He also is on the Board of Directors of Cedar Point Federal Credit Union, SMARTCO, and Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust. He is a Leonardtown Lion and past president and a member of Knights of Columbus. He describes himself as a “proud Catholic Democrat.”
Schaller’s father Don ran Don’s Superette in Compton for 37 years and he and his siblings worked there growing up. He described ii as “a little country store that was the Walmart of its day.” Schaller said he learned to connect with people at that store. “I do that today because he (his father) did it,” he added. We are “the Community Connectors from Compton,” he added.
Schaller held up two books that he suggested the audience read, “Chesapeake” and “The Right Stuff.” The first he said reflected that St. Mary’s County was first and foremost a rural county, with its farming and waterman heritage. The second, he noted, reflects the county’s biggest business, the Patuxent River Naval Air Station and the naval airmen who fly there. “We are very blessed to have that enterprise here,” he said.
The candidate introduced a number of current, former and prospective public officials in the crowd. “Public service is not to be taken lightly,” he said, and adding about himself, “I have been on the sideline for a while. It’s time to get in the ring.”
