Democrats from all three Southern Maryland counties held their third bi-annual summit Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25 and 26. The Saturday program was held at the Rod ‘N’ Reel Restaurant in Chesapeake Beach.

The event’s speakers included three members of Maryland’s Congressional Delegation, two gubernatorial candidates, Comptroller Peter Franchot and State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. While the marquee players delivered provocative comments, the quote of the day could arguably be a line from a grandmother shared by a young campaign activist.

“My grandmother told me ‘if you’re not at the table you’re going to be on the menu,’ ” said Young Democrats of Maryland President Joseph Kitchen. The leader of the organization with over 3,000 members statewide implored the central committees of the region’s counties to concentrate on getting younger voters enthused about seeking the local elected offices on the 2014 ballot.

“You have to help find young candidates in all three counties,” said Kitchen. “We need to grow the future of our party.”

Maryland’s present-day Democratic leaders shared the spotlight during the Saturday summit session. In addition to a half-dozen Young Democrats, the program was observed by a party from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the USA.

“We came to study, we want to understand how the state and local level works,” said Zha Liyou, the deputy head and counselor of the embassy’s Congressional and Sub-national Affairs. “There’s a new relationship between the two countries. Maryland has a dynamic relationship with China.”

The keynote speaker was U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, who became chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee following the death of Hawaii’s Daniel Inouye.

Mikulski had plenty to say about the recent government shutdown, which she called “just terrible” and blamed it on “The Tea Party. Make no mistake about it, it was about Obama,” said Mikulski. “Our president stood tall, he stood strong.”

She compared Congress’ Tea Party faction to the mafia for equating not getting their way on an attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a lack of cooperation from the White House. The GOP, said Mikulski, wanted to “repeal and replace” but never divulged a replacement plan. The repeal, Maryland’s senior senator indicated, would have put a