On a hot summer day a key figure in making partisan politics in Calvert County a hot topic received recognition from friends and county officials. On Tuesday, July 17, the group gathered during the mid-afternoon at Dunkirk Park as a bench honoring Joyce Lyons Terhes was unveiled. Terhes served two terms as Calvert County commissioner, from 1986 to 1994. She also headed Maryland’s Republican Party and served within the GOP’s national organization as committee member. Additionally, she was saluted for help found the Dunkirk Area Concerned Citizens Association.

During her remarks Terhes recalled the 1982 election in Calvert County when every single political race was won by a Democrat. “That’s got to change,” Terhes recalled saying aloud when she read the results in a local paper the day after the General Election.

Calvert’s growing Republican base proceeded to follow Terhes’ lead, evening the playing field over the years. Today, Calvert’s Republicans and Democrats are virtually even in their ranks, with the GOP currently holding an edge.

“We have made a difference,” said Terhes, who noted Calvert has five Republicans on its board of county commissioners.

House of Delegates Minority Leader Anthony J. “Tony” O’Donnell, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Steny Hoyer in Maryland’s Fifth Congressional District race this November, recalled that when he and his family moved to Calvert County the late 1980s he was urged to change his party affiliation to Democrat if he wanted to be active within the community. In 1994, O’Donnell, who retained his loyalty to the GOP, won a surprising albeit narrow victory in the District 29C House of Delegates race.

“We’re going to turn things around in the nation with Mitt Romney in the White House and Tony O’Donnell in Congress,” said Terhes.

The bench, which was made with pressure-treated lumber by county resident Richard MacWilliams, was initially presented to Terhes back in April during the Maryland Republican Party’s convention in Solomons.

“It probably took me three days,” said MacWilliams, who explained he has been making benches for three years and donated the work to the local party members as a way to honor Terhes.

Calvert County Government’s Department of General Services approved the placement of the bench in Dunkirk Park, w