Tawes Crab and Clam Bake 2008 in pictures and text (part 1)

As editor of this site and conscious about how long a multi-photo post can be, I’ve decided to split this into two posts. Tonight I’ll look at the political side of the affair and on Friday I’ll post the lighter stuff I found more humorous. Having taken nearly 40 pictures I chose a total of 16 for publication, nine tonight and seven Friday.

For those of you who aren’t from Maryland reading this, a little background is in order. In 32 years, this event honoring Crisfield native and onetime Governor of Maryland J. Millard Tawes has grown into THE political event of the summer in Maryland. It began with all the crabs and clams you could eat and beer you could drink for one reasonable price and as the people gathered naturally those politicians who are always angling for votes came. In turn, this drew more people and in short order we had a midsummer event that’s fairly unique. Since it’s always held on a weekday, the tourists aren’t nearly as much of a factor which pretty much assures a predominance of Maryland residents there.

In fact, you don’t even have to get into Crisfield for the political influencing to start. This sign was about 3 miles outside town limits:

I had to laugh because on my way into town I spotted a car with Kratovil and other Democrat bumper stickers parked on the side of the road and a lady was poking around looking at this sign, probably looking for a disclaimer from the Andy Harris campaign.

So let’s meet the two main protagonists of this story. In the red corner, we have State Senator Andy Harris, who knocked off the champion – better known as incumbent 1st District Congressman Wayne Gilchrest.

And in the blue corner, it’s a Democrat challenger from the field of law and Queen Anne’s County by way of Prince George’s County, Frank Kratovil.

You may notice that there’s quite a bit of press coverage at this event. Naturally after the people begat the politicians the politicians begat the press. It’s a little like all that seafood becoming all that garbage and attracting lots of flies. (This is not to pick on the clean-up crew, who did a nice job.)

What also happens when political figures show up is that they bring their campaign help. In fact, like last year’s event, Andy Harris had his own tent staffed by volunteers.

There were also a number of folks who turned out to show their support of Democratic candidates. Here’s an example of at least one confident in victory this year. Sorry, Jim, don’t think so.

I’m happy to say that at least Andy Harris did get to enjoy some crabs as the day wound down, hopefully Frank Kratovil did the same. But those two were by no stretch of the imagination the only elected officials there, and they came from all over Maryland.

One politician who I didn’t get a picture of but did get to meet was the state’s Comptroller, Peter Franchot. Yes, he did manage to make it despite the obstacles placed in his way.

It goes without saying that I wear two hats at the event, one as a blogger and the other as an elected official. So I also have to mention that both the main political parties had a tent, but I’m going to be biased and show just my party’s effort. We share space with Worcester and Somerset County Republicans, and Somerset’s table is the one whose picture came out best, so they win the prize of internet fame.

To wrap up tonight’s effort, I’m going to lead into some of the oddities and humor one finds at an event like this. I think the picture below is quite ironic myself.

Yes, I’ve had enough! But what these people obviously aren’t quite getting is that, paraphrasing the definition of insanity, voting for the party who’s creating the problem in the first place probably won’t bring about a lot of change or a solution.

On Friday I look at the more humorous side of the 2008 J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake.