Paid for by Citizens for Colburn Committee. Authority John W. Phillips, Jr., Treasurer

Colburn raises $20,000 at his 10th annual Choptank River Dinner Cruise
By TRAVIS DUNN
Staff Writer, Star Democrat
July 9, 2006

Sen. Richard F. Colburn, R-37-Mid Shore, second from right, poses with his wife Alma, right, his daughter Johanna, and Brian Wright, near the dance floor aboard the Dorothy Megan during Colburn’s annual Choptank River Dinner Cruise.

SUICIDE BRIDGE — Bruce Coulson took in the view from the top deck of the Dorothy Megan. He stood over the paddlewheel, nursed his beer, and enjoyed the vermillion sunset.

“You just can’t see a sunset that looks like that in Annapolis,” he said. Coulson, owner of the Taylor’s Island Family Campground, was one of about 150 people feasting and frolicking Friday night on the 10th annual Rich Colburn Choptank River Dinner Cruise.

Coulson has been a Colburn supporter since Colburn’s first run for office in 1978 — mainly because he likes Colburn’s conservative call for lower taxes, his support of small business owners, and his stance on environmental issues.

“He does all the right things,” Coulson said. “He’s just a person who looks after the Eastern Shore way of life.”

It was Coulson, and a bunch of other supporters, who helped Sen. Richard F. Colburn, R-37-Mid Shore, raise about $20,000 Friday night for his state Senate campaign.

“Fundraising is the mother’s milk of politics,” said Colburn, pointing to a lesson he learned during his first campaign, which he lost by 313 votes. (”You never forget your losses.”)

The upcoming election should be an interesting one, he thinks. Not only is he facing a Democrat — Talbot County Council President Hilary B. Spence — but also an unaffiliated challenger, Moonyene Jackson-Amis, who represents Ward 4 on the Easton Town Council. While there has been speculation that Jackson-Amis’s candidacy will split the Spence vote and hand the Republican incumbent an easy victory, Colburn, who still seems to smart from those 313 votes nearly two decades ago, isn’t ready to claim victory just yet.

“I welcome both of them to the race,” he said. “This is what democracy’s all about.... This is probably going to be the most interesting race in the history of the 37th district.”