Although Chesapeake Beach residents seeking elective office in 2024 have until Sept. 10 to declare their candidacy, three familiar names are already off and running for mayor in the bayside town.
The declared candidates are former mayor Bruce Wahl, councilman Greg Morris and councilwoman Valerie Beaudin.
All three of the candidates have indicated that the currently shuttered Chesapeake Beach Water Park will be an issue during the upcoming campaign.
Wahl said one of his objectives, should he win a third term as mayor, will be to “get the water park repaired and reopened.”
The park, which opened during the 1990s, did not reopen as it usually does in May following a lackluster 2023 season and the decision of the town council to develop a plan to convert the facility into an aquatics center.
“We’re going through the process now,” Beaudin said at the council’s July 18 meeting when she announced her candidacy for mayor.
Regarding the ongoing work to design an aquatics facility, she added, “I don’t see a major change. As we rebuild our town’s aquatic facilities, we need to strictly monitor the budget.”
Beaudin said she decided after 20 years on the town council that running for mayor “would be a good path for me to take.”
Morris, who announced his mayoral candidacy July 11, said, “Financing the water park is almost a secondary matter for me,” adding that the town’s financial condition was “sound.”
Morris called his seeking the mayor’s post, “a very difficult decision,” but added, “I see myself as mayor. I see myself bringing people together.”
Wahl, who had decided to run even before the town’s current mayor, Patrick “Irish” Mahoney, announced he would not seek a third term, told Southern Maryland News, “No one has the experience I have. I think my record speaks for itself.”
Wahl noted that in addition to eight years as mayor, he served one year as president of the Maryland Municipal League, which gave him a chance to interact and share ideas with town and city officials statewide.
During the July 18 meeting, the town council passed a new ordinance regarding campaign finance reporting.
The measure limits campaign contributions to candidates to $500 from any single person and states candidates may only accept contributions from Chesapeake Beach registered individual voters. Campaign finance reports shall be posted on the town website and records made available for public review.
The new ordinance, which passed on a 4 to 2 vote — Morris and fellow councilman Larry Jaworski opposed — takes effect early next month.
Randy Getman, of the town’s board of elections, said the Calvert County chapter of the League of Women Voters will host a forum for all of the mayoral and town council candidates on Sept. 17 at town hall. All of the races are nonpartisan and six council seats are up for election to four-year terms.
Getman told Southern Maryland News “it is our intention” to provide a ballot box outside town hall for anyone wishing to vote prior to election day.
The town’s election day is the same as the national day of voting, Nov. 5, and will take place from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at town hall.
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