Fair Play for McKay in Emptyprise Paid for by
Appointment of Reporter's Daddy by Gov. Ehrlich?
CHEAP SHOTS PREVIEW:
McKay Behind Appointment of Enterprise Reporter's Father as Chairman of Liquor Board in Trade-off for Favorable News Coverage....
Wow, say it ain't so Batman!  Did the boy wonder St. Mary's Commissioner President Tommy McKay tell Washington Post-owned-Enterprise reporter Jason Babcock that he would get his daddy appointed to the St. Mary's Liquor Board?   Then, suddenly last spring, two members of the liquor board were removed by the Governor and replaced, one of them with Allie Babcock, who has an interesting history in his last post with the St. Mary's County government.  The liquor board members receive a modest annual salary.
Has Jason acted as Tommy's personal public relations agent ever since? 
After the last boondoggle that Tommy McKay caused for Governor Bobby Ehrlich over the secret land deals, where land bought for preservation next to a state park was part of a deal to let a developer get land cheap, even at the same price paid by the state, McKay's dealing to get favorable press from the Washington Post owned "Emptyprize" might seem a little unseemly. 
But McKay needs the support of the The Washington Post and the Emptyprize and he is willing to use the full resources of the Governor to get it.   Those McKays ads still run all the time in the Big Empty even though they didn't endorse him in the last election. 
McKay's campaign to unseat Sen. Roy Dyson has him pulling out all the stops.   Even a stoplight he got the Governor to put in front of his family's store on Great Mills Road.   Now all the traffic heading for the base in the morning will have one more stop to make so it will be easier for them all to stop and shop at McKay's.  
Liquor Board Chairman Allie Babcock saw the controversial attempt to lift the liquor license of the Happyland Club and he did the right thing...he took his girlfriend on a cruise and made sure he wasn't in town.  Then the liquor board lifted the license of the black bar owner for being rude to a deputy.  Meanwhile the Brass Rail, a white owned bar, has never been disciplined for anything, not fights, not underage serving, not even a murder where the killer was shooting at a St. Mary's Deputy.   Nothing happens to Dickie Gatton's bar, but a snotty black bar owner gets his business closed by the liquor board.  Babcock could have stuck around and provided leadership, but no, he fled a tough case and went on vacation...The Emptyprize reporter just ignored what happened and another minority business went down the tubes.
Why do the bosses at the Washington Post let this cozy arrangement continue and not reassign Jason to another beat, not covering McKay after this sleazy deal?  There has not yet been a response from the Washington Post from an email requesting comment...More on this story in coming weeks in the print edition...