Bridging the GAP: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM 8: The Sheriff, Executive, and States Attorney Races

0:05 Hello! Welcome back to Bridging the Gap. We're here doing another elephant in the room and during this one we're going to talk about three different offices that are up for in the 2026 election here locally. We're going to talk about the office of the sheriff that set this up, the candidates that's running for that. We're going to talk about the candidates that are running for county executive. And we're going to talk about the candidate for state's attorney. Let's first start with the state's attorney since that's the smallest list. Here in Wicomico County there's only one person's name out there as a candidate for state's attorney and that is our now current state's attorney Jamie Dykes. Jamie has done an extraordinary job not only in the

0:52 last four years but since she's been in office with our state's attorney's office and it's a tireless job and she's definitely just been there working so much and she's always got She's got an opportunity to smile and talk to people. She's never turned anybody away as far as, I've never had her turn me away when I've asked her stuff or just gotten up with her. And I'm hoping to actually sit down with Jamie here soon and do an interview as I know she's a really busy lady. I tried to reach out to her in late November and she emailed me and told me that as soon as things kind of slow down in January or February, well here we are in March, she will try her best to sit down and talk with us. So again, Jamie, kudos to you. Thank you for all that you do and I'm pretty sure that everything is closed up and you will remain

1:40 our state's attorney and you definitely will be in our prayers here at Bridging the Gap. Next, we're going to move over, we're going to stay in law enforcement and we're going to move over to the position of sheriff. There are three candidates that are actively running for that. The first one would be Lana Foley. Now, again, if you ask me, and this is in my opinion, I know this is elephant in the room, but in my opinion, I don't think that the running for the election of the sheriff should be partisan. I think it should be a nonpartisan situation, but as it stands here in Maryland, it is a partisan situation where you know rather than either Republican or Democrat. With that in mind, Lana Foley is a Democrat, and she filed her candidacy on February the 24th which

2:30 was the last day of it maybe about four hours before he actually closed it on top of the Board of Elections and I've been trying to do my research on Miss or Mrs. Foley and the only thing I can find out is that she isn't in photography I can't find any any background her being in law enforcement but again to run for sheriff here and at least here in Wicomico you don't have to have any prior experience in law enforcement I guess you just got to have a desire to be the sheriff and desire to see things go in the right direction in law enforcement. So with that in mind, Lana is running, okay? Secondly, we have Scott Hamilton. Currently, Scott Hamilton is the president of the Fraternal Order of Police here locally, and he's also a

3:20 pilot. Now, again, I think they call it a pilot in the choppers. Anyway, I know he does fly helicopters and won't get me up there anytime soon, but Scott does a good job with that. Scott's one of those kind of people that if you meet him, you can tell that he's a person that just he doesn't have a problem talking to people and communication is very important if you're going to be an elected leader here in Wicomico County. I'm looking forward to sitting down with Scott in the very near future as I actually just got off the phone with him prior to going live here and sit down and see what is his thoughts what does he see that's not going the way it should be going in Wicomico and knowing that Scott does work in talk with the officers of this

4:10 county on a maybe on a more of a one-on-one basis as the FLP Lodge is just that a place where the police officers get together and kind of communicate and I would be interesting to see what are the things that Scott has learned from being around deputies and officers and what he would like to see improved in our law enforcement here in Wicomical County. Lastly, for sheriff, we have the current sheriff. He's been the sheriff for well over a decade, and that would be Sheriff Mike Lewis. Sheriff Lewis, in my estimation, is the world's strongest hugger. You know, if you ever get around Mike, he will definitely hug you to the point that you might lose your breath if you're not ready for that hug. A

4:56 person who always got the right words to say, that would be Sheriff Lewis. It's funny, I could turn on some archives, I think it was HBO, and see him on a show with Sheriff Mark Lamb. You can see him in Annapolis fighting for our county as far as for law enforcement. You'll see him everywhere. I haven't seen him being able to be sat down by many people and getting the interview done with him. So I'm hoping that Sheriff Lewis and I can sit down and talk. I would love to see what his mindset is right now and how he feel about having two competitors for Sheriff and how he feels about his job in the past and what he would like to see improve in the future.

5:42 So Sheriff Lewis, love you brother. Love to have you on the show. All three of these, kudos to all three of them for choosing to want to run for that office and I would love to at one point have all three of them here present and maybe ask them all the same question, maybe have a panel from Bridging the Gap because at the end of the day what Bridging the Gap is here to do is to bridge the gap between lack of information and information. We want to eliminate misinformation and disinformation by making sure that the community is informed on those people who are making decisions for them and those that are seeking to lead them. So again, that's what the Office of Sheriff.

6:28 Our last office that's up for election that we want to talk about today would be for County Executive. County Executive. Now in the race for county executive there's two candidates. Ernest Davis, who is a Democrat, he filed for his candidacy on January the 20th. He is also from Salisbury. He's also a former councilman on our county council. So Ernie does know a little bit what it takes to work with others in the county to get things done. This is a rematch, okay? This is a rematch, but one little difference. As you remember four years ago, it was our now current county executive, who wasn't the incumbent then, but she's incumbent now, but it was her, it was Mr. Davis, but it also was another person that got

7:18 into him, which was Mr. Boda. So this time, you're not gonna have Mr. Boda, at least not now. You're gonna have two people, one represent the Republican Party, one represent the Democratic Party, but I'm hoping both of them wants to represent the people, because that's what it's gonna come down to. Rather than not, the people of this county has confidence in either Miss or excuse me executive County County Executive Julie Giordano or they have the confidence and former councilman Ernest Davis I would like to really sit down with now with Ernie and find out what he's been doing in the last four years and what he has seen not been going on the right direction how he would have dealt with some of the oppositions that Julie has dealt with and what he would like to see going forward

8:06 now as As far as with Executive Giordano, well we actually have a executive decision coming up here soon. One great thing I can definitely say about her is that communication, at least with Bridging the Gap, has never been a problem. She's always been a person that has had an open door and I've actually asked her if any of these people that are running for office or any of those that are maybe critics would like to sit down with her here on Bridging the Gap, would she be willing to do so? And she said absolutely. So I would love to have at some point before the election, of course, maybe Mr. Davis and executive Giordano both sit down and we ask them both the same questions or maybe

8:51 have one come in, ask them the question that we're going to ask the other one and see and compare the two answers later. Whatever it takes, we want to make sure that misinformation does not rule the airways in this county. We want to make sure that when any of us and all of us go to the ballot boxes in November, that we are fully informed of those that are running for office, those that are seeking to lead us. We at Bridging the Gap, we are non-biased on who's going to be, we have on our show. I want to ask those that I maybe have called three times this week the same question that I talked to someone I haven't talked to in months. I want to make sure that

9:37 the right person gets elected. So, We want to thank each and every one of you for just tuning in to Bridging the Gap and being a part of Bridging the Gap. And we hope that you will continue to pray our strength as we want to keep working through the community, for the community, and make sure that communication stays pure to the community. Once again, this is Elephant in the Room. My name is David James, and this is Bridging the Gap. Have a great one. What's your best excuse? I'm just the elephant in the room