R. Clayton Mitchell Jr., a proud Eastern Shoreman who rose to become Maryland’s speaker of the House, has died, sources tell Maryland Matters. He was 83.
Mitchell, a Democrat, served as speaker from 1987 to 1993. He spent four years on the Kent County Commission before being elected to the House of Delegates in 1970. He rose to become chairman of the Appropriations Committee in 1983 and then became speaker after his predecessor, Benjamin L. Cardin (D), was elected to Congress in 1986.
Mitchell’s tenure as speaker coincided with William Donald Schaefer’s first six years as governor, and he became the presiding officer in the House at the same time that state Sen. Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) became president of the state Senate. Miller is still serving in that role.
Last year, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) dedicated the Kent Narrows Bridge along U.S. 50 to Mitchell.
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Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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