Dyson was born in Great Mills, Maryland. Dyson attended private schools and graduated from Great Mills High School in 1966. He attended the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Baltimore in 1968, 1969, and 1970. He also served as a legislative assistant in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1974 for U.S. Representative William D. Ford of Michigan.[1]
Political career
In 1975, Dyson was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates for district 29. The following year, Dyson ran for Congress in the Eastern Shore-based 1st District, losing to two-term RepublicanRobert Bauman. In 1978 he was a delegate in 1978 to the Democratic National Issues Conference. In 1980, Dyson narrowly defeated Bauman after Bauman suffered a sex scandal in the weeks prior to election day.[2][3]
In the 1988 election, Dyson was dogged by allegations of improper contributions from defense contractors.[4][5] His Republican opponent was Wayne Gilchrest, a high school teacher who had never run for office before. Dyson won by a smaller than projected margin of 1,431 votes.[6]
During his campaign, Dyson's chief of staff Tom Pappas committed suicide by jumping from a building while on a trip to New York with Dyson to meet with executives from Unisys.[2][7] Shortly before the trip, Pappas was the subject of a front-page Washington Post article, accusing Pappas of misconduct.[8] Dyson refuted the article's claims as untrue.[9] Others critiqued the front page piece piece for obfuscating facts and suggesting innuendo to titillate readers.[10]
Later years
In 1990, Gilchrest defeated Dyson 57% to 43% despite again being badly outspent by Dyson, who received substantial PAC contributions in all of his later campaigns.[11][12][13]
