Mary Ann Tobin is a former member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, serving from 1976 to 1984. She served as

Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts The auditor of public accounts of Kentucky is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Forty-seven individuals have occupied the auditor's office since statehood. The incumbent is Mike Harmon, a Re ...

from 1984 to 1988. She is a member of the

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Early life and education

Mary Ann Tobin was born to Joseph Dalton Tobin Sr. and Mary Hulett (Broadbent) Tobin. She had one brother, Joseph Dalton “Joe” Tobin, Jr., who was a regional businessman. She graduated from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in accounting. While at UK, she was named the first Ms. Keeneland in 1963. She was also a member of

Chi Omega Chi Omega (, also known as ChiO) is a women's fraternity and a member of the National Panhellenic Conference, the umbrella organization of 26 women's fraternities. Chi Omega has 181 active collegiate chapters and approximately 240 alumnae chap ...

sorority and

Beta Alpha Psi Beta Alpha Psi () is an international honor society for accounting, finance and information systems students attending universities accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or the European Quality Improvement System ...

honor society.

Political career

Kentucky House of Representatives

In 1975 Tobin was elected to be a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives from the 18th District which comprised Breckinridge and Meade counties. She served in the House from 1976 to 1984. In her first race she defeated two other Democrats in the primaries (Lynn Thompson and Wade Glasscock) before she defeated Republican Henry Gibson in the general election (4,287 to 2,915 votes). In 1977, she defeated Keenan O'Connell in the primary election and faced no organized candidate in the general election. In 1979 she ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections. In 1981 she defeated F. Wayne Moore in the primaries but again faced no opposition in the general election. While in the House she served as Chair of the Capital Construction Oversight Committee as well as worked to update the state’s judicial system, automobile title laws, and driver’s license plan.

Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts

In 1983 she decided to campaign to be the Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts. In the Democratic Party primary she beat out Jerry Lundergan, Ed W. Hancock, Tom Ray, Logan Turner, and Doris Faye with 143.836 votes. Lundergan was the second place finisher with 77,419 votes. In the general election she defeated

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Ronald B. Halleck with 503,954 votes to Halleck’s 280,331 votes. She served in the position from 1984 until 1988. As Auditor, she started a hotline to report fraud and established the Economy and Efficiency Audit Division as a way to try to stop waste in government.

Kentucky Senate campaign

She sat out of politics for several years but in 1992 she decided to run for the District 5 seat in the

Kentucky State Senate The Kentucky Senate is the upper house of the Kentucky General Assembly. The Kentucky Senate is composed of 38 members elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. There are no term limits for Kentucky Senators. The Kentuc ...

. She won the Democratic primary election which had seven candidates. She lost the general election to Republican Virgil Moore by 2,590 votes.

2020 U.S. Senate campaign

Tobin filed paperwork to run in the Democratic primary in Kentucky's 2020 election for the U.S. Senate. Currently in the race, Tobin placed fourth behind

Amy McGrath Amy Melinda McGrath (born June 3, 1975) is an American former United States Marine Corps, Marine fighter pilot and former political candidate from Kentucky. McGrath was the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Marine Corps, as well as the ...

, Charles Booker, and Mike Broihier.

Business dealings

After leaving politics she focused on her family’s, and personal, businesses. She is the current co-owner of Broadbent Wildlife Sanctuary in Meade County. She is a part owner of First State Bank located in Irvington, a co-owner of Brandenburg Telephone company, and owns a 3,300 acre farm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tobin, Mary Ann Businesspeople from Kentucky Living people Democratic Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives People from Meade County, Kentucky State Auditors of Kentucky University of Kentucky alumni Women state legislators in Kentucky Year of birth missing (living people) Candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections 21st-century American women politicians