ONLY SAUSAGE king Jimmy Dean ever brought more pork to Western Maryland.

House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. trundled public works projects, jobs, bridges, libraries and other worthy projects into his Appalachian redoubts for 28 years.

Oh sure, said a microscopic majority of the voters, but he was wrong on gun locks. Had to remove him!

A recount will be done, but Mr. Taylor apparently lost to Candidate Who? in the recent election. Maybe Mr. Taylor succeeded so well the region doesn't need him any more.

Not likely, of course, so what happened? How did he lose, this man who brought jobs and the potential of tourism to Allegany County? Who thought his wise leadership was expendable?

If it weren't such a crime, his defeat might almost seem like a tribute. It took all the big guns (and little guns), operating in an atmosphere of change, to bring him low, and then by less than 100 votes. Those who conspired -- inadvertently -- to defeat him included Gov. Parris N. Glendening, state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., the Maryland Court of Appeals, the gun lobby, Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. -- and, in all candor, Mr. Taylor himself. He took some risks with the petulant gun lobby and paid for it. His campaign simply didn't overcome the obstacles.

But what obstacles!

Mr. Glendening, Senate President Miller and the state's highest court made the speaker vulnerable to the feckless gunners and a self-financed newcomer. Mr. Taylor's new election district map, redrawn by Mr. Glendening and Mr. Miller to reflect population shifts, was so full of political score-settling that the Court of Appeals found it unconstitutional and then redrew their map.

The new district, full of new voters, made him vulnerable. He had supported a perfectly reasonable bill requiring gun locks -- a measure opposed by the NRA, which ran TV commercials showing Governor Glendening fumbling with a lock and laughing about it.

"If anything, I think they're hurting themselves," Mr. Taylor said at the time. It was risky to taunt his enemies, but he might have gotten away with it in his old district.

Then came the Republicans running on a time-for-change platform.

Candidate Ehrlich swept Mr. Taylor's precincts, winning with margins of 2-1 or better. Even against that undertow, the speaker nearly survived. He has called for a recount, but preliminary checking of voting machine totals offers little prospect that the outcome will change. He is a loser right now by 71 votes out of more than 10,000 cast.

His colleagues in the House wondered why he did not exit last year for the office of state treasurer, a post he could have had almost for the asking since the Assembly elects the treasurer and the House has the majority of votes -- 141, to 47 in the Senate.

But Mr. Taylor surprised many by saying no. He may have thought he was a competitor for the lieutenant governor's spot on the Townsend ticket. Few thought that likely because Western Maryland politicians don't come to the political table with enough votes to help a statewide ticket.

Moreover, Mr. Taylor seemed a bit too conservative for more liberal-seeming Maryland (then).

Whatever the reason, he found himself running for re-election in that atmosphere of change, one he sensed would be problematic. He was right again.

When you look back, you see a House speaker unseated by the over-reaching of his colleagues in the Democratic Party. If the governor and Senate president had drawn a less provocative new map, the court might have stayed out of the game and Mr. Taylor would not have faced well-financed and change-blessed opposition in a district with so many new voters.

Now it's legacy time. Pork transmutes to monument. Where does one begin?

Here's a short list: The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad; the Rocky Gap Lodge, Conference Center and Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course; the truck stop in Hancock; the Lonaconing Library; the Canal Place tourism project; the Western Maryland Correctional Institution; and last year, in a feat only a speaker could achieve, a $12.4 million University of Maryland outpost in Hagerstown.

Statewide, Mr. Taylor fought to make medical insurance more inclusive and affordable; his committee on Maryland's fiscal needs will report soon; a cadre of young legislators and committee staff members hail him as a mentor; and a little less than half the voters in his district still know he was "the man."

Those who see it otherwise have one more vote against gun locks.

C. Fraser Smith is an editorial writer for The Sun. His column appears Sundays.