Tom DeWeese, an Amissville, Virginia, a resident who describes himself on his LinkedIn account as “one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, property rights and back-to-basics education,” spoke before a group of around 80 people last Thursday at the Piankatank Ruritan Club in Mathews.

Invited by Tricia Stall, a Republican candidate for a seat on the Mathews Board of Supervisors in the upcoming election, DeWeese wasted no time sharing his views on the evils of land use planning and his theories on where local policies regarding planning and zoning ordinances are coming from.

But first, DeWeese addressed some of the negative comments made about him by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization that specializes in civil rights and public interest litigation.

“Many of you have been warned I’m a dangerous hate monger and conspiracy theorist,” said DeWeese. “The Southern Poverty Law Center says I’ve made a career of ...