Mary Ann Tobin (July 23, 1941 – June 23, 2025) was an American politician who was a member of the

Kentucky House of Representatives The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a ...

, 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 Allison Ball, a Ke ...

from 1984 to 1988. She was a member of the Democratic Party.

Background

Mary Ann Tobin was born to Joseph Dalton Tobin Sr. and Mary Hulett (Broadbent) Tobin on July 23, 1941. 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 University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

with a

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

degree in

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

. 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 an American women's collegiate fraternity. It was established in 1895 at the University of Arkansas. Chi Omega has 181 active collegiate chapters and approximately 240 alumnae chapters. Since its founding in 18 ...

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. Tobin died on June 22, 2025, at the age of 83.

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, Tobin decided to campaign to be the Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts. In the Democratic Party primary, she beat out

Jerry Lundergan Gerald G. Lundergan (born 1946 or 1947) is an American businessman, politician and member of the Democratic Party from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1980 to 1985 and 1987 to 1989 and has s ...

, 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 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

Tobin sat out of politics for several years but in 1992 she decided to run for the district 5 seats 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 Kentuck ...

. 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 ran in the Democratic primary in Kentucky's 2020 election for the U.S. Senate. Tobin placed fourth behind

Amy McGrath Amy Melinda McGrath (born June 3, 1975) is an American former 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 first to pilot the F/A-18 ...

, Charles Booker, and Mike Broihier.

Business dealings

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tobin, Mary Ann 1941 births 2025 deaths Businesspeople from Kentucky Democratic Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives People from Meade County, Kentucky Kentucky auditors of public accounts University of Kentucky alumni Women state legislators in Kentucky Candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections 21st-century American women politicians 20th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly 20th-century American women politicians