Tri-County Lincoln Day Dinner 2006

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, actually the storm blew through a few minutes before festivities began but undaunted the combined Republican Central Committees of Worcester, Somerset, and Wicomico Counties held their 2006 Lincoln Day Dinner this evening at the Salisbury University Commons.

Having not been to the SU main campus, I managed to park in a lot several hundred yards away. But I have to tell you, SU does have a nice campus, one of the better ones I’ve trod through. That aside, I arrived for the event and started seeing familiar faces in the crowd. I also saw the interesting items placed on silent auction:

Items on the silent auction table.

As it turned out, if you can see the tan-colored book on the back table, I ended up being the successful bidder on it. I’d taken a picture of it but I couldn’t crop the picture to suit my format. However, I did get a good shot of the inscription page, which was signed by our Congressman:

The book I bought, signed by Congressman Gilchrest.

Oddly enough, I paid less than cover price for it, so someone took a bath and I profited (as did the Somerset County Republican Club, who got the auction proceeds.) Boy I love capitalism.

And so does our main speaker, Maryland Secretary of Business and Economic Development Aris Melissaratos. In and of itself, his life story is a good rags-to-riches tale. The native of Romania emigrated from Greece at the age of 13 with his family, studied hard and went to school, and began a long career in business with Westinghouse. Governor Ehrlich picked Aris for the post at the start of his term in 2003.

While a lot of his speech touched on the talking points Governor Ehrlich made in his Cambridge stop, Melissaratos also said that there’s “no bad news about the Maryland economy, just bad news in Maryland politics.” This was in reference to the many veto overrides that have occurred during Ehrlich’s term. After just 2 veto overrides in the previous Democrat terms, the GOP governor has seen over 30 of his vetoes slapped down by the Democrat-dominated General Assembly. In Melissarato’s words, the General Assembly had the “wrong priorities.” Time after time speakers during the dinner reminded the gathering that the Republicans need either 5 Senate seats or 14 House of Delegates seats (or both) to achieve a vetoproof minority; in other words 1/3 plus one of each legislative body.

The Secretary continued that the goal of the Ehrlich administration in term number two would be to continue working on a “One Maryland” economy which would be strong and diverse. He claimed that 9 of Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions (23 counties and Baltimore city) had unemployment rates under 3%. Part of this outstanding record was the 1/4 of the state economy provided by Maryland’s proximity to the federal seat of government. Further, being close to the nation’s nerve center would assist Maryland as they strive to become the IT center of the world for both civilian and military purposes.

With all those jobs comes the need for housing, and one thing Aris spoke of glowingly was a program the state has to assist first-time homebuyers. In fact, speaking about transportation improvements he’d like to see, Melissaratos opined that it would be nice to see workers be able to live in inner-city Baltimore and revitalize those neighborhoods yet be able to quickly get to jobs in the DC area.

And there were several nods to our corner of the state. One balancing act Aris spoke of that the Ehrlich Administration had successfully performed was “keeping farmers happy but cleaning up the bay” as well. He also talked about visiting Pocomoke and Crisfield earlier during the day, speaking glowingly of revitalization and change in those two towns, as well as good things happening in Salisbury.

The final point Melissaratos drove home was an appeal. While he “(didn’t) want to name names…certain chairmen need to be punished for the Wal-Mart vote.” To us on the Eastern Shore, this hits home – 800 to 1,000 good jobs haven’t materialized because of the Fair Share Health Care Act that solely punished Wal-Mart and may have stopped their planned Somerset County distribution center in its tracks.

In actual order, two incumbent Delegates spoke before the Secretary because they had to leave early for another engagement. But for narrative’s sake, they’re all lumped together.

We started out with Addie Eckhardt, one of the Delegates from District 37B. She went through a laundry list of legislative accomplishments and called for more helpers for the GOP side of the General Assembly. Her 37B counterpart Jeannie Haddaway more briefly spoke that she was glad to precede the Secretary because he would be “a tough act to follow” and lauded his achievements.

After Melissaratos spoke, District 38 Senator Lowell Stoltzfus took to the microphone. He remarked that the “Democrats made sure of several things” like no action on the so-called “Jessica’s Law” aimed at child predators and stopping the state takeover of failing Baltimore city schools. On the other hand, they spent hours hearing testimony regarding the hiring and firing practices of Governor Ehrlich and whether it was politically motivated.

Wicomico County’s other Senator, Richard Colburn, decided to spend his time speaking of his opponent. He said that Maryland is like America in miniature, so in his case it followed that his opponent (Democrat Hilary Spence) was “Hillary Clinton in miniature.”

District 38A Delegate Page Elmore noted that if a Democrat wins the governor’s chair, it would be doubtful that much of the Eastern Shore delegation would be invited to the second floor, a reference to the governor’s office in the State House. Because the Eastern Shore was “becoming a Republican area” it was essential that Governor Ehrlich win another term.

We then heard from a statewide candidate. As it turned out, Comptroller candidate Mark Spradley was at his first campaign event since announcing his run today in Annapolis. Unfortunately, my photo of him didn’t turn out because it would have been illustrative. You see, he’s another of the Democrats’ worst nightmares: like Michael Steele, a conservative black Republican.

(Talk about fast action. I spoke to him last night and he said his website would be up this morning – indeed it is. You know that was the first question out of my mouth.)

He started out by saying that Free Staters “deserve more from the Comptroller’s office” and that the state needs to function more like a business financially. One of his pet issues: “Undocumented workers should pay taxes.” On the other hand, he wanted to help increase Maryland’s #24 national ranking in percentage of owner-occupied homes by pushing for a rollback in property taxes and a cut in closing costs.

Since the hour was starting to grow late, we heard briefly from each of the four contenders for the two Delegate spots in District 38B.

Bonnie Luna lauded Secretary Melissaratos’s message, Sonny “38B as in” Bloxom went through his experience and record as a Worcester County commissioner, Jack Lord portrayed himself as “the working man’s candidate”, and Michael James decried our “poor representation”, especially the Wal-Mart vote that was “for the unions.”

To wrap up the speaker portion of the program we got Governor Ehrlich’s regards, delivered by Deputy Chief of Staff Mary Beth Carozza. Then local elected officials and candidates were recognized from each of the three counties.

I had an interesting group at my table, split among Worcester and Wicomico County people. Worcester County Central Committeeman Larry Schrawder, the aforementioned Jack Lord and his wife, and Wicomico County Sheriff candidate Wayne Lowe and his better half all shared my table and were good company.

If memory serves me correctly, next year it’s Somerset County’s turn to host, although I was told the last time it was their turn it was actually held in Ocean City. But tomorrow I’ll be in Crisfield for Page Elmore’s event. As we speak, I’m sitting here setting my camera for better shots!

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.