Ehrlich’s hires and fires

I’m going to start out from the title and sort of work around to my point, so be patient tonight. The germ of this post has come from a variety of different items I came across today.

In Duvafiles there’s a post about Governor Ehrlich appointing an openly gay judge to a District Court seat. This after firing one of his appointees to a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority seat last week because of percieved anti-gay remarks (which were really pro-Catholic.)

Well, to me that’s not the whole story. If you read the comments to the post, one stands out. I’m going to go ahead and paste it here so you can keep it in context. The author is BJ Corbin, who I know as a fellow WCRC member. (I can say this because he signed his comment, which is why I cite him and use this comment.)

As a social/moral conservative that is active in the Republican Party… I have already contacted the Governor, Senator Stoltzfus and the Wicomico County Ehrlich campaign coordinator withdrawing my support for the Governor because of his positions on gambling, embryonic stem cell research and his most recent action firing Mr. Smith for his Christian view of homosexuality. (So much for free speech and tolerance) I think there are many others that are just as disappointed as I am… even in the VERY LIBERAL BLUE State of Maryland!

Actually, I have no problem with Corbin’s views at all, but the question has to be asked: who would he support then? He has four choices in the governor’s race at the moment: voting to keep Governor Ehrlich in office despite the differences of opinion that he has with the governor; crossing party lines and voting for Martin O’Malley, who would’ve likely appointed the gay judge anyhow to promote “diversity”; or voting for Green Party candidate Ed Boyd, who would probably select a rainbow of openly gay judges. The other choice is skipping the governor’s race on the ballot entirely, which I’d bet he will do.

And this is why I like lots of choices when it comes to voting. Readers familiar with monoblogue can likely recall a time or two when I’ve cited my frustrations with the Ohio GOP for “annointing” candidates to avoid primary fights. The problem was they always selected the more “electable” (read: moderate) person to run.

In reading some of the party websites today for preparing my election calendar for the week, I came across a tidbit on the Green Party’s site (besides now knowing that Ed Boyd and James Joseph Madigan are their governor/LG candidates respectively) where they need to collect a certain number of signatures to keep a place on the ballot for the 2007-2010 election cycle. I know the Libertarian Party here in Maryland has the same dilemma, and I assume the Constitution Party does as well. (Unfortunately, their website is “under construction” so I bet they’ve already thrown in the towel.)

This may sound very strange from a guy who’s running for the Republican Central Committee and has a goal of making it the majority party in Wicomico County, but I’d love to see more parties get on the ballot and start fielding serious, credible candidates throughout the state. BJ’s comment shines a light on a problem that exists with our system that has two dominant parties who set the rules to suit them.

Yes, Governor Ehrlich is a Republican and theoretically all GOP members should support him. But in a lot of ways, he’s out of step with the conservatives in the party (recent hirings and firings a case in point.) In 2002, he had broad support from everyone in the GOP (who, conservatives among them, were thrilled just to have a shot at the governor’s chair after 30+ years away) and then Ehrlich siphoned enough votes from the more moderate Democrats who weren’t enamored with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend to win the race.

One thing the powers-that-be in the Democrat party sighed in relief about last week was having Doug Duncan drop out of the race unexpectedly. To me, though, it was a sad day because we voters lost our only chance at choice in the matter, now the primary is meaningless in that regard. On the other hand, the plethora of candidates for the U.S. Senate seat is great for voters, although most of the wannabes have no hope because they aren’t being backed by the party apparatus who thinks they aren’t “electable.” Technically, the Maryland GOP is supposed to stay neutral but come on, I don’t see John Kane, Ken Mehlman et. al. doing a lot to help out Corrogan Vaughn, who’s also a black Republican in the U.S. Senate race.

Republicans like to claim they have a “big tent”, where they have a broad enough list of principles to appeal to a large swath of voters, everyone from “middle-of-the-road” to neo- and paleo-conservatives, to the Main Street Partnership moderates (a group that includes Gov. Ehrlich and Rep. Gilchrest.) In theory, that does work as most GOP’ers will pull that lever whether they agree with all of the candidate’s views or not, as they put party above principle. (Democrats do the same thing, especially union members.)

But people like Corbin want to run things the other way and put principle above party, and I’m the same way. And this is where I have a problem with the two major “one-size-fits-all” parties. Because they seem to try and take as much choice from the primary voters as they can (at least in the major races) I think the best solution is to allow as many parties in as possible. Obviously the two parties in charge don’t like that so they set onerous goalposts for other parties to conform to, and I think we voters deserve more choices.

So I was really tempted to print out a Green Party petition form and bring it to the meeting tomorrow. Their website noted that they were only at about 2500 signatures and they needed someplace north of 10,000 by November to secure a ballot place for 2007-2010. But then since I can witness my own signature, I can just sign my own petition and send it in. I’m sure the Libertarian Party would send me a copy of theirs. (All it does is put them on the ballot, you don’t change your registration with it.)

As far as local Wicomico elections go, I’d enjoy seeing other parties’ candidates for the county offices, although this year we have a pretty good selection in just the Republican party because of the number of open seats. But assuming we win the ’06 elections, I’d still like to see at least some opposition for the incumbents in 2010 to put pressure on them. If you only could buy Fords, what incentive would they have to evolve and improve their product? The minute Chevy comes out with something, it puts Ford on notice that they have to do something to hold its share of the market. Throw Chrysler in there, and both have to redouble their efforts.

However, change has to start from the very bottom because it’s in the vested interest of the big money folks and the powerful special interests to maintain the system the way it is. Now, I’m all for unlimited monetary contributions (and full, instant disclosure of them) but I’m also for much easier ballot access to all who wish to put forth their platforms and slates. So I support these parties as they try to get on the ballot. I may not agree with them, but they should be heard, not just the same old Democrats and Republicans.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.