It’s a Wicomico County Republican Club twofer today.
This month’s meeting seemed to have a little different vibe. Part of it was the absence of WCRC president Marc Kilmer for family reasons, but some of it was the fact many of us had just seen each other over the weekend. However, the meeting began as we’ve been doing of late with the Lord’s Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, and minutes from August’s meeting.
We did find out the Crab Feast was a financial success, with 230 tickets sold and a profit higher than any the last couple years. The silent auction brought $1,350.
But most of the meeting dealt with the words and wisdom of our guest speaker, a man introduced by our county Chair Dr. John Bartkovich as one who’s “served us well for many, many years”, State Senator Lowell Stotzfus. Lowell announced in August that he would not seek re-election to the Maryland Senate in 2010, so one could consider this part of a farewell tour.
Lowell didn’t want to speak a long time, preferring the give-and-take of question-and-answer. But he did speak for quite some time on his experiences in the General Assembly and how the Eastern Shore has been affected over the last two decades.
But looking back, Lowell would have started a little differently, noting that he “wasn’t as interactive” as he should have been with local and party officials, as he was a political outsider when he started his career in the General Assembly. He advised us “don’t give up” despite the “overwhelming” odds in Annapolis and frustration with the situation nationally, because items which have kept us strong as a nation in the past will continue to do so. The problem with both sources of government came down to two philosophies: tax and regulate.
For example, the “millionaire’s tax” enacted by Maryland has made for two predictable results: revenues are falling short of expectations and capital is fleeing to lower-tax states such as Florida. The job creators are fleeing south.
As are the chicken farms. Lowell claimed that there were thirty farmers who wanted to build chicken houses but could not because the state of Maryland is dithering on how their regulations will work with the federal EPA statutes – meanwhile, Delaware continues to move full speed ahead on construction, figuring the new chicken houses will likely conform with whatever the EPA comes up with. Noted Stoltzfus, “Annapolis really wants to get rid of the poultry industry.”
Reflecting on his time in the General Assembly, early on “people in the front row (with the most seniority) said what they thought” but in the last few years the climate had changed and there’s not good debate on the Senate floor anymore, thanks to Mike Miller. Power and politics had run roughshod over principle and policy, particularly with the absence of any conservative Democrats in the Senate.
Lowell also briefly described the governors he’d worked under:
- William Donald Schaefer: “above any corruption” and a “right-hearted leader”. Even when there were political disagreements in the heat of battle he was willing to listen to both sides.
- Parris Glendening: “crafty and unethical”.
- Bob Ehrlich: An “A-minus for policy” but did a poor job relating with counties.
- Martin O’Malley: “Smart…but liberal and arrogant.”
Finally, Lowell was “very concerned” about his successor, describing one possible person as a guy who “goes along to get along” and wasn’t very prepared on issues. (In my opinion, this guy reminds me of another smarmy politician, the former mayor of my hometown who suggested deaf people could relocate near the airport.)
The floor opened to questions, with most of them being asked by the elected officials in attendance. County Council president John Cannon asked whether the state was depending too much on federal stimulus money – the federal share of the state budget via transfer payments is nearly half the $31 billion total and the stimulus funding bailed us out of a deficit situation (temporarily.)
After speaking to portions of state government which were too dependent on federal revenues, Lowell noted that “government never learns” and that the “only way to control government is to control revenue.”
Fellow Councilman Joe Holloway asked whether other area counties got the budget message from the state, and Stoltzfus agreed that Worcester and Somerset counties had “better preparation” than Wicomico County did. But all the counties will get “more bad news” from the state.
John Bartkovich asked about parallels to the Ehrlich – Kathleen Kennedy Townsend race in 2002, to which Lowell responded that it “should be” a good year for the GOP. Bartkovich followed up with the question about a focus for whoever wins our U.S. Senate primary, to which Lowell responded agriculture would be “very important” item to the race but a conservative message would be required to appeal to the whole state.
I asked a question regarding land use and the trend toward overregulation. Governor O’Malley caters to the environmental lobby “for political reasons” and unfortunately they continue to press for more regulation. One example which hurts the Eastern Shore was the buffer zone regulations – since fields on the Eastern Shore tend to be smaller, the buffer zones adversely affect farmers by reducing their arable area. Continuing the trend would make farmers’ land useless, but that seems to be the underlying goal of radical environmentalists in my view.
After Dr. Bartkovich asked a question about an estimated cost to run for the Senate seat (low six figures was the consensus), Joe Holloway asked another budget-related question on how to get education to share in budget cuts. The short answer from Stoltzfus is it ain’t gonna happen. There’s “not a lot of sympathy for the counties” at the state level because they’ve spent money profusely in good times and bad.
Luis and Bonnie Luna chipped in with questions of their own. Luis asked if whether Lowell could demand proof of the numbers environmentalists use to blame farmers for the problems suffered by Chesapeake Bay, and Lowell related that Eastern Shore farmers were among the leaders in pollution reduction, yet continued to be blamed.
Bonnie then picked a different topic, asking about the reapportionment after the 2010 census. Stoltzfus predicted that rural and heavily Republican districts will be placed on the larger end of the population scale, while urban Democrat districts will be more sparsely populated within the allowed range.
The last word during Lowell’s presentation belonged to Delegate Page Elmore, who praised Lowell for “(carrying) a minority voice…on a rough committee” and saying he was “sorry to see him go.” Turning his attention to the audience, Page told us we “need to work to change our Congressman” too – the GOP “needs to get its act together” and “narrow the gap” in the Maryland General Assembly.
It turned out to be one of our longer meetings as it wasn’t until after 8:30 that Dr. Bartkovich returned to give a brief Central Committee report. Quickly he went over upcoming events and political drives: booth at the Autumn Wine Fest, push for an elected school board, and the upcoming state convention which will feature the election of a new state party chair and possibly expansion of our Central Committee ranks. He wrapped up by profiling three upcoming events, encouraging those who couldn’t attend to send along $10 and help their coffers that way. Lowell added that volunteering for these campaigns was also helpful to the candidates.
Our next meeting will be on October 26th, with a speaker to be determined. Soon, though, we will have a flurry of local candidates looking to bend our ears and help out their fledgling officeseeking efforts.
