Folks, the Maryland Republican Party has had its share of ink over the last several months and not a lot of it has been good publicity. (Of course, any bad news out of Free State Republicans merits ink by the barrel for the state’s newspapers, with television, radio, and the internet following suit.)
Needless to say, the resignation of party chairman Dr. Jim Pelura and need to select his successor makes for an interesting upcoming convention. But more controversy is emerging over the voting system used, with some large counties wishing to use a specialized method which favors them while smaller counties, which have felt marginalized with the voting system previously used and threatened to boycott future conventions without reforms being put in place, wishing to return to a “one man, one vote” system.
If that weren’t enough, Blue Ridge Forum posted on the existence of two letters from state Republicans supporting the selection of (now) former Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation head (and onetime state AG candidate) Thomas Perez as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice. It was an odd juxtaposition compared with the numerous letters of support Perez received from left-of-center people and groups like Janet Reno, Jamie Gorelick, the National Council of La Raza, and People for the American Way.
One letter came from House Minority Leader Delegate Anthony O’Donnell, who lauded Perez and noted he was “impressed by his willingness to reach across the aisle.” I’m hoping my reigning Legislator of the Year will carefully watch the newly appointed AAG and see how much he addresses Republican concerns about enforcement of immigration and civil rights law. I suspect he’ll be disappointed.
The other letter comes, ironically enough, from Pelura’s predecessor as state party chair, John Kane, and has similar platitudes about bipartisanship and working with Perez in Montgomery County. That one doesn’t surprise me in the least.
While perhaps this was part of a ploy to get Perez out of Maryland, I don’t think the state GOP is quite that clever, or in this case too clever by half. Moreover, the question of a bipartisan approach to law doesn’t address the intent of law itself. Unless Perez is aggressive in enforcement of law and the Constitution in areas where he was questioned the most (specifically immigration and civil rights) the GOP support of Perez in the name of bipartisanship may be an olive branch used to beat Republicans later on.
There was no need to make Perez’s support bipartisan because Democrats would have enough votes to confirm him. If he turns out to be a bust we don’t want to share in the blame.
