Once again, Alan Brody has been kind enough to solicit input from me for an article in the Gazette.
The portions of the conversation he used had to do with my thoughts on the voting process and the job of the Chair to promote party growth through candidate recruitment for future elections and working with conservative activists.
Indeed, I believe it’s going to be a long Saturday morning in Annapolis. It’s simple math, really – with so many candidates in the field and the need for a majority of those present to win (rather than a plurality) there’s probably going to be the necessity for multiple-ballot elections. Certainly we could get a last-minute pullout or two to simplify the process but failing that we’ll probably see a number of races take the better part of an hour apiece to sort out. It takes time to caucus a county for support, and each county needs to publicly state its vote so those tallying can get the information.
(Since these elections are done by county in alphabetical order the results are generally a fait accompli by the time Wicomico County is asked – maybe that’s part of our contrarian streak. But this year our numbers may be really interesting.)
The other statement Alan used is yet again a case of me looking beyond the here and now – I prefer to think at least a cycle or two ahead.
In 2014 there will most likely be at least two and perhaps three statewide openings depending on how the scrum for Governor goes. (There’s also a school of thought which sees Governor O’Malley leave a year or so early to take Barbara Mikulski’s U.S. Senate seat, giving Anthony Brown a head start and a bit of incumbency. Still, it’s doubtful that move would be unchallenged and a special election for the Senate seat when one would otherwise not exist would give the GOP another opportunity.)
If the new Chair is effective and takes the fight to the corrupt and sclerotic Maryland Democratic Party, there’s nothing which says that the leaders we’ve elected locally can’t move up in the ranks. It may not be as obvious in an area like this one where the GOP already has power, but why can’t we see a young but experienced local Republican like Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio seek a higher office? (Speaking of her, I learned tonight that Jeannie has advanced to become the new House of Delegates Minority Whip, replacing now-Senator Christopher Shank. Congratulations to her!)
Not to mention we still have a few local seats which desperately need Republicans in them – instead of those who only talk like Republicans at election time. Rumor has it two of those seats will open up as their liberal Democratic placeholders get long in the tooth. Yes, there is the possibility those seats could also be presented to young Democrats who would try to benefit from this “incumbency” but they’ll be untested by electoral fire in their districts, which also will change before the next cycle. This will be another challenge Republicans have to overcome, but it can be achieved.
In turn, 2014 success can breed more victories in 2018. But the hard work for those elections starts in the here and now. We know eight years is forever in politics.
If you look back to the electoral climate in 2002 Republicans in Maryland were jubilant. We had a GOP governor for the first time since 1969 and peaked in the General Assembly. But the work of party-building wasn’t continued; instead the GOP became more about one person and, to be frank, we’ve wasted eight years and ceded a lot of ground to that other party.
If we’re still sitting out of power with just 55 of 188 members in the General Assembly eight years hence, this state is probably lost like California seems to be. I don’t want to look back at my time on the Central Committee and consider it wasted but this state needs the right GOP Chair to help us rectify the bad situation we’re in.
Take the fight to the enemy. We can settle our internal issues if people worry about their own station in life less and the fate of the state and the Republic more.
Are you aware that you have someone running for a powerful position who adheres to a lifestyle vastly different from those in the majority in your party? Those of us who have fought the batles for years do not approve of certain secret positons taken by certain individuals. Sexuality should not be used to keep a certan group out of power. Those seeking that power should at least be up front about themselves. The time to come clean is at hand.
MS