His departure was abrupt and helped to bring down a Chairman. But after a whirlwind career tour which eventually led him into a seat in the House of Delegates, Justin Ready accepted an offer from Maryland Republican Party chair Alex Mooney to return to the post of Executive Director on an interim basis. The position opened again when former ED Kim Jorns resigned in favor of a position with the Michigan GOP last month.
Ready left the Maryland GOP in July 2009, terminated for unspecified reasons by former MDGOP Chair Jim Pelura. But Justin maintained a hand in the political process as a consultant while launching his successful House campaign. He represents Carroll County in the House of Delegates, having taken a District 5A seat formerly held by retiring Delegate Tanya Shewell.
One question being raised about Justin’s new post is the aspect of fundraising, since a sitting member of the Maryland General Assembly can’t fundraise while the body is in session. While there is a Special Session slated for this fall, the idea behind selecting Ready for the position was to place someone familiar with the task there while conducting a larger search for the position. In a note to supporters Justin concedes,”I’ll be leaving no later than the end of the year in anticipation of the start of the 2012 Legislative Session,” but also sees the post as “an opportunity for me to keep working on the political side to bring real reform and conservative change to Maryland…the only way we will substantively change our state’s tax-and-spend policies is to elect more strong, Republican leaders who will fight for conservative principles.”
Since there’s not a lot of state activity right now, this is the perfect time for an experienced caretaker to step up and take the reins of the party. And hopefully the actions which brought about his original dismissal were lessons learned and not repeated.
Some may see this as a step down for Ready and the MDGOP, given the party wasn’t functioning all that well during Justin’s brief previous tenure of 15 months. Yet the new leadership had enough confidence in him to come back, and that says something about how he was remembered while serving in the post. Still, party regulars should hope that a solid leader can be found and stick around for awhile – for many of its paid positions the MDGOP has become something of a revolving door and stability would be desirable.
Ready is fine for a temporary measure, but we need someone who is hungry to succeed, doesn’t mind doing the hard work of fundraising, and isn’t afraid to get in the face of our enemy – the Democrats who have run a once-fine state into the ground. Finding such a person should be job one for Party Chair Alex Mooney.
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