2006 Maryland GOP Fall Convention

The Doubletree Hotel in Annapolis was the site of my first convention as an invited guest. Rather than do a laundry list of all the business that occurred, I’m looking at this post as an opportunity to give some of the flavor of the event, particularly happenings on Friday night. Honestly, a lot of that is because my pictures from today did not turn out well. The ballroom we had the business portion of the convention in was pretty dark and my attempts to compensate for this by changing camera settings made those pictures too blurry for use.

I actually arrived in Annapolis about 4:30 yesterday afternoon and took that time to restudy all of the information I had on our various candidates for party offices. After checking in and receiving my packet, the first event on the agenda was actually the Executive Committee meeting that I sat in on. But at the table where credentials were verified lay some popular stickers:

At the beginning of the meeting, outgoing Chairman John Kane joked that anyone chanting “four more years” would be escorted from the room. But he went through a list of things that were accomplished under his tenure, particularly in the financial arena. He reiterated a favorite saying of his, that “the price of relevancy is discipline.” Despite losing the elections this year, the party had become relevent as a legitimate opposition party poised for future growth. National Committeewoman Joyce Lyons Terhes and National Committeeman Louis Pope echoed Kane’s emphasis on where things were successful for the MDGOP in this election cycle and thanked John for his service.

We also heard from some of the auxiliary groups that the Maryland Republican Party affiliates with, as the Young Republicans, College Republicans, and Teenage Republicans all detailed their GOTV efforts in the 2006 elections. The Executive Committee meeting was rather brief, as time was given at the end for the various committees to meet and work out details for the actual meeting held today. With that, most of the group was free to socialize at one of several gatherings in the hotel.

One item that Kane also noted was his belief that there should be only one convention a year while the other one could be reserved for regional events. I don’t agree with this approach because I see these conventions as an opportunity to interact with Central Committee folks from all over the state, as well as some of the other people from the host city. In this case, I met several other active Republicans from Anne Arundel County who stopped by to enjoy the socializing, and I’m sure they enjoyed interacting with Republicans from all across Maryland.

In my case, I also took the time to try and have a few minutes with each of the candidates who were running for party offices because I’d gone to the convention with just the information I alluded to in an earlier post. And another oddity was meeting a few people who had Eastern Shore roots but were now living in different areas. They’d see my badge from Wicomico County and ask me, “what part of the county are you from?” And either they would be originally from the county or have close relatives nearby. It’s a real-life example of the theory that we raise and educate young folks who can’t find good-paying jobs here so they move across the bay.

I ended up socializing and schmoozing with many nice folks from all over the state until about the time the clock struck midnight. But the alarm was set for an early start for today.

(One aside regarding the hotel. I had a nice room and its best feature was a Sleep Number bed. Never slept in one before but I have now and I can say that I like it and my Sleep Number for the night was 30. Loved sinking right into that bed, it was cocoonlike. Rush would be proud.)

Either I slept REALLY soundly or my mind was on overdrive because of the events to come today, but I was up at 6:00, in time to see this:

I went down to breakfast and had a good meal. Our speaker was Cathleen Vitale, who’s a local Anne Arundel County Councilwoman and their representative on the state Critical Areas Commission. Her basic themes were learning to tell our story (before the other side does), finding a farm team of candidates from people involved in the community, and setting goals on a regular basis. She likened these achievements to making a playbook for use in this and future election cycles.

After breakfast, the actual business meeting began. When I posted about the spring convention in Cambridge, I noted that there was a rather hastily drafted change to the by-laws to allow for regional chairs rather than the vice chairs that the state had at the time. But after reviewing the proceedings later, it was concluded that these changes weren’t properly made per the rules and we would have to revert to the old system of electing three vice-chairs. This led to some confusion among the gathering who were expecting to vote for regional chairs. It’s a problem sure to be revisited in the spring (this time with proper notice, which was the issue.) But the party should be commended for making sure things are done by the book, unlike some other parties who like to make things up as they go. So despite the overwhelming support for the idea in May, it was accepted that the old system would be kept in place until the changes are made properly and to me that is the correct course to take.

Once again, the reports were given much as the Executive Committee meeting’s were. But we also had other speakers who were allowed to address the 205 Central Committee members in attendance (plus guests.) Both of our “downticket” competitors in November, Anne McCarthy (Comptroller) and Scott Rolle (Attorney General) made remarks. Particularly interesting to me was the degree to which they were outspent in their races. McCarthy noted that she spent 7 cents per vote to Democrat Peter Franchot’s dollar plus; while Rolle claimed he was outspent in an 8:1 ratio. But both said they’d “be back” so it’s to be believed they’ll remain in the mix for efforts in 2010.

Two guests were given plenty of time to speak. Both Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and Gov. Bob Ehrlich were introduced to raucous, thunderous ovations. Steele stated that allowed himself to be despondent about the results on election night “for about seven minutes” but at seven minutes and 30 seconds, he was thinking about what was next for himself and the Maryland GOP. This was an opportunity to move on, he continued, and the close races proved once again that the party was “relevant.”

Bob Ehrlich opened by alluding to a sign in his office which reads “No Whining Allowed.” We lost the election but were not defeated, pointing out the difference where losing an election happens but abandoning principles because of losing the election was defeat. He urged the assembled to emphasize his four years of policy successes (he gave a long list of these) and “compare and contrast” the record of his administration to the incoming O’Malley one. This, he added, would require a vigilant effort to track the doings of the new administration – after all, it was pointed out during the convention that Martin O’Malley had pulled down the “promises” portion of his website the moment he was declared the winner.

After our speakers, it was time to elect the new officers. Despite the fact that I seemed to be the kiss of death for the candidates I ended up voting for in each contested race (3 of my 4 that I voted for in contested races lost), I’m still proud to announce the incoming slate running the Maryland Republican Party for the next four years because we had a bushel of excellent choices where we pretty much couldn’t go wrong. For the next four years, these are the leaders of the Maryland GOP.

Chair: Jim Pelura (Anne Arundel County)
1st Vice Chair: Chris Cavey (Baltimore County)
2nd Vice Chair: Chuck Gast (Anne Arundel County)
3rd Vice Chair: Mike Geppi (Harford County)
Secretary: Rex Reed (Montgomery County)
Treasurer: Chris Rosenthal (Anne Arundel County. He’s a Salisbury native.)

With that, we finally ended a long morning (into early afternoon) of business and adjourned to a farewell lunch where we heard from some of the winners. In a nod to my argument that we should remain with the two conventions a year, I’d like to note that at breakfast I sat with nice folks from Frederick and Garrett counties, but at lunch we had an all-Eastern Shore table with Wicomico, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot represented.

Now that I’ve actually been sworn in and got to go through my first full convention, I can say that I truly enjoyed the experience and can’t wait for the next one. Hopefully I’ve made a few friends along the way, or at least now people can put a face to a name that’s on the list of Wicomico County members. If they are relatively diligent about “turns” (and want to save my friends in Western Maryland another long drive) it’s likely time for that side of the state to get a convention, but we’ll see. Somewhere about March I should be given the time and place, and I look forward to another great political experience.