Campaign 2010 – Page 4

In print: Kratovil’s misleading ad returns to the airwaves

Yesterday my letter happened to make it into the Daily Times. Glad they held it until Sunday.

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Well, it looks like Rep. Frank Kratovil is up to his old tricks again. Fresh off putting out a commercial that was termed “misleading” by factcheck.org, he puts out another one making the same claim — that Andy Harris wants a 23 percent sales tax increase.

But what Kratovil and his Washington insider friends cannily leave out is that working families would see their take-home pay dramatically increase, thanks to the return of money now confiscated by federal backup withholding. Frame the question instead as one of wanting a 20 to 30 percent raise, and people would be lined up around the block to shout “where do I sign up?”

I’m wondering if life inside the beltway has changed Kratovil to be that much less trustworthy, or whether he’s just a pawn in a desperate attempt by the party in power and their associated special interests to stay in control.

If Kratovil, Pelosi and their big-government friends are this willing to use deceit and parsing of terms in order to stay in office, it leads me to wonder what they’re so afraid of. Sending Harris to Congress would be a good, conservative reflection of our 1st District — a district which soundly rejected the policies of President Barack Obama even before he was put into office.

And since when is having more control over your own money a bad thing?

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It’s worth seeing the letter online because there’s some interesting reactions to it so far. I put in my two cents last evening.

Comment on another’s post

Subtitled, why bury good writing and research in a comment?

First, let me set this up: Julie Brewington pondered on her site, Right Coast, why Martin O’Malley was leading Bob Ehrlich so widely (11 points) in a recent Washington Post poll. I weighed in with some statistics found on the Maryland Board of Elections website which may point out the poll was an outlier. This is my comment.

A couple points not necessarily considered:

In 2006 the primary voter split between Republicans and Democrats was 29-71 – over 70 percent of voters were Democrats.

In 2010 it was 37-63 R to D, in a state where the actual voter proportion as of the last report was 32-68. Bear in mind that in August 2006 the split was 35-65. (We’ve lost ground over the last four years for a variety of reasons.)

So in 2006 (a year that was terrible for Republicans) they underperformed at the primary ballot by 6 points, leading one to believe that R’s were less than enthused and D’s were excited.

This time we outperformed by 5 points, suggesting the tide has turned. The fact Garrett County, which is the most solidly Republican in the state, led the pack in turnout speaks volumes about the enthusiasm gap.

I think you’re citing a poll that will turn out to be an outlier because there’s not a good geographic breakdown and it depends a lot on people who may not show up at the polls anyway.

However, having said that, there was a trend (shown by Rasmussen) of Ehrlich pulling even to barely ahead all spring and into the summer, but the last two polls have placed MOM back in the lead.

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Julie does bring up a valid point regarding the Brian Murphy campaign. I have a number of thoughts on that 25% of the GOP vote and what will happen to it.

First of all, I sincerely doubt that many of those voters will vote for Martin O’Malley out of spite. While many were dismayed by the actions of the Maryland GOP in that race, I think that most realize the stakes are great in this election. The fraction of Republicans who vote for O’Malley out of spite probably will be fewer that the votes the Democrats found in Baltimore back in 1994 to push Parris Glendening over Ellen Sauerbrey.

A larger number will choose to leave the Governor’s race blank or vote for either Susan Gaztanaga, the Libertarian in the race, or Eric Knowles, who represents the Constitution Party. Ironically, this could help one or both secure ballot status for the next four years since they need 1 percent of the vote to qualify as a minor party. But in all likelihood those numbers will subtract out from the Ehrlich column.

Having said that, though, Murphy’s campaign may have served to expand the Republican universe enough that, even if a decent number of Murphy supporters go third party or skip, it will end up being a wash as compared to a scenario where Murphy withdrew and left the field to Ehrlich. Some proof of this lies in how the GOP did 11 points better compared to the expected average because we had a contested primary for Governor – in 2006 we did not.

Yet the vast majority of Murphy supporters accepted the primary results, and will move into the Ehrlich column next month. The $64,000 question is whether they’ll be advocates for Bob or just show up on Election Day, hold their noses, and touch the screen next to the Ehrlich name.

But that difference could also affect races down the ticket, particularly in areas (like the Shore) where the GOP has a shot of picking off some Democratic General Assembly seats. While they can’t expect the same sort of rout we may see on a national scale, there is a threshold of 10 House seats and five Senate seats that could turn the GOP from a cipher to a truly functioning minority party in the Maryland General Assembly.

Friday night videos episode 46

I wasn’t done yet, it was simply a dearth of decent video and some other plans taking up my Friday nights. Here you have the return of FNV after a two-week hiatus.

How about we start with this one? This could be a great movie, although it tells us what we already know.

Another thing we already know is that Sarah Palin remains popular, despite all the naysayers. That and she has her own political action committee.

And we also know that the stimulus is a boondoggle. It’s a little tougher to steal these political roadside signs than to take the neighbor’s O’Malley one – not that I condone the activity.

I may reuse this one in a few weeks.

I will be at the polling place on November 2nd with bells on. There could be a hurricane blowing and I’d be there.

Shifting gears, there’s a little surprise at the end of the Freedom Minute. But I’m curious why they used that particular hospital as a backdrop.I came across this a couple weeks back, and you know, it fits in with the mindset of many perfectly. Besides, the series of commercials from Progressive Insurance (which is owned by uberlefty Peter Lewis) really desperately needed to be made fun of.

It’s not quite Halloween, but here is some more scary stuff in a serious vein to close this edition. Whether you come down in favor of amnesty for illegals or not, this is a good case for closing the borders.

Since I crammed this one sort of full, I’ll skip the music this time. Maybe I’ll do a double dose on the next one.

NOvember arrived today in Fruitland

…and so did an interesting protest. But more on that later.

And despite having to bring the party indoors due to today’s inclement weather, the nationwide bus tour brought along information and enlisted speakers Andrew Langer from the Institute for Liberty and talk radio host Duke Brooks from WGMD-FM.

The bus had already arrived when I did.

I spoke briefly to the driver and was interested to find out that he’s been all over the country with the bus since mid-July. The tour continues with stops in New Jersey and Pennsylvania tomorrow.

After the brief interruption, Joe Collins noted that it was “sad that people are so misguided and so negative.” He apparently also introduced the first speaker, Duke Brooks. I missed the first few minutes of his speech investigating things outside.

I did video of the latter half of his talk, but Duke noted that “no government can avoid a recession.” However, they always seemed to use economic hard times as an excuse to take more control over people’s lives, and “that’s the problem in the first place.” Brooks also exhorted us to “redouble our efforts” as November approached.

Here’s the video of Duke Brooks.

Andrew Langer came up next and reminded us that “AFP gets it.” While the runup to the election is crucial, “after November is most important” because we had to hold the victors’ feet to the fire, whether Republican or Democrat. While the Blue Dogs won the 2006 and 2008 elections by portraying themselves as conservatives, voting with Nancy Pelosi 85% of the time was “unacceptable.”

“Our focus will be on accountability,” he continued, and described the worst parts of government were coming through the regulatory process. For example, regulations which were costing employers $7,700 per employee in 2005 (according to the Small Business Administration) were now costing $10,600 per employee. All told, the “regulatory state” was costing us $1.7 trillion a year, compared to $1.1 trillion just two short years ago. In short, this was the message of the day.

I like how that sign was autographed, too – the picture doesn’t do it justice.

One thing which surprised me was that so few local conservative officeseekers were there. Now I wouldn’t expect Frank Kratovil to show but I thought we’d have a number of candidates and current politicians in the house. To her credit, District 38B Delegate candidate Marty Pusey was at the event solidifying her support.

Two of those yard signs in the back of her car have been transplanted into my yard, and I encourage those of you who live in District 38B to do the same.

And there was a bit of a hullabaloo early on.

As for the chicken and his flock who came over to roost – see if you can make sense out of what they were trying to say since I took a couple minutes’ worth of video.

As near as I could tell, their babbling was about Andy Harris supporting tax breaks for companies to move offshore. But the irony for me (as I pointed out in the video to Chuck Cook, who is the tall, bearded person taping generally to my right) is that being seen in a chicken suit points up their support of overly punitive environmental measures which are driving the poultry industry away from Delmarva. Talk about offshore birds, that’s where they’re going!

Later I joked with them about their support of offshore drilling – hey, if they want to talk about really offshoring jobs here was their chance. But they turned a deaf ear to the logic.

Now, I suppose in the next day or so I’ll voluntarily lower my IQ about a half-dozen points and check out Progressive Delmarva to see how they crow about this latest stunt of theirs. But once this motley crew slinked out of the affair after being mildly disruptive for the first ten minutes or so they went back across the street to the Food Lion parking lot and piled into their cars, festooned generously with stickers supporting Martin O’Malley, Frank Kratovil, and Rick Pollitt, among other liberals. So much for their feigned support of Andy Harris.

At least they were environmentally conscious enough to carpool, I’ll give them that.

Unfortunately, my video of Andrew Langer’s speech is about 4 minutes too long for YouTube and I made the mistake of taking my camera (which does QuickTime format) rather than Kim’s, so I couldn’t edit the video. If I can figure out a way to boil it down I’ll have it for a future installment of FNV.

In the meantime, you can enjoy desperate liberals making utter fools of themselves. We did.

Oh, and the “Now or Never Maryland” tour will be in Salisbury October 22. Let’s see what these guys have for that.

WCRC meeting – September 2010

On the note that it was a “sign of enthusiasm that so many were running,” in the words of club president Marc Kilmer, we began our September meeting. Certainly it was much more orderly than the August edition I missed.

We did have a brief departure from normal as two people who wanted to be heard spoke before our normal business was concluded, for they had other pressing obligations. Charles Otto, winner of the District 38A nod, said that “we can’t take this election for granted” while his District 37A counterpart Dustin Mills spoke of the “great response” his effort was receiving and pushed his upcoming small business fundraiser October 4th.

At that point we went over the minutes and treasurer’s report, with Kilmer alerting the club we had made our candidate donations to a number of quality people throughout the county, as well as state and federal races. Toward that effort, it was revealed that the Crab Feast in particular swelled our coffers as one of the more profitable recently.

Our speaker was State’s Attorney candidate Matt Maciarello.

He detailed an early background of working his way through Wor-Wic Community College and Salisbury University before landing a civilian job with the Navy. There he learned about Organizational Change Management, to which he opined, “I believe my management ability…will serve Wicomico County well.”

After going to law school at the University of Maryland, Matt cut his legal teeth as a law clerk in Worcester County before securing his current employment at the local law firm of Hearne and Bailey. The partners there were examples of integrity, honor, and diligence, according to Maciarello – to him, law is “an honorable profession…I love the law.”

Describing himself further as “a very competitive person,” Matt began to spell out his vision for the State’s Attorney office; one he said could be more efficient and more effective given increased communication and collaboration. Matt spoke of being a “proactive community prosecutor…I’m a ‘broken windows’ kind of guy.” He also wanted to adopt the High Point Initiative to combat the drug problem, and spoke of combatting a surge in white-collar crime by educating businesses on what to look out for.

Matt also claimed that he had the support of the law enforcement community and considered himself, “goal oriented…I’m gonna get the job done.”

Regarding his recent decision to ask current SA Davis Ruark to remain for the Sarah Foxwell case, as the Foxwell family desires, Matt termed it his “Plan A” but also had plans B and C in mind if Ruark turned down the request. But Matt related that people who work on a case from start to finish develop a “sixth sense” about it and he thought this would assist the prosecution of Thomas Leggs. As for naysayers about the decision, Matt’s broadside was, “the minute I start doing things for Matt Maciarello is the minute I fail the community.”

A question asked by a club member about recidivism elicited this statement from Matt. “I want that fear (of punishment) to be out there in the criminal’s mind.”

“I’m in favor of ‘one strike and you’re out’, depending on what the crime is,” continued Maciarello.

But another question about the nolle pros and stet docket turned Matt into an educator. He has to be both an advocate for and administrator of justice, and there’s a difference between the “probable cause” required to bring charges and the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard for conviction. By doing a constant triage on cases based on the progress of the investigation and whether the best punishment is conviction or the conditions usually associated with a nolle pros or probation before judgement, the amount of time wasted for law enforcement officers to wait around in court or testify on losing cases can be reduced. Matt sympathized with officers who come off overnight road duty only to find themselves stuck in court for hours on end. These outcomes would be used “when it’s in the interest of justice.”

We then heard a number of brief reports.

Addie Eckardt spoke about some confusion regarding “agency” of absentee ballots that may need to be clarified in next year’s General Assembly. A few races have turned when an extraordinarily high number of absentee ballots are returned favoring one candidate. We should be mindful of both that and the early voting process.

Both Patrick Hefflinger of the local GOP Victory Center and Mark McIver, representing the local Ehrlich campaign, spoke about particular GOTV efforts and volunteering – each Saturday morning we were invited to walk local neighborhoods. Mark Biehl of the Lower Shore Young Republicans told us they were doing their part each Wednesday at the Victory Center and they had “a good turnout…we made a profit” at their Hog Roast.

Speaking for the Republican Central Committee, John Bartkovich bemoaned the 26 percent turnout locally and said, “we have a lot of work to do…don’t rely on the Republican wave” spoken of in the national media. We need to have all Republican hands on deck to carry our local candidates to victory.

Delegate Carolyn Elmore piped up to remind us that we need to support the primary winners – “we cannot circle the wagons and fire inward.”

Joe Ollinger announced he’d had a “great” fundraiser and promoted future campaign efforts in his bid to replace Rick Pollitt.

Judge Bill Smith allowed us to vote for two Democrats; “I’d like to keep the two I have” as fellow members of the Orphan’s Court. Those two would be Norma Lee Barkley and Melissa Bright Pollitt.

Matt Holloway chimed in that he was “blown away” by the support he had in his County Council at-large primary.

Bob Caldwell, Sean Jester (representing Mike McDermott), Ann Suthowski (who is coordinating the Eric Wargotz for Senate campaign here in Wicomico County), and Mark McIver (for the Ehrlich campaign) all updated us briefly on progress.

Joe Holloway is unopposed for his District 5 seat but opined, “we need new management in this county (and) a good, conservative County Council.”

Notably absent was a report on the Andy Harris campaign.

The last word belonged to Marc Kilmer, who told us the October meeting would feature Joe Ollinger, Bob Culver, and Joe Holloway, and our Christmas Party will be held Sunday, December 12.

That October meeting is slated for October 25.

A treaty with the electorate

It’s always amusing when politicians make promises and issue statements before they are elected, but actually have to live with what they said they’d do afterward. Some are successful and others…not so much. (“Read my lips” seems to be one of the better examples, although that middle-class tax cut his successor promised but couldn’t deliver on seems a good one too.)

So Republicans took about 20 pages to expand on what is stated here. (It’s sad when I have to use North Dakota as an example given that this isn’t on the Maryland or national Republican websites.) But I suppose it’s better than the 67 pages our last party platform from two years ago took up. In this case, the GOP is trying to replicate the success of the “Contract With America” as a bedrock campaign slogan from 1994.

But so have many other people; for example, what was wrong with the Mount Vernon Statement or the Contract From America?

Here we have oh so many words to describe in excruciating detail what Republicans in Congress promise to do, if only they are given the levers of power. Yet there already is a roadmap in place; one which has been there for 222 years (albeit amended from time to time with the last being in 1992.) You know as well as I do what that document is.

To varying degrees these more recent documents pay lip service to the supreme law of our land, but who’s going to be the first to say, “look, it’s time to sunset entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid”? I’d say it but my chances of being elected to any position of power lie between slim and none, and slim just left town. Yet that step is necessary to insure the continued prosperity of this Republic.

No one truly wants to be the person to make the hard choice. I don’t necessarily fault politicians for this because, after all, they generally receive the job by winning a popularity contest expressed in our votes. “A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage” is a pretty good slogan, but the question is how one goes about getting it. (In Herbert Hoover’s case, the bubble of prosperity built on easy credit burst – maybe that’s a lesson Keynesians who believe that government spending will get us out of our economic doldrums should heed.) Franklin Roosevelt couldn’t get a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage no matter how much his New Deal spent because there weren’t enough other job producers around – how could those in the private sector compete with the government, an entity which need not make a profit?

A legitimate criticism of many TEA Partiers is the hypocricy they exhibit by complaining about government-run health care when they themselves are the beneficiaries. I can see the point, but if you frame it as a question of whether they believe their grandchildren should be saddled with the debt that’s being incurred on their behalf the answer makes more sense. And perhaps if a truly open-market private system were made available they would take advantage. For example, many millions of seniors saved for their retirement by investing despite the fact a government program was also there to subsidize their golden years. No one told them how much to invest nor were there any restrictions on where they could put their money.

But perhaps the most immediate step government can take in the correct direction is to stop using the tax code to reward or punish certain behaviors like buying a home or putting in a solar panel. Our granting that sort of power to government is what makes change so difficult. Of course, we should dismantle Obamacare and maintain the Bush tax rates as a stopgap measure, but the real change needs to come from a shift from income-based taxation to a single-point consumption-based tax. While it may life a bit more difficult for business in one aspect, other parts of the accounting system would vastly improve, not to mention people would have more money in their pocket.

Right now it seems that all we want to do is tinker around the edges, and most assuredly by having a President of the opposite party in charge for two more long years that may be all we can do on a national scale.

But states can also lead the way by asserting their Tenth Amendment rights and becoming the “laboratories of democracy” (albeit in the opposite manner that Brandeis would have preferred) by electing conservative governors and legislators and testing the waters of dismantling their statist controls over the citizens. Obviously Texas is a popular destination for both business and the population which follows it due to its low-taxation, small-government reputation.

In many cases, even after the 2010 election those who believe in freedom and liberty through limited government will still be saddled with elected officials who try the same old same old statist remedies which haven’t worked the first ten times. But we have a role to play there as well by exposing them for what they really are and educating the rest of the population why these legislators aren’t acting in their best interests by showering them with goodies from a goose they’re betting will still be laying golden eggs. Hopefully Atlas only has to shrug once before a lesson is learned.

The fight will be long, and victories may be few. But what we believe in is something well worth fighting for, and I plan on continuing my part of the battle for either as long as I draw breath or we win, whichever comes first. It just may come down to our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor again.

It’s official…thank you!

Now I can take the signage and authority statement down after three months; as of yesterday the election count is in the books.

While 2,139 votes may not seem like a lot it was enough to keep me in ninth place and the top nine become the new Central Committee. The 30-vote margin between ninth and tenth tied for the closest, and really there’s no shame in finishing either second or third (Ann Suthowski and Bob Laun, respectively, also were 30 votes apart.) But when the margin is pass or fail, it’s a little different.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank Kim, my significant other and all-around wonderful woman who both served as my treasurer and probably talked me up to enough of her friends and co-workers to push me across the finish line! You better believe every vote counts and in this case she’s probably the difference between me being in and being out.

So here is your new Wicomico County Republican Central Committee who will officially take over after November’s election – although most are already hard at work:

Blan Harcum
Ann Suthowski
Bob Laun
Dave Goslee, Sr.
John Palmer
Dave Parker
Joe Collins
Mark McIver
Michael Swartz

It should be a very interesting four years. We don’t know who the party chair will be; while the top vote-getter traditionally takes the post he or she can delegate it according to his or her wishes whether directly or via a vote of the committee.

I will say that there will be some TEA Party and AFP influence since I saw two others on my list this evening and another two members have also been known to attend frequently. I suppose those naysayers who claim AFP is nothing more than a shill for the Republican Party will take from that what they will, but I also saw the two leading Libertarians locally last night too.

But once again I wanted to take the time to thank both the Republican voters in Wicomico County who retained their faith in me and the other candidates who ran for making it a race on issues rather than personalities – wouldn’t it be nice if the rest were like this? Obviously this was a fairly low-key race and for the most part we all get along so it was a good exercise for all involved.

Oh, speaking of the AFP meeting last night: it was pretty dull as we talked about the upcoming Constitutional and charter amendments facing voters. (The most animated exchanges were afterward, but what happened in Brew River will stay in Brew River.) We did hear the announcement former Democratic County Executive candidate John Wayne Baker endorsed Joe Ollinger for the post, so that was newsworthy.

I was hoping to find out more about the NOvember is Coming bus tour arriving here next week, but the update will have to wait I guess. That’s my summary.

A note to former Murphy supporters

We can watch the train go over the cliff with us still on it, or we can fight to control the locomotive. That’s the difference between Martin O’Malley and Bob Ehrlich.

Voters’ memories are notoriously short and if you asked them right now whether the name Brian Murphy rings a bell, 95% of them will say no.

I’ll certainly grant Bob Ehrlich isn’t my preferred candidate but I’d rather have someone who at least would have conservatives at the table than one who would shut them out. We need to send the message that our continued support is contingent on following through on issues near and dear to us.

In the meantime, we also have work to do reforming the MDGOP. Taking our ball and going home simply means they can continue business as usual. The more talk about going third party or skipping the election, the more ability the establishment has to marginalize those of us who choose to fight from within.

I left that comment at Ann Corcoran’s Potomac Tea Party Report. Obviously there’s a subset of people who believe that all is lost after Murphy’s defeat (as well as that of Jim Rutledge) and are willing to toss their votes out the window to support a third-party candidate. Once upon a time millions of Americans (including me) did that for Ross Perot and we got Bill Clinton.

There’s no doubt that Brian Murphy was a more conservative candidate, nor do I dispute the claim that the Maryland GOP put its finger on the scale big-time when they waived Rule 11 to back Bob Ehrlich.

But all of these people need to understand that we only lost one battle in a war that’s going to be fought long-term. If we fade back into the woodwork nothing will change. Those of us who are fighting the battle from within would be the ones left high and dry, smacked back into oblivion by the machine that we’re trying to fight this guerrilla struggle against.

If we stay at the table and Ehrlich wins, he’s going to owe us bigtime. I don’t know if Bob can run again if he wins, but conservatives would be in the far better position with a Republican in the governor’s chair and enhanced numbers in the General Assembly than we would with Martin O’Malley back in charge. Remember, Martin O’Malley represents a party whose Senate leadership vowed:

(GOP leaders are) “going to be flying high, but we’re going to get together and we’re going to shoot them down. We’re going to bury them face down in the ground, and it’ll be 10 years before they crawl out again.”

That’s how they operate in this state, my friends. Martin O’Malley would sooner give up his guitar than do something for conservatives. I’ve known this for awhile.

If diehard Murphy supporters leave or vote third party, we are ceding the hard-fought gains we’ve won in this battle and it’s going to be twice as hard to get it back in a war where the enemy holds all of the high ground. I don’t care for compromise, and certainly it would have been great to see success like conservatives saw in Delaware. But we still have a lot worth fighting for, and staving off extinction through redistricting is a serious prize to me. Democrats have plenty of plans to carve Republicans right off the electoral map.

Sure, it would be nice to get the Libertarians and Constitution Party their 1% to stay viable for another term. But let it come out of the other guy’s total.

Storming the establishment

Well, it’s been at best a difficult week for the so-called Republican Party establishment. Not only is there much wailing and gnashing of teeth at Christine O’Donnell’s Delaware victory, but one local blogger has taken her time to blast the local establishment as well. I’ll get to her in a minute.

Even before the polls were closed in Delaware, though, there were those who bemoaned the lost opportunity in Delaware since Mike Castle was defeated in his bid to become the caretaker Senator from the First State. Normally I like Hans Bader and his writing, but I have to disagree with his whinefest on this one. Most tellingly he writes:

People who think the country is conservative beneath the surface — or even firmly “center-right” — are living in a bubble, just like the Obama supporters were deluding themselves when they came to the conclusion that the country had become staunchly liberal just because Obama won in 2008 based on the bad economy.

The problem with Bader’s theory is that conservatism is the leading ideological identifier, according to polling data. Yet there always seems to be this tug-of-war between various factions of what can be termed “mainstream” Republicans like Bader who accept that having the party label is more important than principle, against those in the Tea Party Express Bader slams because they remain ideologically purer to conservative principles.

Bader is correct in saying the Obama supporters were deluding themselves, but that’s simply because the country is more right than left – unfortunately those on the right were let down when a centrist candidate was nominated. It was a selection process based to a large extent by primary voters in open primary states and the mainstream media cheerleaders who backed John McCain until the moment he picked the much more conservative Governor Sarah Palin. Ironically, that was the point where McCain peaked and briefly led in the polls.

As events play out, the race may not matter for control of the Senate anyway and there’s no guarantee Christine O’Donnell won’t pull off the shocker in November as she did last week. Before the beginning of September and the Tea Party Express getting involved, no one gave O’Donnell a shot at making it this far nor was the Senate even deemed in play earlier this year – most pundits saw the possibilities as perhaps a 52-48 or 53-47 Democratic edge. But in the eyes of many conservatives, 50-50 with Biden being the tiebreaking vote is better than 51-49 but always having to worry whether Castle would sell out. Such a scenario would likely prove the Democrats who demanded equality in a similar situation under President Bush a decade ago as complete hypocrites now when they deny the GOP that same parity.

Yet the Tea Party vs. establishment battle roils closer to home as well.

Obviously one could consider Julie Brewington’s diatribe against the state Americans for Prosperity chapter and the local Republican Party a serious case of sour grapes since she finished last in a four-person field. She describes herself as “too trusting” of certain people who “used me,” especially when she bucked the trend and supported the more conservative candidate for Governor, Brian Murphy (as did I.) Except for myself and another current member of the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee, she takes aim at party leadership and some of my fellow local bloggers as well. At least one time in the past I advised Julie to grow a little thicker skin, but in this case she makes some very valid points.

There has always been that undercurrent of conservatism locally, and the GOP has been the beneficiary of it for nearly a quarter-century. The last time a Democratic candidate for Governor or President carried Wicomico County was in 1986, and William Donald Schaefer could neither be described as a very liberal Democrat nor did he have much opposition from an extremely weak GOP candidate. Oftentimes we get the benefit from a pocket of Democrats who are simply DINOs and vote mostly Republican tickets on Election Day. This year the good climate for the GOP was manifested by the number of candidates under our banner for local seats, including the Central Committee.

Yet those voters we depend on to carry us despite our disadvantage in registrations are the same ones being alienated by the games being played by establishment Republicans. Trying to tilt the playing field to benefit certain candidates shouldn’t be the job of the state party, and all candidates should be treated with respect. I know there are some who don’t like our current leadership (that line doesn’t start with Julie) but now we’ll enter a new era with a few new players – the leader of the local AFP chapter, a longtime county activist, and the person behind “Conservatives for Maryland.” (I have to scratch my head at the Ehrlich backing by that group though; then again, when the lead local person for Bob runs the group I guess you get a few compromises.) Of the seven who were elected in 2006, it appears just four of us will survive to begin this term.

Yet there will be a particular dynamic to our group which has the potential to discourage the Tea Party from further involvement. Enough of the old guard and (perhaps) tea party skeptics remain that the struggle for leadership may be real and damaging. Obviously this group will back the Republicans who survived the 2010 primary (and it’s a very potent group) but once the state reorganization begins it’s anyone’s guess which way we will go. I doubt that on that front we will be as united as some may desire – I sense there will be profound differences among us.

Having said that, though, we need people like Julie Brewington to keep us honest. What we don’t need, though, is to have all of our dirty laundry aired in public. Sunlight is a great disinfectant but it also makes certain things fade over time, and we need to keep those new political recruits we’ve gained in the conservative movement within the Tea Party in the bold colors they represent. We tried the pale pastels over the last decade and see where they got us.

While the Tea Party exists without a strong inside leader, those within the Republican Party need to take the elephant by the tusks and work on reforming the state party so it better reflects the conservatism of its members.

But we also need to be teachers and present alternatives to the statism we see in Annapolis and Washington. The ‘party of no’ can work for now but we need to become the party of limited-government alternatives once we secure leadership positions. If someone like Mike Castle was going to simply present a slower drift toward statism, it’s best he lost and the job of Delaware Republicans should be to teach the voters that having an advocate for limiting government is in their best interest.

It should be our job as well.

Statement from Davis Ruark

I was sent this statement from the soon-to-be-former State’s Attorney last evening.

I have been blessed to have served the people of Wicomico County for 23 years as state’s attorney. There are absolutely no words adequate to express my deep appreciation to our citizens, to the exceptional attorneys and staff who have worked with me and to tremendous law enforcement officers past and present with whom I’ve worked on a daily basis.

There comes a time when change is necessary, and I fully accept and respect the decision made by the majority of those voting in the democratic primary.

I am also deeply appreciative of the sentiments expressed in the Matt Maciarello press release thanking me and my staff for the years of service we have given to this county. I value that expression on behalf of my entire office.

I wish both candidates the best in the coming election with the hope that the issues addressing Wicomico County can be openly discussed and potential solutions explored.

Until such time as a new state’s attorney takes office, we will fully fulfill our duties and responsibilities to the citizens.

On a personal level I am remain committed to the best interest of residents and I am excited about the possibilities of service in other areas.

I am an Eastern Shoreman born and bred, a Wicomico native through and through and from my perspective, there are no better people on the face of the earth.

My thanks to all for the greatest thrill of my life in serving as your state’s attorney.

Let me start out my commentary by thanking Davis for his years of service. I know him enough to consider him as more than an acquaintance as there’s been occasions we’ve been able to speak at length when our paths happened to cross because of my involvement with the local blogosphere. Unfortunately, I think that several factors which weren’t directly related to his office were the factors which tipped the scales against him in this election, and hastened the feeling among Democrats that it was time for a change. (Remember, while Republicans have a candidate in Matt Maciarello, Matt didn’t run against Davis directly.)

Obviously the 2008 DWI incident has been beaten to death in the local media, but don’t discount the decision Ruark made to seek the resignations of Sam Vincent and those within the State’s Attorney office who may have supported his campaign. Perhaps Davis believed it would create a distraction should Vincent have continued the effort (and there’s a lot to do given the high-profile Sarah Foxwell case along with less publicized cases.) Losing Sam in an auto accident, though, deprived the voters of Wicomico County a possible alternative candidate for the job and more importantly deprived Ruark the opportunity to reconsider the decision and perhaps come up with a better solution. As it was, it made Davis look like an autocrat only concerned with the trappings of office.

No man is above criticism or replacement, and it’s evident Democratic voters wanted a fresh start.

I suppose it doesn’t matter at this point, but the sense I received in speaking with Davis is that had there been a way to easily run as an unaffiliated candidate he would have gladly done so. I’m actually the guy who delivered him a John McCain sign 2 years ago. But Maryland regulations make State’s Attorney a partisan office and that’s the political reality for the time being, whether he actually believes straight down the line with Democratic principles or not.

(While he’s told me that he’s spoken before to the Republican Club, I did have to lay down the law regarding sign placement at the GOP booth at the Farm and Home Show. He wanted to leave his signs there but the GOP has a candidate. They ended up down the way at the ‘Conservatives for Maryland’ booth.)

Obviously Ruark will be finishing out his term, and there’s important work for him to do regarding passing along some of the unfinished business like the Sarah Foxwell case. I’m certain he will be gracious and helpful to whoever wins in November. Nor will he pack up and blow away entirely as he works closely with the Child Advocacy Center and will still be a popular figure in many circles.

It’s simply become clear that one of those circles is no longer Democratic primary voters.

Thank you for your support!

Update 9/16: I picked up another 46 votes today in the absentee count and increased my margin to 27.

It looks like I may have made it…just barely, but I may have made it.

With a few hundred absentee ballots out, I’m holding on to ninth place for the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee by a 25 vote margin. It’s a damn good thing my suggestion of a couple years ago (to expand the WCRCC from 7 to 9 members) was finally adopted by the committee or I’d be out in the cold!

Obviously I’m bummed that both of my statewide candidates I supported lost. It’s not a surprise that Brian Murphy lost, but I am heartened that he picked up 29% of the vote here – it means that Bob Ehrlich can’t take us conservatives for granted over the next seven weeks. (Murphy got over 30% of the vote in a handful of counties, peaking so far at 33 percent.)

But I guess Eric Wargotz may have bought himself a nomination, since he doesn’t seem to anywhere near the grassroots support that Jim Rutledge did. My friends who are Rutledge backers should be proud that the top two counties in the state to back Jim were (in order) Wicomico (#1) and Worcester (#2.) Shows we have some common sense, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see Wargotz skedaddle to the center now.

I did better on the homefront – wasn’t sure Marty Pusey would pull it off but she did! Congrats and way to go Marty!

More shocking was the ease in which Charles Otto won his primary. And people will be talking for awhile about the upset of Davis Ruark by Seth Mitchell.

Looks like later today I can condense my righthand column and prepare for November. But again, thanks to the 2,036 people who had faith in me and my efforts on the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee!

Just don’t tell me I’m a shoo-in next time!

Watch before you vote

Because he didn’t have the big money of the establishment behind him, many voters weren’t introduced to Brian Murphy. Take about 20 minutes to be educated and if you like what you see, go ahead and vote for him in the Republican primary. This is part one.

Part two is here.

I’d rather stand on principle than have to settle. Brian doesn’t need 160,000 votes – he only needs one vote 160,000 times. I think yours should be one.

“When you stand on principle, you never walk alone.”