Big Fish in a Little Pond

Why do Republicans consistently lose elections in Maryland? The obvious answer is that they are outnumbered by Democrats. While this is true, there are deeper reasons behind consistent Republican losses throughout the once Free State. At the root of these reasons is the simple fact that those who run the Maryland Republican Party, and the majority of its county committees, seem far more concerned about being big fish in a little pond than in actually winning elections.

Last week Michael Swartz penned a post decrying the Montgomery County Republican Party’s attitude towards recent steps taken to decrease MoCo’s influence within the MDGOP. I happen to agree that MoCo’s influence was undeserving, but for far different reasons than Swartz.

Swartz, and those that think like him, believe that smaller counties should get a disproportionate say in party affairs. Their reasoning is that “we elect Republicans”. In the case of Swartz’s (and my) Wicomico County, this is truly laughable. The Wicomico County Republican Party does not elect Republicans. Republicans are elected in Wicomico County for several reasons, none of which have anything to do with the strength (or lack thereof) of the county’s Republican party.

WICOMICO COUNTY AS MICROCOSM

2010 is a great example. Wicomico County saw Republican candidates win four of the six (4 / 6) delegate seats which represent the county. Michael James, the GOP candidate for the District 38 Senate seat, won Wicomico by 2%, despite losing the district overall by a slim margin.

Six out of seven (6 / 7) county council seats went to Republican candidates. Three of those candidates did not even face Democrat challenge in the general election.

Matt Maciarello, a Republican, was elected State’s Attorney. GOP House candidate Andy Harris lost the county to incumbent Frank Kratovil by 19 votes (vs. almost 6,000 votes in 2008).

While the Wicomico Republican Committee may be patting itself on the back, these results had far more to do with timing (it was a Republican year across the country), demographics (Wicomico is a Republican leaning county despite higher Democrat registration numbers), and the hard work of candidates and supporters, than any effort by the local GOP.

The first two reasons are self-evident. The third may take some explaining. Local conservative activists worked hard for one or more candidates. While we have had our differences, I am the first to admit that local activist, and former candidate, Julie Brewington put out more effort on behalf of multiple candidates in last year’s election than did all but two members of the Wicomico GOP – COMBINED. This can also be said of several other local conservative / libertarian activists who prefer not to be named.

County Councilman Bob Caldwell won his District 4 seat by two (2) votes. Once known as “Superman” to his friends, “Landslide Bob” won in a heavily Democrat district because he was a good candidate, had a strong platform, and had a reliable cadre of people who were willing to work hard to see him elected. None of those helping Caldwell were active in the local GOP. Curiously, neither Caldwell nor any other successful council candidate (with one possible exception) were even recruited to run by the local GOP.

Why were these people so successful when the local GOP is not? It’s simple; they care about winning elections. Too many members of the local GOP put that far down the list of their political priorities.

WHY MDGOP LOSES

I should start off by noting that not all counties, not even all Eastern Shore counties, are as unsuccessful as Wicomico. Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Frederick, Harford, Washington, Carroll, and Queen Anne’s all have excellent local parties. There are others as well. While Swartz may loathe to admit it, Montgomery County has a grassroots organization that Wicomico should envy. However, there were elections that were lost in 2010 which could have been won IF the local parties had been better organized and worked harder.

The most glaring local example is Michael James’ run for the District 38 senate seat. James lost that seat by 640 votes. More than possible, it is probable that James would have won the seat if the local parties exerted half as much energy in trying to win votes for James as they do in worrying about how many votes they get at the semi-annual GOP convention. The Worcester County party all but abandoned James on election day after committing to having poll watchers throughout the county. This may not sound like much, but there were irregularities in Worcester that have yet to be answered by a Board of Elections who insists on denying the public reasonable access to things like absentee ballots. IF the Wicomico party had worked on behalf of James, his margin in that county would certainly have been higher. Wanting to be fair, I can’t really comment on Somerset’s efforts.

If anyone doubts the affect of knocking on doors and making phone calls – yes, I know these are “old fashioned” concepts – they need only look at Caldwell’s landslide county council win. Yet, far too many Maryland GOP committees seem far more concerned with “sitting at the cool kids’ table” than in doing the hard work involved in getting people elected to office.

WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?

The MDGOP has a great chairman in Alex Mooney. It has a great Vice Chairman in Diana Waterman. It has some great local county committees. Unfortunately, the state party is organized around a failed paradigm.

Look around the country. Almost all successful state Republican parties are organized around precincts or counties (and / or cities). Maryland would argue that they are organized around counties (and Baltimore City), and they would be correct. However, they neglect the most important factor in common with successful Republican parties; the Maryland GOP does not encourage grass roots participation.

Successful organizations invite all comers at the base level (county or precinct). That is not the case in Maryland. The MDGOP recently looked at changing its rules. They shouted down any proposal which would have broadened their active membership base because too many local committee members felt that they would lose imagined power or prestige.

If you examine Swartz’s post you will see that he is advocating for a scheme which rewards small counties at the expense of larger counties under the MDGOP’s current dysfunctional system. This is very similar to the Democrat party’s scheme of rewarding various special interest groups. I would advocate for a “relative voting strength” scheme which is based on the number of votes cast in a given county for governor or president. Despite being fair, that (or any other formula) is only meaningful with strong grass roots participation. 10,000 persons showing up for a state GOP convention in Virginia is only meaningful because most of those 10,000 people go home to work for Republican candidates.

The new MDGOP scheme wouldn’t be so bad, except that it does not address the issues of broadening the party’s base of activists. Look at states like Texas, South Carolina, and Virginia. They have successful state parties. They elect Republicans. They also encourage grass roots participation. Maryland does not. Nor will it ever as long as the people who sit on local Republican committees, and run the state party, are more concerned with wearing a little badge and being a big fish in a little pond.

G. A. Harrison is a frequent contributor to SbyNEWS. “Delmarva Dealings” appears each Wednesday and Sunday at Noon on SbyNEWS.

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