MDGOP to get new leadership—hurrah!

Michael Swartz writing at Monoblogue and reposted at Red Maryland has an excellent piece on what the MDGOP needs in the way of leadership in the dark post-election days of 2010.  He begins:

In less than a month the transition between terms will be complete and presumably the Maryland Republican Party will have a new Chair – unless Audrey Scott decides to run again and wins. Since I don’t think that’s in her plans, it’s going to be my assumption for this argument that we will get new leadership.

Here are some of the facts on the ground awaiting whoever takes charge of the party:

*The Maryland Republican Party had few victories to celebrate after this year’s election, with the only gains being one Congressional seat (Andy Harris) and a half-dozen seats in the House of Delegates. Yet Bob Ehrlich was blown out by 13 points and we lost 2 of our scant 14 seats in the Maryland Senate.

*While the party is apparently not completely destitute, they lag far behind the Maryland Democratic Party in both fundraising and cash on hand.

*Between 2006 and 2010 Republicans fell further behind in voter registration against the Democrats.

Some may believe that the problem lay with the previous Chair, Dr. Jim Pelura. But his lone problem seemed to be the fact that big donors decided to snap their wallets shut when he wouldn’t play ball with them, although there were some who took him to task about how he interacted with Republicans in the Maryland General Assembly. Personally, I thought he did the best job he could with what he had to work with. Once big donors decided they wanted a change, the more pliable Audrey Scott was installed as party chair.

Please read on for Mr. Swartz’s recommendations for the kind of leader we need.  And, thanks, Mr. Swartz, for a little bit of MDGOP history for those of us Tea Party-types new to party politics.

Endnote: One name being bandied about is Mary Kane, Bob Ehrlich’s running mate this last time around.    Just a reminder she has a history of being Open Borders on immigration, remember when she couldn’t address the immigration issue with any intelligence here, and that her husband John Kane endorsed the now scourge of the US Justice Department, Thomas Perez here.    Also, she told the Baltimore Sun recently that she expected Maryland would not have a Republican governor for 40 years, here.  I guess one could ask, whose side are you on Mary?