SPIRO SMILES:

Democrats in decline (Washington Times, 3/14/04)

Over the past two years, the Maryland Democratic Party has managed to do what once seemed impossible: make the state Republican Party competitive for the first time in decades. Much of the credit goes to KKT — Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, whose poorly run gubernatorial campaign in 2002 made it possible for Robert Ehrlich to become the state's first Republican elected governor in 36 years. But the Democrats remain very much in control of the General Assembly, outnumbering Republicans 98-43 in the House of Delegates and 33-14 in the state Senate. Although the political environment has become somewhat more conservative in recent years, making Mr. Ehrlich's election possible, Democratic lawmakers are moving in the opposite direction.

In 2002, Republican candidates defeated relatively moderate Democrats like House of Delegates Speaker Casper Taylor and Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chairman Walter Baker. Democratic legislators chose two orthodox liberals to replace them: Anne Arundel County Delegate Michael Busch became speaker of the House; and Montgomery County Sen. Brian Frosh became chairman of the Judicial Proceedings panel. During this year's session of the General Assembly, Democrats seem determined to give Republicans the opportunity to define them as the party that favors higher taxes, and seeks to take guns away from law-abiding citizens while granting undeserved privileges to illegal immigrants.