March 14, 2004

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.


Posted by Orrin Judd at March 14, 2004 7:52 AM
Comments

They're likely to be tagged all those things, and they're likely to hold onto the General Assembly for the foreseeable future. The Republican bench is extraordinarily weak--had Ehrlich not run, it would have been...who, exactly? They can't even field credible candidates for Comptroller and Attorney General.

Now that Mayor O'Malley has most likely taken himself out of the running for Governor in the next election (by annointing himself fully responsible for resolving the morass--both fiscal and academic--that is the Baltimore City school system), the way is likely open for Montgomery County exec Doug Duncan, a very capable (and somewhat uninspiring) technocrat. If the Democrats in the GA can play obstructionist long enough while appearing only half-responsible, and Duncan can make some connection with Baltimore residents, he's most likely in in two years.

And the Democrats will think the whole Ehrlich episode was due to something bad they ate the night before...

Posted by: jsmith at March 14, 2004 8:30 PM

What strikes me as odd is that the writer seems to think that the Democratic Party platform isn't raising taxes, taking away guns and giving priviliedges to illegal immigrants.

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at March 14, 2004 11:10 PM
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