Maryland’s top elected Republican officials are concerned that the party’s embattled chairman may be hurting their chances of victory in next year’s election.
In a recent letter to party leaders, state House Minority Leader Tony O’Donnell and Minority Whip Chris Shank said they “continue to have a lack of confidence” in GOP state Chairman Jim Pelura’s ability to “prepare the party” for the 2010 elections.
O’Donnell and Shank hammered Pelura over the party’s debts and said he should be focused on registering voters and raising money.
“Where are the resources for supporting a statewide coordinated election going to come from, especially over the next five months?” they wrote. “Maybe [Pelura] hopes someone in Washington will magically send us a bailout for the Maryland GOP.”
Pelura recently survived a no-confidence vote against him by party leader, and has defied calls to resign. He could not be reached for comment.
But many political watchers don’t share O’Donnell and Shank’s view that Pelura’s presence weakens the party’s ability to win, which is typically an uphill task in a state that has twice as many Democrats as Republicans.
Republicans said their candidates were on their own when it came to raising money and running elections, and the state party has never been an important player.
“We can’t miss something that we’ve never really had,” said Rich Cross, speechwriter for former Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
Cross said Ehrlich, who won in 2002 and lost re-election to Gov. Martin O’Malley in 2006, never relied on the state party apparatus to run an election and had his own “grass-roots network” to tap into should he decide to run again.
Guessing whether Ehrlich will seek a rematch in 2010 has become a favorite political parlor game in Maryland. Cross said it was a “50-50” that his old boss would toss his hat in the ring.
Montgomery County Republican Central Committee Chairman Mark Uncapher said Ehrlich was looking to see how the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey panned out before making up his mind.
Uncapher pointed out that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell was leading in Virginia polls, and that recent Virginia GOP infighting, which led to Del. Jeff Frederick being booted from his post as state chairman, has had little effect on voters. He said the same applied in Maryland.
“Our prospects do not rise and fall on how the state party specifically does,” he said.
