Tea Party-endorsed candidates have upset incumbent Republicans in
races across the country, but in Maryland, even party sweetheart Sarah Palin couldn’t muster a force strong enough to shake the gubernatorial “establishment.”
Former Gov. Bob Ehrlich won the Republican primary with 75 percent of the vote compared with 25 percent for Tea Party- and Palin-endorsed candidate Brian Murphy.
Politics professor Tom Schaller says Maryland’s Tea Party is relatively weak, because of Maryland’s small Republican base — which is overshadowed by two times the number of Democrats. Ehrlich is too moderate to appeal to many Tea Partiers, anyway, said Schaller, associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
But party leaders say the far-right movement is strong — and growing — in a state that is primarily blue.
“I know the Tea Party is very strong here in Maryland and I think we saw it on primary day,” said Dave Schwartz, director of the Maryland chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which claims 25,000 in-state members. Americans For Prosperity does not carry the Tea Party label, but aligns itself with most of the party’s policy preferences.
“We want to see jobs grow, and taxes and spending cut,” he said. “Businesses are not going to hire people if they feel taxes are going to be jacked up.”
More than a dozen smaller Tea Party groups are campaigning
in Maryland, including the Maryland Society of Patriots, which claims roughly 1,500 members, according to founder Sam Hale.
Schwartz said his party does not regard Ehrlich, who was governor from 2002 to 2006, as an incumbent.
“He’s not responsible for the goings on over the last four years. O’Malley is,” he said. “There is a lot of frustration over the culture of entitlement in Annapolis and with Annapolis politicians.”
GOP spokesman Ryan Mahoney was less emphatic of the movement’s popularity.
“The movement is definitely present in Maryland,” he said. “It may not be as big as other places, but for the most part, Tea Party groups are concerned with the same things as Republicans.”
