There’s never an easy year to be a Republican in the corridor of counties that joins Washington and Baltimore, but 2006 was a particularly rough one.
The Nov. 7 general election saw Democrats retake the governor’s office, as well as top positions at the county level.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich lost a bid to become Maryland’s first Republican governor to earn a second term in Annapolis in more than 50 years when he was ousted by Democratic Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley. Rep. Ben Cardin, D-Md., beat out Lt. Gov. Michael Steele for a U.S. Senate seat.
At the local level, voters kept Republicans off the nine-member Prince George’s County Council despite challenges from several GOP candidates.
The lone Republican council member in Montgomery County, Howard Denis, was voted out of office, a move that returned the panel to an all-Democrat body for the first time in 15 years.
Leadership changes have caused concern in the past.
During the Ehrlich years, Democratic leaders in Maryland questioned mass dismissal of state government workers on what appeared to be their political affiliations.
Lt. Gov.-elect Del. Anthony Brown, in putting together O’Malley’s transition team, has said the administration will be about performance and not politics.
“It’s going to be about finding those who exhibit a passion for service regardless of a party affiliation,” Brown said during a mid-November appearance in Baltimore.
