Contract Matters

You might have seen this story today regarding State GOP Chairman Jim Pelura's push to create a "Contract with Maryland." Amazingly, this actually create a large problem for the State Party. And I'm not even talking about the fact that Pelura is trying to dictate the legislative agendas of Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman and House Minority Leader Tony O'Donnell.

See, the story here is the fact that Pelura has appointed yet another committee to try and develop party policy. Which would be novel if it wasn't for the fact that Pelura has done this multiple times now. Including the appointment of Charles County GOP Chairman Charles Lollar to the much ballyhooed tax commission.

Lollar spoke at the Anne Arundel Republican Central Committee meeting, and the gist of his speech was that the tax commission was basically put officially hold, and that the Lollar Commission decided to move forth and continue meeting and to present its recommendations independently of the state party apparatus. That is what led to the creation of Concerned Citizens for a Better Maryland. And that outfit last week released its......Contract with Maryland.

So, to recap, Jim Pelura is creating a commission to recreate the work done by a former Pelura-created commission that was cast adrift. And both commissions are at odds with legislative leadership over who should be crafting the party's agenda. The State GOP will have two competing, conservative Contracts with Maryland.

I'm so glad that the party is getting its act together.

Maybe the creation of a new committee is not the best idea we can come up with right now. And frankly given the bottom line of our bank accounts these days, shouldn't the state party apparatus take the time to create a finance committee to raise some money for the state party to get us out of this fiscal black hole the party finds itself in?