Post # 389 – Maryland State Republican Party needs to show up and fight the restricting constitutional amendment, not bitch on social media

I am not a registered republican, but in the past, I have voted for Wayne Gilchrist, Bob Ehrlich and Larry Hogan. I strongly support the concept of a strong two-party system. Competition creates ideas between the parties and prevents authoritarian and fascist ideas from taking over.

Last weekend I was made aware of a text message that was going out to people that was encouraging voters to call their representatives in Annapolis and tell them to support the redistricting plan because Andy Harris supported it. I felt it was a fake message or false flag whatever you want to call it. The tagline on it said it was Pd for by MDGOP. The original message was sent to a Democratic member of the Maryland General Assembly. It was forwarded to me by another individual in the General Assembly.

On Saturday night I emailed the state Republican Party to info@mdgop.org and to Ashleigh Presnar the Executive Director of the Maryland Republican Party ashleigh@mdgop.org to make them aware of this. I also wanted to verify whether the party had actually sent this out. I called twice on Monday and Tuesday and the calls immediately went to voicemail. I left messages and no call has been returned.

Yes, the state GOP is really good at posting on social media but that only speaks to the audience that’s already with you. The Maryland Republican Party opposes the gerrymandering that’s being done in Annapolis but supports the gerrymandering in other States and opposes national legislation to get rid of gerrymandering. The problem with the state party is it is a Trump like organization in a state that many Republicans and Independents identify with Larry Hogan more.

On Tuesday, Congressman Harris said outside organizations plan to file lawsuits this week challenging the redistricting proposal. The legal challenges will focus on Republican claims that Democratic lawmakers didn’t comply with state law when placing the measure on the November ballot after the special session. This is a strategy of basically looking for the technicality and having this defeated. Harris is the only republican member of Congress from the state of Maryland. He has made it clear he is looking for outside groups to challenge the amendment. It leads to this question, why is not the Maryland Republican Party doing that. Are they not the most impacted of all by this? Or are the Harris’s too cheap to do this?

Maryland Republican Party Chairperson Nicole Harris only really has one job to do between now and Election Day. Use all the party resources available, all financial resources available etc. to defeat this constitutional amendment that the legislature just passed. If she can’t get this constitutional amendment defeated, she should resign immediately.

To quote Bill Parcells, “You are what your record says you are.” You measure victory and defeat by wins and losses if she can’t win this one she needs to go.