Old Line Elephant Maryland Conservative Blog

Governor O’Malley Ignores Baltimore County GOP Request

The Baltimore County Board of Elections has one Republican and one Republican alternate appointed by the Governor. The way the process, generally works, is that the Baltimore County GOP selects who they wish to be the appointee, an alternate, and a third name. Historically, the first person listed, as requested by the local GOP, is selected to be the voting member of the Baltimore County BoE. This year, O'Malley decided against that tradition. He ignored the person picked by the County Committee to represent them and selected their alternate choice to the committee and their third choice as the alternate. The Dundalk Patch has more on this situation. Here's an excerpt from that article:

The county Republican Party voted in November to oust Marge Neuman, a long-time board member, and replace her with Bruce Robinson, who was at the time a board alternate.

Neuman, long respected inside the county party, was the apparent victim of some intra-party squabbling in which central committee members turned against her in favor of another candidate.

The party was required to submit three names for O'Malley to consider. GOP party officials submitted Robinson as its top pick for the one regular board slot. Joseph Karey, who was the attorney to the election board, was the second name. The central committee rounded out its recommendations with Neuman, thinking that she would not be picked.

Campbell said past governors typically take the top two names on the list. "That's the way it usually works," Campbell said in an interview. "The governor defers to the local jurisdiction, to the local party selection."

But O'Malley did not defer. Instead, he jumped over Robinson and named Karey to fill the Republican party spot on the three-member board. Neuman was named as the Republican's alternate.

Campbell said he believes Robinson was passed over for political reasons. "They know he would have questioned some things going on at the Board of Elections," Campbell said.

While technically not a violation of any statute, it is a violation of trust. The local committee has always been allowed to select it's representative to the BoE. This time, the Governor skipped over the leading choice of the local party. It's unsurprising, but still irritating that the Governor decided to ignore general practice and, frankly, the opinion of the people who this appointed person will represent. Baltimore County GOP Chair Tony Campbell had the following to say on the matter,

Unfortunately, this was not an April Fools prank, it is business as usual in the State of Maryland...he unbridled partisanship of this decision is a clear example of the folly of one party government in Maryland. The fact that Governor O’Malley made this explicit decision of a board that is two to one Democrat shows the level of contempt he has for the voters in Baltimore County. We on the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee are amazed, but not surprised, by this action of a Governor who would put party over fair play.