Robert Harvey Kittleman, neophyte minority leader of the Maryland House of Delegates, utters an audible sigh as he leaves the weekly meeting of the 41-member Republican caucus. "It's pandemonium," he says. "Really tough. We have to decide which way to go."
He's talking about strategies Republicans should take in the 141-seat House, where they're heavily outnumbered. But he also could be talking about surviving as minority leader beyond this legislative session.
Survival was never supposed to be an issue. After eight years as understudy to former minority leader and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey, the 69-year-old Howard County cattle farmer and retired Westinghouse engineer was supposed to move in easily as head of the GOP caucus.
Yet in December, he had to fight off a stiff challenge from Del. George C. Edwards, a 46-year-old four-term delegate from Garrett County. He was elected minority leader by only one vote.
The undercurrents leading to that challenge still swirl. More aggressive caucus members want Mr. Kittleman to be more partisan -- to nettle the Democrats at every opportunity -- to lay the foundation for more Republican gains in 1998.
GOP newcomers, such as first-term legislator Nancy Jacobs of Harford County, say they want a show of Republican muscle. And newcomers outnumber veterans in the caucus, 2 to 1. Ms. Jacobs says she'll support Mr. Kittleman every way she can, but "having 41 Republicans in the House is a lot different" from having just 25 last year.
"The numbers are almost there" to make Republicans a powerful force, she says. "We want a lot of guidance and leadership and have not received as much as we would like. It's a learning process for him, and it's a learning process for us. He's got to figure it out."
It was the Republican caucus that kept the heat on House Democrats to push for a personal income tax cut this year, prompting House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. to press hard for some sort of reduction. But the effort fell short. The governor, the speaker and the Senate president agreed last week to postpone a cut until next year.
Mr. Kittleman acknowledges he's struggling. "It's the first year ever that we've tried to exert influence," he says. "I don't have the proper method, the proper tactics. We're going to have to play our way through it."
