Delegation

David Blumberg of Baltimore is the head of the city's Republican Party and a delegate to the Republican National Convention. A librarian at the Baltimore City Detention Center, he is writing each day about his thoughts and experiences.The Maryland delegation feels the family values issue alone will not get us nearly enough votes to win in November. Specific plans on the economy, unemployment and the deficit must also be clearly articulated.Beverly Goldstein, C.C. Moss and I went to a Jack Kemp reception yesterday sponsored by a Jewish Republican group.

CALL IT THE Night of the Long Knives, the Day of Reckoning, the Victory of Vendetta.Any way you look at it, Carroll County came out on the short end of the fiscal 2000 budget and the three-month General Assembly session that last week approved it.With the county's all-Republican delegation snorting fire and brimstone, the well-insulated Democratic majority simply yawned. There was no need to respond.The same for Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who has been the local demon since canceling the statewide police training center abuilding near Sykesville.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland members of the House split evenly yesterday on the question of whether to use military force to drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, with some saying that only the threat of war can succeed and others urging patience to allow economic sanctions and diplomacy to work."

Although the Carroll County commissioners' legislative package for the General Assembly session that convenes tomorrow contains 14 bills, twice as many as last year's, most of them are of a housekeeping nature. They range from permitting the county to collect administrative fees for the new forest conservation ordinance to changing the way municipalities receive state funding.There is, however, one very important measure that Carroll'sState House delegation ought to seriously push for passage.

Carroll's state delegation has pushed through most of the county's legislative proposals during this year's General Assembly - though one of the county commissioners' top priorities did not get a chance for consideration. The county gained greater power in one bill to recoup from property owners the cost of building roads connecting residential areas. Under the bill - which was signed into law by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. on Tuesday - county officials would identify planned county roads for construction.

The House Ways and Means Committee heard testimony yesterday on Sen. Larry E. Haines' bill to allow county finance offices to collect recordation taxes that are now collected by the state.The bill, which passed the Senate March 13 by a 47-0 vote, has been tied to Sen. John A. Pica's bill to reducing closing costs."They're using my bill as the carrot," said Mr. Haines, a Westminster Republican, noting that the Maryland Association of Counties had supported his bill but not the one submitted by Mr. Pica, a Baltimore Democrat.

Members of the county's General Assembly delegation have come up with competing plans to help ease the county's financial crisis.Delegate Robert L. Flanagan, R-14B, wants to remove restrictions placed on the county portion of the state transfer tax and deposit that money-- approximately $12 million a year -- directly into the general fund.Earlier, Delegate Virginia M. Thomas, D-13A, proposed a plan to allow County Executive Charles I. Ecker to take up to $8 million -- half of the county farmland preservation fund balance as of Jan. 1, 1992 -- and use it for other purposes over the next 18 months.

Several Carroll delegates say they are not as confident as the governor that the legislature can make bold moves forward in these uncertain times of recession and the Gulf war.In his State-of-the-State address Friday, Gov. William Donald Schaefer implored legislators tolook beyond difficulties, to "be bold, don't accept the status quo, step out with vision, new approaches and innovation."He outlined an ambitious agenda he wants lawmakers to support, including proposals to impose a 5 percent sales tax on gasoline to allow transportation construction projects to proceed; revise the tax code to redistribute wealth among jurisdictions and generate additional revenue for education; and provide state government a larger role in managing growth.

Maryland's congressional delegation called yesterday for an immediate investigation into recent radar failures at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and asked federal aviation officials to outline their plans to correct the problems. In a letter to Federal Aviation Administrator Jane F. Garvey, the state's two senators and four of its congressmen wrote: "The radar equipment outages have not only disrupted flight operations at BWI, but may have the potential of compromising safety."

A House panel has targeted $2 million in state aid to help finance construction of an allied-health building at Anne Arundel Community College.College officials said they need the new $10.2 million classroom building, which could open by 1994, because they have outgrown the 24-year-old Arnold campus. The college serves 46,000 full- and part-time students, or one out of every seven county residents, they said."We are about to build the next generation of that campus," President Tom Floristano told legislators.