Party Leadership

Breakups are awkward, uncomfortable, difficult experiences. Just recently, I experienced a breakup of sorts, as I initiated the end of a relationship dating back 25 years. The relationship in question: myself and the Maryland Republican Party. People have different reactions when I told them I'd switched my registration from "Republican" to "Unaffiliated. " Conservatives worried I was drifting to the left, perhaps bending to the influence of my Obama-loving friends. As for liberals, some exulted that the political outlier in their lives finally seemed to be getting it. Well, sorry folks … but I guess I still don't get it. My switch is a non-ideological gesture of frustration by someone who has worked for and around some of the MDGOP's most notable and successful political figures — including Helen Bentley and Bob Ehrlich — over the past quarter-century.

In the days immediately after charges of sexual liaisons were made against Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in the supermarket tabloid Star, his showing in a tracking poll of New Hampshire Democrats fell dramatically. He led former Sen. Paul Tsongas 34-22 percent for the three days ending last Wednesday. By last Saturday, though, he trailed him 25-27 percent.Then on Sunday night, the governor and his wife responded to the charges on network television. In effect, he conceded past "problems" in his marriage but denied the most publicized ones.

EASTON -- Ralph T. Gies, the ultraconservative who surprised party regulars with a victory in the 1st Congressional District's Democratic primary, won't be getting any help from party brass in the general election.Arguing that the 69-year-old accountant's views aren't consistent with party positions, top Democrats say they'll stay out of his campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest."This man's on his own," said Ralph Gervasio, acting executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party.

Michael T. Brown, an unsuccessful Annapolis City Council and General Assembly candidate, has been elected chairman of the Democratic City Central Committee.The committee elected Brown by a 5-to-4 vote Tuesday night. He defeated Jinx Hubbard, a longtime city Democrat who previously had served three years as committee chairman. Hubbard was elected vice chairman.Outgoing chairman Steve Yaniga announced his resignation from the committee effective April 3, when Brown will assume the post. Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins has recommended Bill Amos,a Republican-turned-Democrat who worked on Hopkins' 1989 mayoral campaign, to fill Yaniga's at-large seat.

ONE BY one, the Democrats are saying "no thanks" to the chance to run for president.Can you blame them?President Bush remains more popular than ever, and there is really no organized opposition to his election bid. Polls show Bush winning a landslide against any potential Democratic candidate.The Democrats have been meeting a lot lately and seem to have settled on a strategy against the Bush-Quayle re-election ticket. That strategy is to hit the Republicans hard on domestic issues, namely because the Bush administration continues to have one foreign policy success after another.

VOTERS in Anne Arundel County thwarted conventional wisdom Tuesday. Janet S. Owens' victory in the Democratic primary over two-term councilwoman Diane R. Evans proved wrong the pre-election platitudes about the importance of name recognition and support from the elected party leadership and about the withered state of organized labor.Even though Ms. Evans is well-known, her 11th-hour switch from Republican (and a conservative one at that) to Democrat did not sit well with voting party members.

VOTERS in Michigan delivered an uncomfortable message on Tuesday to the conservative core of the Republican Party: The front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, doesn't fare well with independents and Democrats. Mr. Bush got hammered by both groups. Only his popularity with the party's dominant conservative wing got him within seven percentage points of Arizona Sen. John McCain in the Michigan primary. This leaves Republican voters in upcoming primaries -- including Maryland's -- with a dilemma.

Baltimore Sen. Clarence M. Mitchell IV, who threatened to leave his party to become a Republican, said yesterday that he will remain a Democrat. Mitchell said family members urged him not to switch, despite what he says is poor treatment of African-Americans by the Democratic Party leadership. Speaking at a State House news conference, he noted the rejection by General Assembly leaders of Morgan State University's request for $3.1 million in next year's budget toward a new library. Other Democrats and Republicans said the legislature reached a better compromise for the school, promising Morgan more money for the library the next year.

I would like to extend my congratulations to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, congressional Democrats and a handful of Republicans who bucked their party leadership, particularly in the last few days of the lame duck session. The 111th Congress might have been swept out of power a few weeks ago, but I'm confident that in the years to come most analysts and the American people will look back with appreciation at what this Congress was able to accomplish. For whatever is said of the 111th Congress, it cannot be said that it was a "do-nothing" Congress.

LONDON -- John Major, the chancellor of the exchequer who rose out of one of London's toughest neighborhoods, took office today as Britain's prime minister.Major, 47, who had been Margaret Thatcher's chosen heir, arrived at Buckingham Palace where Thatcher formally presented her resignation to Queen Elizabeth II, who asked Major to form a new government.Major, whose father was a circus trapeze artist, was elected leader of the Conservative Party to replace Thatcher, whose resignation under pressure last week surprised the nation.