Republican Women

Gail Bates participates in Legislative Reception Gail Bates, president of the Howard County Republican Women's Club, participated in the fourth Legislative Reception. The event was sponsored by the Maryland Federation of Republican Women Feb. 12 in Annapolis, in honor of members of Maryland's General Assembly. The Maryland Federation of Republican Women is a registered lobby group. New optometry chief joins staff at Mission Opticians Chan Lee, an optometrist and former associate professor at the Illinois College of Optometry, will join Mission Opticians in Historic Savage Mill as chief of optometry.

Monday's Doonesbury cartoon sums up the GOP's "war against women" in a few words in its reference to the state legislators and members of Congress who are anti-abortion zealots. All of the congressmen who voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood and stop Medicare coverage of contraceptives are Republicans. Which raises the question: What were Republican women thinking when they helped elect candidates who don't believe women should be allowed to make reproductive choices for themselves?

If democracy can win in Indonesia, there should be hope for this country.Pat Buchanan did not fool Republican conservatives nor did Elizabeth Dole fool Republican women.There are about as many candidates for manager of the Orioles as there were for mayor of Baltimore.Joe Curran makes Parris a moderate on gun control. That's the idea.

Mary Virginia "Ginny" Mudd, who had been active in Baltimore County Republican politics and served on the board of the historic Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Towson, died March 7 of pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The longtime Lutherville resident was 86. The daughter of a Methodist minister and a homemaker, Mary Virginia Battle was born in Tuscumbia, Ala. "They moved all over northern Alabama, where her father opened new churches every three years," said a daughter, Mary Virginia "Ginger" Mudd Galvez, a Baltimore writer who lives in Guilford.

Monday's Doonesbury cartoon sums up the GOP's "war against women" in a few words in its reference to the state legislators and members of Congress who are anti-abortion zealots. All of the congressmen who voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood and stop Medicare coverage of contraceptives are Republicans. Which raises the question: What were Republican women thinking when they helped elect candidates who don't believe women should be allowed to make reproductive choices for themselves?

The second pro-Clarence Thomas senator goes before voters next Tuesday. He is Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican. Democratic Sen. Alan Dixon of Illinois faced the voters last month; he was upset by a little-known woman candidate, Carol Moseley Braun, who won in large part because of Senator Dixon's "yes" vote on the nomination. She got the "Anita Hill vote."If there really is such a vote. Pennsylvania's Republican primary could help confirm it. It is one thing for Democratic women to vote against a pro-Thomas senator, as apparently most of them did in Illinois.

Washington -- The Republicans and Democrats are already looking ahead to the 1996 presidential election and plotting how to win over a crucial constituency: women.Thirteen years after the term "gender gap" entered the political lexicon -- and 75 years after women gained the right to vote -- the "women's vote" is as powerful a force as ever.By a slight majority, more women vote than men. And the difference in opinion on key issues remains wide. In regard to the budget deficit, crime, jobs and welfare reform, men express more confidence in Republican congressional leaders than do women by as many as 12 percentage points, according to a recent survey by the Times Mirror center.

Margaret S. Beall, the wife and mother of United States senators who knew every first lady from Eleanor Roosevelt to Hillary Rodham Clinton, died in her sleep Monday at Kensington Algonquin Assisted Living in Cumberland. She was 105. Born Margaret Schwarzenbach in Cumberland, she attended the old Allegany County Academy -- the county's first public school -- and Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pa. In 1926, she married J. Glenn Beall, a real estate and insurance broker who became Frostburg's tax collector and then served in the state Senate from 1930 to 1934.

A Republican activist who was the local party's choice to fill a vacancy in the House of Delegates was appointed to the seat yesterday. Tanya Thornton Shewell, who had never held elected office, was appointed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to replace former Del. Carmen Amedori, who resigned June 30 after accepting an appointment to the Maryland Parole Commission. Shewell will serve out the remainder of the term, nearly 2 1/2 years. Shewell, 60, had been unanimously recommended last month for the District 5A seat by the county's Republican Central Committee, and party officials had expected Ehrlich to approve the recommendation.

A Republican activist who was the local party's choice to fill a vacancy in the House of Delegates was appointed to the seat yesterday. Tanya Thornton Shewell, who had never held elected office, was appointed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to replace former Del. Carmen Amedori, who resigned June 30 after accepting an appointment to the Maryland Parole Commission. Shewell will serve out the remainder of the term, nearly 2 1/2 years. Shewell, 60, had been unanimously recommended last month for the District 5A seat by the county's Republican Central Committee, and party officials had expected Ehrlich to approve the recommendation.

Uh oh, another hate-filled hatchet job on a female Republican politician by Sun columnist Susan Reimer ("Please, no more flaky female candidates," Sept. 27). Actually, she spewed her venom on two such ladies, Christine O'Donnell and Sarah Palin, for whom she seems to have a visceral hatred. In a Sept. 2, 2008 column ("A woman — but why this woman?") Ms. Reimer characterized Ms. Palin as an "utterly unqualified woman," which is akin to what she wrote about Ms. O'Donnell in her recent column: "Please God. Not another ditz with baggage and a loopy belief system.

September 1920 was all about women in politics in Harford County. As a result of the recent passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, women were given the right to vote. The Aegis newspaper reported that the Republican women "will take their initial fling into local political matters when they convene in the Armory to elect a member of the Republican State Central Committee on September 14." The Aegis continued, "In order to get in the good graces of the ladies, our Republican leaders hit upon the plan of filling the existing vacancy with a lady, elected by popular vote.

Margaret S. Beall, the wife and mother of United States senators who knew every first lady from Eleanor Roosevelt to Hillary Rodham Clinton, died in her sleep Monday at Kensington Algonquin Assisted Living in Cumberland. She was 105. Born Margaret Schwarzenbach in Cumberland, she attended the old Allegany County Academy -- the county's first public school -- and Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pa. In 1926, she married J. Glenn Beall, a real estate and insurance broker who became Frostburg's tax collector and then served in the state Senate from 1930 to 1934.

Saying an unprecedented effort will be necessary to re-elect her husband, Maryland first lady Kendel S. Ehrlich called on Republican women to mount an aggressive grass-roots effort in 2006 similar to the one that brought President Bush victory in 2004. Ehrlich told members of the Maryland Federation of Republican Women that her husband, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., has accomplished a great deal in his first term but would need another four years to change state government. And for that, she said, he will need a stronger base of volunteers than the Maryland GOP has ever amassed.

A Republican activist who was the local party's choice to fill a vacancy in the House of Delegates was appointed to the seat yesterday. Tanya Thornton Shewell, who had never held elected office, was appointed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to replace former Del. Carmen Amedori, who resigned June 30 after accepting an appointment to the Maryland Parole Commission. Shewell will serve out the remainder of the term, nearly 2 1/2 years. Shewell, 60, had been unanimously recommended last month for the District 5A seat by the county's Republican Central Committee, and party officials had expected Ehrlich to approve the recommendation.

A Republican activist who was the local party's choice to fill a vacancy in the House of Delegates was appointed to the seat yesterday. Tanya Thornton Shewell, who had never held elected office, was appointed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to replace former Del. Carmen Amedori, who resigned June 30 after accepting an appointment to the Maryland Parole Commission. Shewell will serve out the remainder of the term, nearly 2 1/2 years. Shewell, 60, had been unanimously recommended last month for the District 5A seat by the county's Republican Central Committee, and party officials had expected Ehrlich to approve the recommendation.

Saying an unprecedented effort will be necessary to re-elect her husband, Maryland first lady Kendel S. Ehrlich called on Republican women to mount an aggressive grass-roots effort in 2006 similar to the one that brought President Bush victory in 2004. Ehrlich told members of the Maryland Federation of Republican Women that her husband, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., has accomplished a great deal in his first term but would need another four years to change state government. And for that, she said, he will need a stronger base of volunteers than the Maryland GOP has ever amassed.

The Carroll County Republican Central Committee has unanimously recommended a woman familiar with GOP issues to fill the recently vacated District 5A seat in the House of Delegates. Tanya Thornton Shewell, 60, has never held political office but has been active in the Republican Party and an officer in the county Republican Women's Club for many years. The committee interviewed eight prospective candidates in an open session Saturday evening, an event that drew about 40 people. Members deliberated for about an hour before choosing Shewell.

The Carroll County Republican Central Committee has unanimously recommended a woman familiar with GOP issues to fill the recently vacated District 5A seat in the House of Delegates. Tanya Thornton Shewell, 60, has never held political office but has been active in the Republican Party and an officer in the county Republican Women's Club for many years. The committee interviewed eight prospective candidates in an open session Saturday evening, an event that drew about 40 people. Members deliberated for about an hour before choosing Shewell.