MOVING company owner John M. Kane's first task as chairman of the state Republican party will be to revise the GOP's 10-year strategic plan, which is suddenly obsolete.
The optimistic blueprint of how to rebuild a perpetual minority party was the handiwork of former chairman and now Lt. Gov.-elect Michael S. Steele.
It was Steele's experience in creating the document that the party used to justify the $5,000-a-month consulting fee it began paying him immediately after Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. picked him as a running mate.
But it turns out that his predictions were off.
His plan called for the Republican Party to pick up four seats in the House of Delegates in this month's elections. In fact, eight members were added.
Steele also anticipated that Republicans would win the governorship. But not until 2006.
"I don't want to [anger] Bob, but at the time we drafted it, we didn't have him as a candidate," said party Executive Director Paul Ellington. "We exceeded our wildest expectations."
Kane is at the top of an executive board slate blessed by Ehrlich and Steele and presented Saturday to county Republican chairmen. The slate will be formally ratified at the party's Dec. 7 convention.
Other members include: Louis M. Pope, Howard County, 1st vice chairman; Charles Johnson, Allegany County, 2nd vice chairman; Maria Pena-Faustino, Montgomery County, 3rd vice chairman; Steven L. Wiseman, Harford County, treasurer; and Sharon Maenner Carrick, Queen Anne's County, treasurer.
Fleischmann leaves a post-election message
Circulating though electronic mail boxes in Maryland is a post-election message from Alan H. Fleischmann, who held the title "chief executive" of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's campaign for governor, to staffers who toiled on the campaign.
Many of them took time off from their state jobs to work on the race, hoping to be rewarded with better positions in a Townsend administration.
"We fought a good fight to elect an extraordinary woman who deserved not only to be our leader, but also to be the leader of our state. We assembled an extraordinary team. Unfortunately, the winds for change were just too great," the e-mail says.
"After eight wonderful years serving as chief of staff to Kathleen, I can only say that I am proud - so very proud of her and of each of you on this team. So proud of all the work and successful accomplishments this team has achieved. Kathleen has a wonderfully bright future ahead of her, as do all of you. To our staff: I know a lot of you are probably feeling a bit uneasy about your future right now. But I want you to know that I will be here to help each one of you in the days and weeks ahead. As we always do, we will figure the future out together."
But Fleischmann wasn't around last week when members of Townsend's campaign and office staff met to tie up loose ends and mull over what lies ahead.
He participated in the staff meeting through a conference call from Florida, where he was vacationing with Townsend and her family.
Young reporters see Republicans in new light
"Start 'em young" is evidently the post-election motto of the Maryland Republican Party. At a reception for Steele last week at a Baltimore bar and restaurant, the teeming crowd was parted to allow a handful of young students to sit down with the lieutenant governor-elect.
The students work for a kids' newspaper, and were there to report on Steele. Nikiea Redmond, 17, didn't mince words: Why are you, a black person, a Republican? she wanted to know.
"I'm very proud to be a black Republican," he said, adding, "I don't know if you know, but there were a lot of blacks at one time who voted Republican." Presumably referring to Abraham Lincoln, Steele went on to tell them that the GOP had much to do with securing civil rights protections for blacks.
The pitch seemed to work. Redmond, a senior at Catholic High School of Baltimore, said that although almost everyone she knows is a Democrat, she is now interested in becoming a Republican. "The Democrats have had a lot of time to do good things for Baltimore, and it hasn't happened," she said.
Her sister, Kelli Redmond-Bagby, 11, a seventh-grader at Roland Park Middle School, agreed. "I would want to be a Republican, too," she said.
Possible alcohol tax rise draws nervous laughter
As the Commission on Maryland's Fiscal Structure began discussing ways to balance the state's nearly $1.8 billion budget shortfall, which potential tax increase seemed to cause the most nervous laughter?
An increase in the alcohol tax. Maryland's liquor tax hasn't been increased since 1955, and the taxes on beer and wine have been unchanged since 1972.
By contrast, lawmakers have been far less reluctant to increase the "sin tax" on cigarettes in recent years as they've sought to discourage smoking and balance the budget.
What's the explanation? "Don't tax anything you use," Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, a Charles County Democrat who serves on the commission, said jokingly.
Sun staff writer Howard Libit contributed to this column.