A year ago, the Maryland Republican Party teetered on the edge of irrelevance: Out of the governor's mansion, down to a single seat in the congressional delegation, tangled in a dispute between the chairman and GOP state lawmakers, and on the brink of bankruptcy.
But with a new leader in place, money in the bank, a big name at the top of the this year's election ticket and a national mood opposing incumbents, the party appears to have turned a corner.
"We've come a long way, baby," said Chairwoman Audrey Scott, elected last fall to serve the final year of predecessor James Pelura's four-year term. "Everything is so positive."
Under Scott, who has been active in Maryland Republican politics for 40 years, the organization has been raising tens of thousands of dollars a month — enough to steadily repay former Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele a loan that the State Board of Elections said was inappropriate and, party officials say, still bank money for state and local races. The party appears to have raised $60,000 in April alone.
That's after starting the year with $142 in the bank. Last week, party officials say, the GOP returned to solvency after three years in the red.
Because the next campaign finance reports are not due until August, there's no way to assess the Republicans' spending so far this year. But the elections board's monitoring of the Steele repayments offers a month-to-month public peek of its fundraising.
Scott's nine-stop spring rally across the state drew praise as evidence the party leaders are working hard. In January, the party hired fundraiser Kimberly Jorns, who worked for Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential bid.
Republicans say their efforts are paying off. The Lincoln Day dinner this spring was oversold, party officials say, and ticket sales for next week's Red, White and Blue dinner have outpaced expectations.
The party has coalesced behind former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in his rematch with Gov. Martin O'Malley, the Democrat who ousted him four years ago, and is eyeing legislative seats in a year that seems to favor Republicans nationally. And GOP state Sen. Andrew P. Harris is running strong against freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil, the Democrat who wrested the House seat long held by Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest from the party two years ago.
The Republicans elected Scott at their convention last November. Her acceptance speech, she said, was "like an altar calling — people were just passing up money."
They raised $4,000 that day, she says. Since then, party spokesman Ryan Mahoney says, they have raised more money each month.
Still, the GOP remains the clear minority party in this blue state, where more than twice as many voters are registered as Democrats than Republicans, and there are two Democrats in the General Assembly for every Republican. The Maryland Democratic Party reported close to $220,000 cash on hand in January, when the last reports were made public, and leaders say they have seen strong fundraising this spring.
"We're doing great," said Democratic Party spokesman Isaac Salazar. He said the party sold 900 tickets to its annual dinner last month to raise a record $450,000.
"We're prepared today to have the support Democrats needs to hit the ground running," Salazar said.
Scott says the Republicans are raising enough money to compete aggressively in November.
Party loyalists say Scott has been an exceptional unifier, after the tumultuous tenure of Pelura, whose public criticisms of Republicans prompted some lawmakers to stop speaking to him. Pelura resigned last fall, months after a vote of no confidence.
Pelura said he has "no regrets" about how he ran the party. "I felt it should be the standard bearer of the Republican philosophy," he said. "I had a heck of a lot of supporters, but the detractors tended to be very vocal."
Senate Republican Leader Allan H. Kittleman and House Republican Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell have both criticized Pelura's turn as chairman.
"After three long years of storminess and harsh winters in our party, our new leadership is a breath of fresh air," O'Donnell said. "It feels like springtime."
One of the party's priorities, leaders say, has been to pay down its $75,000 debt to Steele, the former lieutenant governor who now chairs the Republican National Committee. In 2007, Steele used money in his dormant state campaign account to pay lawyers' fees that dated to his tenure as Maryland party chairman at the beginning of the decade.
Under Steele, the party filed a lawsuit in 2002 to block a Democratic redistricting plan in the Maryland Court of Appeals. The action failed, and the legal bills went unpaid for years.
The State Board of Elections objected to the loan. Under an agreement reached in September, the party pays either $2,000 per month or 15 percent of its monthly revenue, minus $15,000 for expenses — whichever is higher — to Steele. Jared DeMarinis, director of the division of candidacy and campaign finance, says the party has been in compliance every month.
The party has repaid about $35,000, DeMarinis says, including a $7,000 payment on the April income. The elections panel has a rare month-to-month peek at the Republicans' finances because of the agreement over the Steele repayment. A more comprehensive look at the party's finances, along with those of the Democrats and individual candidates, will be available when reports are filed in August.
By April, Mahoney says, the party had exceeded its fundraising total from all of last year. He says more than 40 percent of the donors this year are new.
Not every Republican is on board. Brian Murphy, a Smith Island businessman challenging Ehrlich for the party nomination for governor, has criticized the party for freezing him out of events and money. In a statement last month, Murphy called the party "tone deaf" and elitist" for backing Ehrlich at a time when the mood of the country is "anti-incumbent."
One of the chief Murphy backers: Jim Pelura. The former chairman has been distributing press releases for the young Republican, as an unpaid volunteer.