As ranks dwindle, conservative Democrats question future

Friday, Jan. 19, 2007

Dels. John F. Wood Jr. and Kevin Kelly hail from opposite corners of the state, but politically, they are two of a kind. Many in Annapolis regard them as the only conservative Democrats remaining in a legislature once ruled by right-of-center Democrats.

‘‘I don’t think we are seeing a completely well-rounded approach to the political spectrum,” said Van T. Mitchell, a former Charles County delegate who was considered a conservative Democrat before he took a job with the Ehrlich administration in 2004.

Last week, Southern Maryland lawmakers replaced Wood (D-St. Mary’s, Charles) with Del. Sally Y. Jameson (D-Charles) as their delegation chief. Legislators said they usually rotate the chairmanship among delegates from Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties, but one lawmaker called it the latest effort to mute conservative Democrats like Wood.

‘‘It’s becoming increasingly difficult in Annapolis to exist as a conservative Democrat and still maintain a position of authority,” said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Calvert, St. Mary’s). ‘‘The Democratic Party in the legislature used to be replete with conservative Democrats. In fact, they used to be the majority. Those days are obviously over.”

So much so that Kelly (D-Allegany) has taken to calling Wood a brontosaurus and himself as a tyrannosaurus — part of a dying breed of legislators.

‘‘The Democratic Party has left its Western Maryland, blue-collar base,” Kelly said. ‘‘This is a very liberal and extremely blue state.”

Both Wood and Kelly have refused to shed their conservative image to curry favor within their party. Doing so could have led to their defeat in past elections, they said, because their constituents are largely fiscally conservative and socially moderate.

‘‘The Democratic Party is moving to the left,” Wood said. ‘‘I can’t move to the left. I can’t support many of their issues.”

Both coasted to re-election victories in November. Wood faced a challenge in the Democratic primary; Kelly did not.

When Wood and Kelly came to the House 20 years ago, conservative Democrats were aplenty. There was House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell Jr. from the Eastern Shore and his successor, Casper R. Taylor Jr. from Western Maryland, as well as future state treasurer Richard N. Dixon, who represented Republican-rich Carroll County.

Even Southern Maryland, which was once ground zero for conservative Democrats, is turning a darker shade of blue. Now, O’Donnell is the only remaining Republican in the delegation, and Democrats are more moderate.

‘‘There has been a sea change, and you saw it [in this past election],” said Veterans Affairs Secretary George W. Owings III, a former House majority whip from Calvert County. He said the philosophical shift occurred during governor Parris N. Glendening’s two terms, when more liberal issues were pushed.

‘‘You could see how the state was moving away from its traditional values,” Owings (D) said.

But Wood and Kelly (save for Kelly’s voter-encouraged respite from Annapolis from 1995 to 1999) have stood the test of time.

‘‘I’ve been a Democrat for 70 years, and I’ll die a Democrat,” Wood said, ‘‘but I’m a moderate-to-conservative Democrat, and maybe that’s the Democrat of yesteryear.”

Politics in Maryland have become more polarized in general, meaning there are fewer conservative Democrats and fewer liberal Republicans, said Zach P. Messitte, a St. Mary’s College of Maryland political science professor.

‘‘There used to be a liberal Republican group from Montgomery and Charles counties and other places that sort of provided that buffer,” he said.

Since 1999, Montgomery County has lost eight GOP state legislators to election, gubernatorial appointments or a change in party affiliation. The county’s only incumbent Republican, longtime Del. Jean B. Cryor, was defeated in November by a first-time Democratic candidate.

The gap between Democratic and Republican ideologies has widened in recent years, Messitte said.

Although conservatives have fallen by the wayside in recent years, Wood has no intentions of becoming more liberal.

‘‘What’s the saying? You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” he said. ‘‘I can’t learn that new trick.”

E-mail Alan Brody at abrody@somdnews.com.