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So much for gratitude.

That's how the chairman of the Frederick County Republican Central Committee said he feels about Del. Richard B. Weldon Jr.'s departure from the party.

"We feel like the party has been supportive and helpful," said Michael Hough, chairman of the Republican Central Committee. "The central committee appointed him commissioner. … We're all team players, and it feels like somebody quit. It's disappointing."

Hough's comment came Wednesday, the day after Weldon announced that he has left the Republican Party to become unaffiliated.

The Frederick County Republican Central Committee appointed Weldon to fill the seat of Commissioner Ilona Hogan, who resigned in 2001 to take a job at Bechtel. Weldon served as a Frederick County commissioner until 2002, when he was elected to the Maryland General Assembly.

Weldon, of Brunswick and a representative to District 3B, made his announcement Tuesday in the courtyard of Frederick City Hall. Weldon told a small crowd that he made the decision a long time ago because of the "broken culture in Annapolis."

It was not because of one person or incident, he stressed. "I will fight with all my energy to show that there is a better way," he said. "I have two more years to work [in the General Assembly], and I feel this is the best way I can do my work."

Hough said Weldon's departure feels like a "stab in the back to the central committee" because its members elevated Weldon to public office seven years ago.

Weldon, chairman of the Frederick County Delegation to the Maryland General Assembly, discounted Hough's comments, saying he was not on the central committee that appointed him commissioner.

"Mr. Hough had nothing to do with committee's decision to appoint me to the county commissioners," Weldon said. "Nor do any current members of the central committee. I'm not sure that [argument] has any credibility."

Weldon said the Republican Central Committee's partisan nature is part of the reason he left the party.

Del. Paul Stull (R-Dist. 4A) of Walkersville said he is sorry to see Weldon leave the party, but their friendship will remain intact. "Rick and I are the best of friends," Stull said. "He was a great asset to the party, but this has no bearing on how I feel about him. That hasn't changed one iota."

In February, Weldon announced he would not seek re-election when his term ends in 2010. He said he would focus the next two years on "ideas instead of ideology," and would fight against the predominant thinking of both political parties that it is more important to elect more Republicans or Democrats rather than do what is best for constituents.

Weldon said he has voted against his personal beliefs to "toe the party line," and his decision to desert the Republican Party, to which he has belonged since he was 18 years old, "reflects my personal frustration on a seriously flawed process."

In April, Weldon accepted a $77,000 position as president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Frederick County. On his second day as CEO of the United Way, Weldon told The Gazette that despite his new job, he would not quit his position as a state delegate to the Maryland General Assembly.

"I intend to do both jobs unless I get to the level where it is a conflict of trying to do both. Then I will resolve that conflict," he said on April 8.

Weldon, 49, stressed then that he made a "commitment" to Frederick County voters to finish his term, and that he intended to keep that promise.

Before accepting the position at the United Way, Weldon asked the chief ethics council of the General Assembly about conflicts with his legislative duties. The council ruled that Weldon could not solicit funding for the United Way and must recuse himself from votes providing grants to nonprofit agencies.

District 3B has almost 40,000 residents of western Frederick County, including the City of Brunswick.

Weldon was Brunswick's city administrator from 1994 to 1999 then became chief operations officer for the City of Frederick until 2001. In July of that year, he was appointed to the Frederick Board of County Commissioners, where he served until 2002.

He was elected to his first term in the Maryland House of Delegates in late 2002 and was sworn in on Jan. 8, 2003.