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GOP Senate leadership faces a fight

Pipkin taking on Stoltzfus; Brinkley targets Harris

Friday, Nov. 4, 2005

ANNAPOLIS — Senate Republicans are girding for a showdown over who will lead the 14-member caucus heading into an election year.

For the past week, senators have been maneuvering behind the scenes and dividing into camps in preparation for Tuesday’s caucus vote.

Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus and Minority Whip Andrew P. Harris are being challenged by E.J. Pipkin and David R. Brinkley, respectively.

‘‘I feel very strongly that this would be a great opportunity to talk about the direction of the caucus,” said Pipkin (Dist. 36) of Stevensville.

Stoltzfus (Dist. 38) of Westover, who has been leader since 2001, said he is running for leader and has the votes to retain the post.

He refused to speculate on the motivations of the senators challenging him and Harris or comment on whether Pipkin is trying to oust him based on rumors that Stoltzfus will not stand for re-election next year.

Larry E. Haines (Dist. 5) of Westminster and Allan H. Kittleman (Dist. 9) of West Friendship said they were shocked that the dissension in the caucus had been leaked to reporters.

Haines said he supports Stoltzfus as minority leader.

‘‘He has the proper temperament to lead the caucus,” Haines said, declining to say whom he would support for whip.

Kittleman declined to comment.

Pipkin’s bid for leader was sparked last weekend after word leaked out that Brinkley (Dist. 4) of New Market was gearing up to challenge Harris (Dist. 7) of Cockeysville.

‘‘If we’re going to have a leadership discussion, we’re going to have it in its entirety,” Pipkin said.

Brinkley is viewed as a more congenial alternative to Harris, an aggressive partisan with a reputation for bomb-throwing. Brinkley, a former member of the House who sits on the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, has not had the high-profile disputes with the Democratic majority that Harris has.

Harris, however, is one of the Senate’s most prolific fund-raisers and — along with Alexander X. Mooney (R-Dist. 3) of Urbana — a leading conservative voice on divisive issues such as abortion, stem cell research and tax policy. Mooney and Harris are the leaders of the Senate Republican slate committee, the GOP’s alternative to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.’s fund-raising apparatus that funnels campaign money to Democratic incumbents.

Harris would not talk about Brinkley but expressed confidence that he will keep his leadership post.

‘‘I would hope that senators would realize that having me in the whip position will help in getting a five-seat pickup in the Senate,” he said. ‘‘I’m pretty convinced that as I begin to speak and remind senators why they elected me, they will realize that we don’t need to make a change at the whip level.”

Brinkley was unavailable for comment, but sources inside and outside the GOP caucus said he is running for whip.

Unlike the practice in the House, where candidates for leader and whip run as a team, Brinkley and Pipkin are running separately with different supporters. Brinkley seems aligned with Stoltzfus while Pipkin and Harris seem to be working in tandem, Republican senators say.

‘‘I have worked well with Senator Harris in the past and I feel strongly that we can work well with the governor and provide good leadership for the caucus,” said Pipkin, who like Mooney and Harris is known for his unwillingness to dodge a fight.

Pipkin and Harris are also known to show more independence from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. as opposed to Stoltzfus and Brinkley.

‘‘Pipkin and others think we need to change leadership,” Mooney said.

Paul E. Schurick, Ehrlich’s communications director, said he was aware of the maneuvering in the Senate GOP caucus, but stressed that the administration is not involved.

According to GOP caucus sources, the dissatisfaction with Stoltzfus dates from the 2005 legislative session, when Republicans lined up support to legalize slot machine gambling while objecting to a bill that would protect Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone.

The GOP sees Lamone as a threat, so three slots supporters — Pipkin, Kittleman and Harris — chose to withhold their votes on this year’s slots bill to protest the Lamone bill.

As the Senate president called for the vote, legislators looked up at the tote board that shows the green ‘‘yea” votes and red ‘‘nay” votes. Without Pipkin, Kittleman and Harris, slots had only 23 votes, one shy of the majority needed.

As the seconds dragged on, Stoltzfus, who opposes slots for religious reasons, pressed green. The holdouts took that to mean that Stoltzfus had changed his vote to support the governor. They refused to let Stoltzfus switch and cast their own green votes. Before the final count was taken, Stoltzfus hit the red button. Slots passed with 26 votes.

Stoltzfus later said the green-red flip was a mistake, but some GOP senators said they could not trust the minority leader.

Stoltzfus has fought off attempts to oust him before, and several Republicans said this week that they were surprised that there was going to be a leadership battle leading up to an election-year session.

‘‘All I can say is the discussion began and we’re going to continue that discussion,” Pipkin said.