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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

GOP infighting benefits Democrats

Ellis is out. Castor is in. Weber might stay in. Matthews is in. Castor wants to run with Weber but may be forced to team up with Matthews even though he can't stand the guy. No one cares if Harper is in or out. And nobody knows who Govberg is. Got all that?

The plot twists from ABC’s "Lost" are easier to follow than who will run on the Republican ticket for Montgomery County commissioner.

A civil war has been brewing for months inside Montgomery County Republican circles.

An uneasy truce is expected Wednesday, the last day for candidates to withdraw from the May 15 primary ballot.

Incumbent GOP Commissioner Thomas J. Ellis officially dropped his re-election bid Tuesday. Very reluctantly. More like kicking and screaming.

Score one for Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr.

Castor, the best known and most respected political figure in Montgomery County, entered the commissioners' race to prevent Ellis from gaining one of two GOP nominations. Castor also wanted to bump incumbent Jim Matthews off the ticket because of Matthews' close ties with county GOP boss Ken Davis.

That didn't happen at last week's Montgomery County Republican Committee endorsement meeting. More than 750 of the 800 county delegates cast ballots, settling on Castor and Matthews as the party's endorsed candidates. Castor wanted to run with former state Rep. Melissa Murphy Weber. Matthews wanted to run with Ellis, his partner on the commissioners' board over the past four years.

Castor has been saying for months that the GOP would lose majority control of the three-member commissioners' board if Ellis and Matthews were the party's nominees. The GOP delegates appear to have forced a shotgun wedding between Castor and Matthews.

Castor says he's in the race to stay and win though the November general election, regardless of who the other GOP candidate will be. Murphy Weber will have to decide by the close of business Wednesday whether to withdraw her name from the primary ballot. If she stays in the race, it will get nasty with Castor and Murphy Weber trying to bump off Matthews.

Castor's other goal is to sever a $7,500-a-month lobbying contract a firm connected to Montgomery County GOP Chairman Ken Davis has with the county commissioners. Castor believes it's unethical for a political boss to be awarded taxpayer dollars after his hand-picked candidates got into office. It happens all the time, but it still doesn't make it right.

"No one can convince me that paying taxpayer dollars to the firm of the party chairman each month is not unethical," Castor said in an e-mail to supporters. "Running with Jim (Matthews) paints me with that brush. The contract is wrong, should never have been agreed to and should have been repudiated as soon as Davis became chairman (one month after the award of the contract)."

The other GOP candidates, state Rep. Catherine "Kate" Harper and Lower Merion School Board President Jill Govberg, were not serious contenders for the party's nominations and are expected to drop out Wednesday.

While the Republicans are beating themselves up, the two Democratic candidates, incumbent Commissioner Ruth Damkser and former Congressman Joe Hoeffel, are sitting back and enjoying the GOP battle royal. They believe a divided Republican Party will implode come November, opening the door for Democrats to take control of the commissioners' board in one of the most heavily Republican counties in Pennsylvania.

In the interest of party unity, Ellis wants everyone to withdraw and get behind a Castor-Matthews ticket.

"Our party faces a formidable challenge in November from Democratic incumbent Ruth Damsker and her running mate Joe Hoeffel," Ellis said in a statement. "The only way for us to retain control of the courthouse and continue the Republican tradition of good government, lower taxes, open space conservation and public safety is to have a UNIFIED Republican ticket going into the fall campaign."

The real villain here is Ken Davis.

Davis has been a complete flop as county chairman, failing to bring various factions of the party together and allowing Democrats to make significant inroads in voter registration and in winning statewide and national elections. Montgomery County, once a guaranteed win for the GOP, has leaned Democratic in recent elections, all under Davis' watch.

Davis is the main cause of dissension in the Montgomery County Republican Party. His unwillingness to share power and insistence on hand-picking candidates (bypassing the voters) could end up costing the party control of county government for the first time in 100 years.

Regardless of the outcome of the commissioners' race, Davis should step down as party chairman.

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