By Amy Waychoff

The Maryland House and Senate are busy finalizing the budget (with an April 1 deadline), and the bottom line for Maryland consumers is that taxes, fees, and tolls will dramatically increase. Under the proposed budget (SB 360 and SB 362), revenues of $576 million will be generated in FY 2025 by, among other means,

• raising vehicle registration fees
• increasing the vehicle excise tax
• assessing fees for Uber and Lyft
• collecting an annual registration surcharge from owners of zero-emission and hybrid vehicles

After passing both houses, but with amendments, the budget bills are back in the Senate, so please email your Maryland state senators in opposition to the budget. (If you would like to email all the senators, please email Amy Waychoff, [email protected], for a complete list.)

Fitzgerald Mofor of Montgomery County is running for a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education. Born and raised in MoCo, he is the product of Sherwood High School, graduating in 2013. After graduating, Mr. Mofor continued with his education, earning a double major in General Studies and Sociology, and also received a Masters from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He now returns home with a clear goal: education reform.

This afternoon, scrolling through Twitter/X while waiting for my takeout order to be ready, I stumbled across a post from Mr. Mofor talking about MCPS. The post was a fiery declaration that the MCPS that MoCo residents used to be so proud of is no more. Indeed, Mofor says, “[o]ur school system has become a perpetual embarrassment, and it’s you, the taxpayer, who will foot the bill for the incompetence.”^[1]

GOP Chair Dennis Melby addresses the Potomac Women's Republican Club at their St. Patrick's Day event, Leprechauns and Patriots, last week at Quincy's in Park Potomac

Members of the Rural Women's Republican Club met last week at MCGOP Headquarters in Rockville.

La Mex restaurant in Gaithersburg hosted the regular monthly meeting of the Mid-County Muster of Republicans in the mid MoCo area. It was a packed house and excellent food.

By Greg Decker

I think I can speak for most if not all of us when I say that we hate the current system of unlimited use of mail-in ballots. We hate it because we know that the use of mail-in ballots increases the opportunity for fraud and we assume that our opposition promotes this system precisely for that reason.

We fought against it and tried to curtail it. We hated it so badly that we have encouraged our voters to avoid it’s use entirely!

So, why are we embracing it now?

Short answer, because the Dems are beating us badly by using it and the simple truth is that the opportunity for fraud exists regardless of whether or not we Republicans choose to use it!

You must play by the rules as they are, not as you wish them to be.  Know the rules and adjust your campaign plan accordingly.  Sooner rather than later.  Like…yesterday.

Volunteers door knock for signatures on the 2T petition to limit our MC County Executive's term to the same as the US President and the MD Governor. If you'd like to volunteer sign up HERE.

Por informacion llame Leo Salazar al 301-448-6936

2024 is a critical year for our Country, our State and our County. Come join hundreds of your neighbors and friends at our Republican Spring Convention in Gaithersburg. We need to take back the White House, the Senate and drastically increase our majority in the House of Representatives. Let's find out how. 

Meet the Republican candidates for House and Senate. Listen to them, talk to them and choose the one you want to vote for in the May Primary. Listen to the views of our keynote speaker, Sebastian Gorka - with stories of his service at the White House, his days as an immigrant American, and his viewpoints he shares on the media and television.

Participate in our Congressional forum for candidates in Congressional District 6, which most pundits say is very winnable for a great Republican Congressmember. We've invited candidates for Board of Education, Judge, even GOP Convention delegates, all available to get to know before you cast your vote.

With Montgomery County unfortunately being an epicenter of serious crimes by illegal immigrants - without the help of our County government in working with ICE, hear from our Luncheon Speaker, former ICE Director Tom Homan. He'll share his opinions on solutions and how we got into this mess to begin with. MoCo is in the news for all the wrong reasons - he'll tell us how to right the boat.

Tickets are now on sale. We've made the convention affordable, buy your tickets now. Luncheon tickets are more limited, but the talk will be well worthwhile. And if you can - please consider a sponsorship. A little extra makes you a Patriot Sponsor to help the GOP print the sample ballots needed for polling places on election day.

I look forward to seeing you there,

Dennis Melby

MCGOP Chairman

-If you need more info, write to me at [email protected]