The Maryland General Assembly’s annual 90-day legislative sprint is not even at the quarter turn and one can sense the frustration among Republican senators and delegates. The problem isn’t the parking, the customary restrictions on political fundraising or even the State House canteen’s too-short hours. The grievance within the GOP ranks is, as usual, about relevancy. Getting things done in the House and Senate comes down to numbers — the so-called law of the majority — and on this front the Republican Party is hopelessly outgunned with the Democrats holding 72% of the seats in both chambers as well as the governorship.

This isn’t a new circumstance, of course, but how especially disheartening for Maryland Republicans when the major focus of the day — balancing the budget and cutting spending — is practically their raison d’être. This vexation can at least partly explain the launch of the Maryland Freedom Caucus, the handful of conservative GOP lawmakers who decided it was useful to emulate the U.S. House Freedom Caucus.

As a political gimmick, last week’s official Caucus unveiling worked — especially when you can trot out U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, the 1st District Republican who happens to chair the Capitol Hill version. But is it a game-changer in Annapolis? Quite the contrary. It demonstrates only that these legislators crave attention and are unserious about getting anything meaningful done.

It’s one thing to be swing votes in a narrow Republican majority in Congress, it’s quite another to represent a so-small-as-to-risk-irrelevancy minority in Annapolis. Look at the election results in 2022 and 2024. In the first, Wes Moore handily defeated his Republican opponent, Del. Dan Cox, by a 2-to-1 margin. Last year, Vice President Kamala Harris bested Donald Trump by nearly as much (about 63% to 34%) as she lost nationwide. Even the U.S. Senate race featuring two-term former Gov. Larry Hogan, arguably this century’s most popular Republican state official, the GOP nominee lost by a hefty 356,568 votes, a 12-point margin. Going toe-to-toe with Democrats on a statewide basis just isn’t the route to political success in the Old Line State.

But, wait, that doesn’t mean Republicans can’t have serious impact in the State House including over matters of spending and taxation. Here’s the not-so-secret secret: Do your homework. Instead of looking for some face time on network television or making pronouncements that impress only like-minded right-wingers back home in your district (or on the MAGA fundraising circuit), why not become an expert on all things fiscal? It’s one thing to give a speech about “tax-and-spend Democrats,” it’s quite another to have knowledge of where there’s actual waste, fraud, abuse or simply ineffective programs.

That’s seldom easy, but lawmakers have an important ally available to them in the Department of Legislative Services, the nonpartisan staff dissecting policies and pending legislation. Just this month, the agency has released detailed reports on property taxes, local government finances, public benefits for children and families and revenue outlook for the counties. Gov. Wes Moore’s budget plan with its detailed blend of higher taxes and spending cuts will soon be getting the DLS scrutiny. Wouldn’t it be more useful to get into the weeds than to dismiss it all as “deception and gaslighting” by way of press release as the fledging Freedom Caucus has already done?

Wading into the details of the state budget — weighing the impact of a proposed 75-cent tax on online retail deliveries versus the hardship of further cuts to road repairs, for example — is harder work than declaring it all a Democratic plot to destroy the state’s economy. But it’s also meaningful.

The late John A. “Jack” Cade, the Republican leader of the state Senate from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, had a huge impact on budget deliberations not because of his politics but because of his knowledge (although his intimidating girth and basso pro-fundo didn’t hurt). Today, everything from a portion of Interstate 97 (the Senator John A. Cade Memorial Highway) to the state education funding formula and a building at Anne Arundel Community College (Cade Center for Fine Arts) is named after him. That’s what genuine expertise gets you.

There are still serious Republican in the legislature, of course. We suspect Del. Jason C. Buckel, an Allegany Republican on House Ways and Means, and Upper Eastern Shore Republican Stephen S. Hershey Jr., the Senate’s minority leader and member of the Senate Finance Committee, will offer useful guidance. Other leading GOP voices on state finances include Del. Jefferson L. Ghrist, who also hails from the Upper Shore, and Sen. Paul Corderman who represents Frederick and Washington counties.

We look forward to reasoned debate as the state grapples with a projected $3 billion deficit. Good ideas are seldom, if ever, the domain of one political party.