Like Kryptonite To Stupid
Bob Ehrlich, Maryland’s outgoing governor (yay!), shows the kind of moxy that got his butt kicked this fall.
Rather than conduct a series of one-on-one interviews, Ehrlich’s press office invited reporters to dine on seafood stew over rice — but only print journalists from newspapers who had endorsed his re-election, which was just about all of them except for The Sun.
Yet another Republican runs afoul of the law.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich returned more than $540,000 in political contributions to the Republican Party after state elections officials discovered that a federal account was used to funnel funds to his re-election campaign.
A letter from the State Board of Elections, obtained by The Sun newspaper, said use of the federal account to pay for the governor’s re-election effort allowed Ehrlich to receive large sums of in-kind contributions from the state party by bypassing the $4,000 donation cap set by state law.
Montgomery County, Maryland, where I was born and where I currently live is integral to Democratic success in Maryland for the upcoming election. Martin O’Malley and the rest of the Maryland Dems were out in force Sunday to make that happen.
Yesterday’s rally — held before several hundred cheering and sign-waving supporters — was part of an effort to mobilize the Democratic base and to reach out to Democratic voters who do not normally vote in non-presidential election years. O’Malley was joined by all of the statewide candidates, including Cardin, as well as a large roster of county Democrats.
Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, appearing with O’Malley for the first time since he dropped out of the Democratic primary for governor in June citing depression, was given a rousing welcome. In his remarks, Duncan criticized a new television ad for Ehrlich that includes disparaging remarks the county executive made about O’Malley before dropping out of the race.
Duncan called the ad an attempt to “mislead the public” into believing he supported Ehrlich. “If they got quotes from me about Ehrlich, you couldn’t print them,” Duncan added.
And this statement from O’Malley sort of says it all:
O’Malley portrayed the governor yesterday as out of touch with the Montgomery electorate, hammering Ehrlich for saying two years ago that multiculturalism is “bunk.”
“Anybody who doesn’t think multiculturalism is good for America, come to Montgomery County,” O’Malley said.
And this bit is just hilarious:
His comments came at an event where O’Malley won the endorsements of two former leaders of Democrats for Ehrlich, a group formed in 2002 to support the then-congressman.
“I am ashamed, embarrassed and feel very foolish for what I did,” said Wayne Frazier, the group’s former chairman.
Okay, fine. Just don’t do it again.
I’m as nervous as they come about the national results of the upcoming election, but I have frankly found the prognostications about Maryland’s gubernatorial and senatorial elections to be just this side of laughable when they err in favor of the Republican ticket. It’s cancer to be a Republican in America right now, much less in a deep-sea blue state like Maryland.
Just last night I took a cab in Silver Spring. The cab driver struck up a conversation with me about the election, he was a recent immigrant from Africa and precisely the kind of guy that is supposed to be enthralled by Michael Steele and his ilk. And yet, this working class guy is telling me that he’s working towards his citizenship and he wants me to vote for Ben Cardin and Martin O’Malley.
The Washington Post has polled Maryland, and the outlook looks like hell for the GOP in The Free State.
A strong Democratic tide in Maryland threatens to swamp Republican
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s reelection bid and bolsters the party’s
efforts to retain control of an important U.S. Senate seat, according
to a new Washington Post poll.Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley
(D) held a 10 percentage point lead over Ehrlich, and Democratic Senate
nominee Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin had a similar advantage over Republican
Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele among likely voters in the Post poll, which
was conducted last Sunday through Thursday. The leads were well beyond
the survey’s three percentage point margin of error.The poll of 1,000 voters showed that the state’s overwhelmingly
Democratic electorate is highly disturbed about national issues –
extremely critical of President Bush, more upset about the war in Iraq
than voters in the rest of the country and eager to shift power in
Washington from the Republican Party.
This is the kind of voter that gives the Steele campaign heartburn:
But Kenneth Kirby, 52, a former airline worker from Annapolis who is black, said he supports Cardin because he’s a loyal Democrat. He said he stopped considering Steele “after I learned he was, essentially, a Bush appointee.”
And the Bush connection doesn’t help Ehrlich either:
Henry Evans, 60, a postal carrier from Prince George’s County, said he has no problem with the way Ehrlich has done his job but is backing O’Malley. “My reason is that Governor Ehrlich has supported the president and what’s going on in Iraq,” Evans said. “I’m against that.”
We saw this in the primaries, where the Democratic base in Maryland was clearly energized and in a voting mood - even old line Democrats got thrown out in the primaries. The story has clearly unnerved Hugh Hewitt, the GOP’s top blogosphere cheerleader (Hewitt and the right once again take the approach that when the media reports facts that unfavorably reflect on Republicans, the Republicans aren’t the problem - the facts are. The facts have a liberal bias.), but I belive it represents the "ground truth" here in Maryland of Democrats on a roll. Witness Bob Ehrlich’s numbers. He doesn’t have very high negatives, but regardless has not led in a single poll since January. Even after the Republican Governor’s Association came in here and trashed Baltimore (I find it quite distasteful that our sitting governor sees nothing wrong with himself and outside groups coming in and trashing the city in our state with the highest population) and Mr. O’Malley’s improvements there - it hasn’t put a dent in the numbers. Why?
Maryland is tired of Republicans, and come election day we’re going to kick them out of the governorship and put Ben Cardin in the U.S. Senate.
Straight Ticket, Maryland!
Ben Cardin for Senate.
Martin O’Malley for Governor.
Peter Franchot for Comptroller.
Doug Gansler for Attorney General.
House
District 1: Jim Corwin
District 2: Dutch Ruppersberger
District 3: John Sarbanes
District 4: Al Wynn
District 5: Steny Hoyer
District 6: Andrew Duck
District 7: Elijah Cummings
District 8: Chris Van Hollen
FOLLOW THE MONEY: Tradesports currently shows a Cardin win at 78% likelihood and an 85% chance of O’Malley winning. (and as I’ve been following, the likelihood of the GOP retaining House control is at 34%)
My thoughts on the debate’s partisan points aside (I liked O’Malley’s talk about “The Two Bob Ehrlichs - the one in election years, and the ones when he’s been governing”), is that I love living in a blue state. When we have gubernatorial elections, they are actually about the issues regular Marylanders are dealing with every day - crime, health care, education, utilities. We’re not having an election about killing the babies or putting up Christmas displays. We’re having an election about adult issues.
I did find Ehrlich’s debate style kind of odd. He kept a really messy desk and used his hands a lot as he rocked around, a quite defensive posture for a sitting governor. O’Malley’s was more a traditional debate style with him looking head on to the cameras.
And now he’s in trouble for it.
Maryland election officials have referred to a state prosecutor a complaint about a fundraising solicitation from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. that included real dollar bills, saying the matter warrants further investigation into whether he violated election laws.
In a mailing last week, Ehrlich (R) wrote that he had “taken the extraordinary step of sending . . . a real dollar bill” and asked potential donors to return it along with a contribution of $25 or more for his reelection campaign.
Elections officials said the tactic raises two potential problems. In Maryland, it is illegal to give people money to garner their vote. And the law requires campaign expenditures to be made by check. Under the law, the dollar bills could be construed as cash expenditures.
Big bucks developer to MD governor Bob Ehrlich: I’ll scratch your back, then you can scratch mine.
The $4,000 checks started arriving in Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s reelection campaign treasury Jan. 2 from such obscure corporations as Freestate Owner LLC, Muirkirk, Chase Limited and President Street Associates.
By Jan. 3, there were seven of the checks, each from a company directly linked to developer Kingdon Gould III, a descendant of railroad barons who is one of Maryland’s most prolific political donors and a vigorous booster for the intercounty connector.
That same day, Ehrlich’s transportation secretary signed off on a final study of the controversial highway, an 18-mile ribbon of asphalt that would extend east from Rockville to the gravel pits where Gould plans a massive commercial and residential development called Konterra.
It’s sad that the rest of us in Maryland don’t have $4,000 checks to wave under the nose of the governor to get his attention.
Having emerged successfully from the September 12 Democratic primary, Ben Cardin now leads Lt. Gov. Michael Steele 50% to 43% in the race for Maryland’s Senate seat. Cardin was ahead 47% to 42% over Steele in the last poll leading up to the primary.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley maintains his seven-point advantage over Gov. Bob Ehrlich, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports election survey. O’Malley is leading incumbent Ehrlich 49% to 42% Both candidates dropped a point since August’s survey, but the gap remains unchanged.
Oliver Willis
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