Duncan drops out

And then there was one.

The governor’s race this fall became very much set this afternoon as Democrat candidate Doug Duncan dropped out. The announcement shocked the Free State political scene, particularly as Duncan revealed he’s suffering from clinical depression, which runs in his family. The Montgomery County Executive was gaining on Baltimore mayor Martin O’Malley in polls among Democrats with an aggressive attack on elements of O’Malley’s record.

So it will become an O’Malley vs. Ehrlich race in June after all. You may recall last fall there was talk among Democrats that a contested primary in September would be bad for the party – they wanted to hold the primary this month instead. Today’s Duncan stunner effectively did that job and enables O’Malley to train all his guns on Governor Ehrlich throughout the last 4 1/2 months of the campaign.

That’s the obvious. But I have other questions that aren’t so apparent.

First of all, what happens to Duncan’s running mate Stuart Simms? There’s speculation that Simms could run for the Democrat nomination for Attorney General, which would make it at least a three-person field that already includes Montgomery County prosecutor Doug Gansler and Montgomery County councilman (and law professor) Tom Perez.

More importantly, where does all the Duncan campaign help go? Hundreds of volunteers and the paid staff are now suddenly thrown out of work in one way or another. While they may have known that it would be an uphill battle for the primary victory on September 12, imagine the disbelief they have that the campaign is over on June 22. Will they bury the hatchet and join the O’Malley team, or go to local campaigns?

Actually, besides the hope that Duncan can get himself back in a healthy mental state (helping in that regard, he’ll not run again for Montgomery County Executive), the one bad thing I see on a personal level is that I’m going to miss one of the best political blogs I linked to. I actually enjoyed reading it – didn’t agree with hardly anything said on it politically, but it was well-written. A lady named Heather Birdsall should get credit for that, she wrote many of the entries.

So let the trickle-down begin. And I’ll need to credit David the Soccer Dad (a fellow MBA member!) from sending me a little note today alerting me to Duncan’s withdrawal. Thanks my friend.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

2 thoughts on “Duncan drops out”

  1. FWIW, Mark Plotkin on WTOP’s political program mentioned that Gansler said that he expected Simms to seek the State’s Attorney job. And the Washington Post wrote that speculation too. But I read it here first …

  2. Actually, I saw the little blurb in the Baltimore Sun but figured it was more common knowledge and it was way on the bottom of the article so I didn’t link to it.

    Glad I had the scoop to you though! Ain’t that my job?

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