I don’t think this will be a full volume, but just a few observations. First of all, I made a funny and it didn’t dawn on me until now, calling something that had to do with radio a “volume”. Pretty soon I’ll be on “11” like Spinal Tap.
Anyway, ’twas a good time this morning, and Bill handled his end professionally as always. I managed to get through all my notes I had on things to talk about and then some.
In case readers are wondering, the Ohio election I was referring to was the special election to fill the vacant Fifth Congressional District seat held by the late Rep. Paul Gillmor. It’s almost eerily like our First District race:
- Playing the part of Wayne Gilchrest is Bob Latta, a longtime fixture in Ohio state politics. He’s represented Wood County (the most populous in the overall district) at the state level for over a decade.
- Steve Buehrer has the Andy Harris role. Like Latta, he’s been in state politics for a number of years as a State Senator, and just like Andy Harris did here, Steve Buehrer got the endorsement of the Club For Growth to boot.
- Three other lesser-known candidates rounded out the GOP primary field, as in Joe Arminio, Robert Banks, and John Leo Walter here.
Personally I think at the moment the results will also end up similar to the Ohio race, with Gilchrest winning by a small margin but well under 50 percent. Since Buehrer was nominally the more conservative candidate, it may have been that the three also-rans below him cannibalized his vote enough to prevent the win. It’s the same theory that Andy Harris has charged about the late entry into the race by Robert Banks being set up by the incumbent.
One thing I thought about prior to going on but not while I was there was when there’s going to be a public poll taken for our Congressional race because of the high interest both in Maryland and nationally. I’m sure the respective campaigns are running their own internal polls or will be soon, but it would be interesting to know how this election is shaping up.
Since I covered a lot on the special session in previous posts, I won’t revisit that topic. And I plan on doing yet another look at the Congressional candidates with a second post tonight so this personal stuff won’t stay on top too long. Overall, I think I turned in a pretty good performance so I’m hoping to get back there after the holidays for an update on the race and probably more hijinks from the regular General Assembly session.
