Could Maryland be another Massachusetts?

Well, Senate candidate Dr. Eric Wargotz thinks so. He wrote to the Gazette and said this:

With all deference to former Gov. Bob Ehrlich, I find his comments, through his spokesman and published in The Gazette to be inaccurate.

Having door-knocked for Scott Brown and then witnessing his victory in Massachusetts firsthand, I know that an independent candidate, free from machine politics, can and will win against any Democrat or Republican in any state, including Maryland.

In fact, President Obama admitted as much during a post-election interview when he stated, “the same voters that voted for me, voted for Scott Brown.”

Ehrlich saying that Barbara Mikulski is no Martha Coakley is also not accurate. Both officials are lifelong politicians, both are beholden to machine politics and both stand for higher taxes, greater governmental spending, amnesty for illegal immigrants and a federal takeover of the health care industry. And both are/were well-liked.

Scott Brown’s reputation for listening to voters, his record of fighting for open, transparent and accountable government and his campaign theme of “we can do better” resonated with independent, Democratic and Republican voters alike.

In my campaign for United States Senate, as I go door to door and event to event, I am finding a similar response — Maryland voters want elected officials that will listen to them and that will then act in their best interest, not the machine’s best interest.

Maryland voters believe that “their” United States Senate seat, afforded to “them” by the Constitution, does not belong to Barbara Mikulski or to any one political machine or party … it belongs to “them,” the people.

My candidacy for U.S. Senate, like Scott Brown’s, gives Marylanders a chance to once again have their voices heard in Congress.

I am hopeful that Bob Ehrlich might reconsider his comments given this firsthand accounting from both Massachusetts and Maryland, and perhaps have the evidence he needs to run for governor — a decision that I would support.

First of all, it’s worth noting that Wargotz was responding to this article. The piece by C. Benjamin Ford correctly points out that Maryland’s voter registration numbers are indeed quite different from those in Massachusetts.

But, if voter registration was the only indicator of success you would have an entire slate of Democrats in all of our local countywide offices, since Democrats hold somewhat of an advantage in those numbers locally. Yet Republicans hold 3 of the 10 countywide offices available in Wicomico County (Sheriff, one seat on the Orphan’s Court, and one of two at-large County Council seats), and three Democrats are in their posts simply because they were unopposed (Registrar of Wills, State’s Attorney, and one of the three Orphan’s Court judge seats.) In contested races, the two parties pretty much split equally.

With the right campaign and right backing, certainly any Republican can make a run at and beat Mikulski. The difference between her previous campaigns and this one is that people are beginning to pay more attention to her record. As Eric notes, Mikulski “stand(s) for higher taxes, greater governmental spending, amnesty for illegal immigrants and a federal takeover of the health care industry” based on her voting record. Outside of the immediate D.C. area, does Maryland really want that?

The only sour note Eric hit was his support of Bob Ehrlich running for governor, because Bob’s now dithering until March to make his decision.

This statement may not make me a lot of friends among the Maryland GOP faithful, but I’ve pretty much lost my respect for the guy politically – as I see it, Bob Ehrlich is handing Martin O’Malley a second term on a silver platter by crippling Larry Hogan, who could be truly ramping up his campaign now in the wake of Scott Brown’s victory. If Ehrlich wanted to push his way to the lead in polling (particularly the important one on November 2nd) he should’ve jumped in two or three months ago. Even with Ehrlich’s name recognition, it’s tough to beat an incumbent with a short campaign – that’s why the major contenders in the race for the Senate seat began their campaigns last year as did Hogan and former candidate Mike Pappas.

I can already see a scenario where Bob Ehrlich gets into the race late, loses, then points the finger of blame at the Maryland Republican Party for not being supportive enough early on while he was making his decision. Sorry, it’s not my fault you waited around.

I wonder if Bob Ehrlich will be taking questions at our Lincoln Day Dinner next week. I know I have one or two.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

8 thoughts on “Could Maryland be another Massachusetts?”

  1. Yeah, I feel like Ehrlich is going to do to the gubernatorials what Palin is going to do to the presidentials: split the party too much (and potentially alienate moderates) and hand the incumbents easy second-term victories!

  2. If anything, Ehrlich might alienate conservatives rather than moderates. Bob really wasn’t the most conservative governor out there if you look at the record – remember, he gave us the “flush tax” and had at least a couple Democrats in his cabinet.

    I take it you’re not a big Palin fan?

  3. Like it or not, Ehrlich is the only chance the GOP has of beating O’Malley this year and even he may not be able to do it. I can understand the desire to wait, since declaring yourself as a candidate would likely affect his radio show and other things he is doing. And since he has high name recognition, it’s not like he needs a long campaign to win. One drawback would be that he can’t raise money, but I imagine he could raise enough from March to November.

    As for Ehrlich not being super conservative, that’s certainly true. But there is no way a very conservative Republican will ever win a statewide race in Maryland. In fact, Ehrlich may be too conservative to win. Look at what happened in 2006 — the voters liked the guy, thought he did a good job, but voted him out anyway because he was a Republican. If you are going to win statewide here, you have to be more moderate than either you or I would like.

  4. Neither is her Daddy. I did not brainwash her with conservative ideals. I just led by example,i.e. ‘hard work and standing on your own two feet are preferable to governmental subsidies’. I, myself, would vote for Ehrlich again. I think that he did a very good job as Gov.

  5. I’m definitely not a big fan of Palin(and that’s what I meant with alienating moderates), but strategically, I would rather alienate the farthest right before moderates because it’s not like they’re going to lose that vote to O’Malley.

  6. No, but I wouldn’t want them to stay home either. Remember, those who are moderate are the least passionate about politics and are much less likely to contribute money to campaigns or be your cadre of volunteers. It’s the extremes on both sides who are the ones in the trenches doing the grunt work of getting candidates elected.

    Just as an example, having worked the Republican campaign in 2008 there was zero enthusiasm locally for John McCain until he picked Sarah Palin – people were thinking, okay, maybe I’ll vote for him but only because I don’t like that Obama guy. (Truly it was a lesser of two evils vote.) Once Palin got in and people heard her message, suddenly we had plenty of volunteers and interest. We couldn’t keep anything Palin-related in stock at our headquarters because of demand…people would come in and buy several Palin buttons or related items at a time because they liked her, and a lot openly wished the ticket were the other way.

    You can’t write off the extremes by aiming squarely to the middle and expect to win. If Ronald Reagan can win Maryland, anyone can.

  7. Regan’s victory was 26 years ago, Mike. At that time in my native North Idaho Republicans didn’t even run candidates for most offices. Today, however, North Idaho is a GOP stronghold and Maryland is much more heavily Democratic. Times change and so do electorates.

    As for Palin, yes, she fired up the base. She also alienated many more moderate people who could have voted Republican. I know plenty of people in the DC area who were considering voting for McCain before he picked Palin. She may have motivated a few people to vote for McCain who otherwise would have stayed home but she also turned off many people who were otherwise receptive to McCain’s message.

    It’s a tricky balancing act to ensure that the Republican candidate fires up the base to go out and work but doesn’t alienate the independent voters we need to win. Right now, Ehrlich is perhaps the only Republican for a statewide office who could accomplish this.

  8. Well, I understand where you’re coming from, and it does make sense. And it’s unfortunate that we live in a country where every vote is for ‘the lesser of two evils’. The parties have worked so hard to divide the country, it’s unreal!

    The only thing I’ll say is that young people have finally started voting, but they are also, quite frankly, impressionable, media-crazed, and idiotic when it comes to politics. They mainly get their political information from stuff like The Daily Show [while hilarious, it mainly presents both sides wrong for the sake of comedy – but as Jon Stewart clearly states, “I’m a comedian, not a journalist!!!”]

    Now that college-age people are a demographic that might finally matter in voting, it’s more important than ever to have a good media image. And during the last election, Palin was treated quite unfairly in the media. She’s already been thrown under the bus, and strategically it will be very hard for her every step of the way. It also seems like the powers that be[in the media] don’t want a woman in power, but let’s not even get me started on that… 🙂

    If it’s P vs. O [the bout to knock the other guy out!], I will be leery, and may end up “throwing my vote away” on the Libertarian candidate!

    One more thing – I’m glad I have a place to come yell about politics! 😀

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