Two new entrants

With the holidays behind us and the 2010 election now in sight, it appears that this will be the season for people to jump into various races.

I noted yesterday that Larry Hogan had closed his exploratory committee and endorsed Bob Ehrlich for the GOP nod for governor. Little did I know that a couple weeks back someone else had dipped his toe into the race for the Republican nomination, but today I received word that Chevy Chase resident Brian Murphy is also seeking the GOP nomination. Murphy is an Easton native but went to the other side of the Bay to pursue his career – sound familiar?

Obviously Brian becomes the longest of long shots when you consider the Ehrlich machine already put into place, but assuming he gets on the ballot Murphy could serve as a barometer of GOP discontent with the dithering of Ehrlich and how he’s played the Maryland Republican Party like a Stradivarius over the last year or so.

Meanwhile, sources up Carroll County way tell me that onetime Delegate and Ehrlich administration official Carmen Amedori is considering jumping into an already crowded field contending for the U.S. Senate seat held by Barbara Mikulski. She would be the first candidate with state legislative experience to enter the field if this is borne out.

Since her time in the General Assembly predated the monoblogue Accountability Project I went back to its predecessor and found out that over the lifetime of the former Maryland Accountability Project Amedori had a rating of 66, which put her among the top 10 conservatives in the House during the time. While the former project may not be completely congruent with my current scorecard, it’s highly likely that Amedori won’t be running in an appeal to moderates (but I could be wrong.) With no one truly distancing himself from the field, Amedori could get some initial backing and place herself squarely in the mix.

Now we just need to get some other local entrants and the September ballot will begin to take shape as the July 6 filing deadline begins to loom.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.