I wanted to make sure I had a “serious” article today before I did FNV (which should be a killer edition since it’s the 50th episode and will be all music.)
We all know that 2012 is a Presidential year, and the obvious questions become who will be the Republican standardbearer and whether he or she will face Barack Obama or some insurgent challenger. (Bonus question is whether Barack Obama claims, “I’ll whip her ass.”)
But there will be other races on our local ballot to pay attention to.
First off, there is a municipal election in Salisbury coming up next spring that will decide whether Mayor Jim Ireton gets more friends or foes on City Council. Considering the blogosphere’s interest in that race (as longtime readers may recall, it was a rare period of agreement among the key bloggers of the time that the best ticket was Louise Smith, Terry Cohen, and Tim Spies – we got two of the three but Gary Comegys knocked off Spies) I would imagine that the slightly revised and expanded list of blogging stars will have its own set of favorites. I’m already aware of one previous candidate who’s challenging for sure and rumor has it another may join those ranks.
If something interesting develops on the Eastern Shore of Virginia where state elections will be held I certainly will mention that too. Who knows, my friend Melody Scalley might decide to try again for state office.
Once we get through that, it will be a long slog to the Presidential election two years hence; however, that monotony will be broken up by our state’s primary election early in 2012. I don’t think it will be quite as early as it was in 2008, but a best guess is that Maryland may again pair up with other states in the region to try and create a compelling primary – if only for the sake of making it difficult for a challenge to be put forth to Barack Obama and/or diminish the TEA Party influence on the GOP side.
But an early primary also creates other headaches – for example, it certainly means that redistricting will have to be finished in this year’s General Assembly session and any court battles over it expedited. That probably hurts Republican chances to some extent, although it’s likely they’ll get a body blow in the first place because Democrats will be drawing whatever lines they can cook to their advantage. (It wouldn’t surprise me now to see Andy Harris lose some or all of the lower Eastern Shore and the First District moved deep into Baltimore City. They will see to it he’s a one-termer like Frank Kratovil was, unless the GOP finds some stones and a great legal team.)
It also hurts terribly GOP chances of finding a well-known challenger to Senator Ben Cardin; certainly a TEA Party member would find himself underfunded in the primary unless he or she starts yesterday. The little upside is that the one-on-one campaigning period would be much more lengthy and if Republicans can avoid a Wayne Gilchrest 2008 situation they could get some traction against the first-term Senator but career politician.
So it’s not like political blogging will go away, but this interregnum between elections and over the holidays will give me a chance to look at some national issues and do a little bit of fun stuff, too. In other words, don’t look for the candidate links to return anytime too soon but return they will when the time comes. I’m holding off on the ‘Campaign 2012’ category for a little while as well.
As the song goes, there ain’t no rest for the wicked.
