Day: August 20, 2012

New entry or publicity hound?

Originally I was going to use this item yesterday as part of the headquarters story, but on second thought I decided it deserved its own headline and post.

In five months beyond the November election, Salisbury voters will decide the fate of three of their leaders: District 1 Councilwoman Shanie Shields, District 2 Councilwoman Debbie Campbell, and Mayor Jim Ireton. I’m under the impression Shields won’t run again; the other two are presumably going to seek another four-year term.

You may recall that earlier this year I profiled a campaign kickoff by local realtor Adam Roop, for a yet-to-be-determined city elected office. But I hadn’t mentioned this effort by political gadfly and blogger Joe Albero – until today.

Joe Albero and his rack 'o shirts.

Now I understand my political advice is generally worth the price paid for it, but it seems to me that having shirts and bumper stickers will build name recognition but not give someone a reason to vote for you. As it stands right now, the website listed on the shirt simply redirects to his Salisbury News website, not a separate campaign site.

I can already see the comment now should Joe deign to add his two cents to this conversation, something along the line of “it’s my campaign, I know what I’m doing, you simply fail to understand my master plan to win this race.” Whatever – as I said, my advice is sometimes worth the price paid for it.

But if he’s as popular as his rhetoric makes him out to be, why would he be wheeling out a nearly full rack of shirts (presumably as a giveaway to supporters?) The shot was taken as he was leaving to go to another event, as Joe said to me.

I have a hard time taking Albero seriously as a candidate until I see a formal announcement and (as a Salisbury voter myself) his ideas on how to improve the city. Several of those I spoke with this afternoon felt similarly, preferring to keep their distance for the time being.

That didn’t have anything to do with the headquarters, nor will the local GOP be actively involved in the Salisbury city races because they’re non-partisan elections. Hence the reason I decided this should be a separate post. But I took the picture since Albero’s space was placed next to the GOP’s at the Farm and Home Show; aside from that, the Wicomico GOP has no official connection to the Albero mayoral campaign – or any other Salisbury one, for that matter.

As I made clear on my comments on the Roop event, the current mayor didn’t kick off his spring 2009 campaign until November, 2008 – after the election of Barack Obama. Aside from perhaps trying to build name identification (and as a fellow blogger who HAS run for office in this county twice, I am quite aware that simply having a website doesn’t necessarily translate into lot of people knowing who you are – that’s why I barely hung on to my seat in 2010) I’m not sure what Albero’s point is, aside from perhaps a publicity gimmick to promote his site. If that’s the case, give him an A for marketing but an F for being taken seriously for future political endeavors.

Bongino gets key endorsement

She may not have the cache she did as little as six weeks ago, but getting an endorsement from Sarah Palin doesn’t hurt with a certain subgroup of voters. Dan Bongino made news today by being the latest candidate anointed by the “mama grizzly.” In a statement actually dated tomorrow, the Bongino campaign relates this Palin statement:

Though political pundits often dismiss conservative candidates running in deep blue states, I don’t believe in ignoring good candidates simply because they’re fighting uphill battles against the odds. In fact, I find such candidates incredibly brave and especially worthy of encouragement. In many cases, they are often the most articulate and courageous new conservative voices out there.

In 2012, we must cede no ground in our effort to win back control of the Senate and secure the House. We must fight every race to make sure we equip our next President with a wise Congress ready to work for all Americans.  We also owe it to voters in every state – even the deep blue ones – to support good candidates for office so that they have a genuine choice in November. That is why I’m honored to announce my support for Dan Bongino in his Senate race in the “deep blue state” of Maryland.

Dan is not a politician, but he has spent his career protecting them. He is a decorated United States Secret Service agent who served under three Presidents. Dan has seen what politicians have done to our country, and he’s decided, “If I’m not part of the solution, I’m part of the problem.” He based his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Maryland on a strong commonsense conservative platform, won his primary, and is now fighting an uphill battle against a 45-year career politician who in fact inherited his first political office from his uncle at the tender age of 23 way back in 1967 and has been in elected office ever since.

This is more than just a race of Republican vs. Democrat or conservative vs. liberal. It’s about taking our country back from the career politicians in both parties who have spent us into debt, nearly taxed us to death, enriched themselves, rewarded their cronies at our expense, and have no vision to help the private sector create the jobs we need to get this economy moving again. They are the reason why Congress’ approval rating is at an all-time low. In supporting Dan Bongino, we are offering Maryland voters a clear choice either to continue with the failed policies and crony capitalism of the permanent political class, or to shake things up with Dan Bongino and cast a vote that helps put our country back on the path to prosperity.

It’s not completely out of the blue that Palin would endorse Dan – after all, she mentioned him by name at a Ted Cruz rally in Texas last month.

But the connection comes from another direction as well. Marylanders may recall that back in 2010 Palin made a surprising call in the Republican primary for governor, endorsing upstart Brian Murphy over the establishment choice of retread Bob Ehrlich. And while he’s stayed in the background for the most part, Murphy has served as the Chair for Dan Bongino’s campaign.

Obviously there will be those who fret that a Palin endorsement will be the kiss of death for Bongino and they’ll cite as evidence that, even with Palin’s backing, Murphy received just 25% of the GOP primary vote in 2010. But I would argue that without the Palin endorsement Murphy would have picked up no more than 10 percent of the vote because no one had really heard of him and the Maryland GOP certainly wasn’t giving him the time of day.

Furthermore I would venture to say that, in order to have any chance of success, Bongino needs to nationalize his campaign. It pains me to say this, but the Maryland GOP is lightyears away from having the resources to assist in any significant manner on a statewide campaign; meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee will likely write off Maryland, believing the conventional wisdom that the state is a foregone conclusion for Ben Cardin. (Well, they may jump on the bandwagon late in the game if Bongino appears poised for victory, so they can take the credit.)

By securing the Pain endorsement, Bongino reinforces his standing by being placed with other conservatives she has backed over the last two years; her most recent success being the aforementioned Ted Cruz. Now that the slings and arrows of being second banana on the national GOP ticket have been shifted to Paul Ryan, Palin can become a little bit like yesterday’s news – losing the constant scrutiny but retaining the passionate backers who can help an upstart campaign, even if it’s in another state. Remember, no one expected Ted Cruz to win in Texas against a sitting lieutenant governor who had the backing of much of the state’s establishment, either.

Besides, if a Republican is going to stop backing Dan Bongino because he received the endorsement of the conservative darling Sarah Palin, he or she wasn’t much of a Republican to begin with. May your chains placed by “our friend” Ben Cardin and Barack Obama rest lightly.

I don’t know if this was the “something very exciting” that Bill Harris mentioned at the Wicomico GOP headquarters opening, but it is pretty big stuff. Congratulations to Dan for getting the nod.

Update 7:30 p.m. Monday: Bongino also received Senator Jim DeMint’s endorsement.