As an adjunct to my last post, I wanted to share some information I looked up on the Maryland Board of Elections website.
While we tend to think Democrats are invincible, particularly in a majority-minority district like District 37A was drawn out to be, here are the facts.
In 2006 Rudy Cane ran unopposed in the general election. More’s the pity because he only won his primary with 68.7% of the vote.
And in 2002 Cane only won with 56.5% of the vote. Granted, this was the year Bob Ehrlich won election and a point when President Bush was riding high in the approval polls. For Cane, this was a decline from when he won the district with 63% of the vote in 1998.
Before that, Cane was beaten in a three-way race in 1994, the last time Republicans held the seat. In that election, Don Hughes won with 41% of the vote, beating Cane’s 40 percent. The difference was an independent candidate by the name of Lemuel Chester, who garnered 19% of the vote and carried the Dorchester County portion handily. Cane lost by 20 votes out of nearly 7,000 cast! (Oddly enough, Hughes only served that one term and chose not to run again – a true citizen legislator.)
The demographics aren’t as bad as one might think, since development has placed the district into a situation where it may not be a “majority-minority” district anymore. So with the right message and hard work, Bob McCarroll can win.
Democrats talked boastfully last year about making Maryland a “10-0” state, with Democrats occupying all the Congressional and Senate seats in Washington. Methinks this is the year we can make it a solid Republican Eastern Shore by ending the political careers of Rudy Cane (12 years), Norm Conway (24 years), and Jim Mathias (4 years but ambitious enough to run for the Maryland Senate to replace Lowell Stoltzfus.) It can be done, let’s do it!