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The Washington Post featured an oddly mis-titled article today detailing the sad state of the Maryland Republican Party. The article, entitled "Md. GOP Grappling With Strategy for 2010" is really about nothing of the sort. It's about how few offices the MD GOP holds, how little money they have raised, how few capable candidates they are preparing to field, how their chairman recently resigned under pressure, etc. There is little if any mention of Republicans finding a strategy -- the article is about whether they can even contest the 2010 elections. Of course few writers get to choose their headlines, but maybe it would be good if the editors at least read the article before choosing a headline.
So, while it looks like freshman Rep. Kratovil will get at least one competent Republican challenger (maybe they'll beat each other up in the primary again), and Sen. Mikulski leads the rest of the congressional delegation in getting a walk, the only real question about the 2010 election is whether former Gov. Ehrlich will challenge Gov. O'Malley. The answer is a resounding "no!" Polls continue to show that while O'Malley's performance gets only middling reviews, no doubt in part due to the economy, he is strong enough to give Bobby Haircut another sad November. As long as those numbers hold up (and barring a significant D primary challenge), Ehrlich is unlikely to want to put himself through it again. That leaves Larry Hogan or others with little name recognition to challenge O'Malley in a race that is off to a slow start and will likely lead to pain.
Every year energetic members of our community run for public office. Some win, some lose. But what happens to the challengers who don’t quite make it. Here is a look at some of those who tried and missed the brass ring.
It's just a start, so if you know the activities of 2006 candidates since then, and what they may be up to now, leave a comment with a link, or email me at janaavtor at gmail dot com. If I get enough new information, I'll repost.
And check out the races to watch posts on Maryland Politics Watch:
Montgomery County Council
After losing his bid to be Montgomery County Executive, former Councilmember Steve Silverman went on to work in the state Attorney General’s office before being hired to head Montgomery County’s Department of Economic Development.
Former Republican Councilmember Howie Dennis still works as a staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives Government Oversight and Reform Committee.
Hans Riemer played a role in Barack Obama's campaign, dramatically increasing his network and credibility among progressives. He has stayed active in the community, working with Action Commtitee for Transit and other groups, and works professionally for AARP.
District 16
Reggie Oldak, who finished behind the late Del. Marilyn Goldwater for the third seat from District 16 worked as Chief of Staff to western Montgomery County Councilmember Roger Berliner before taking a position with the National Women’s Law Center.
District 18
Finishing just out of contention, about 400 votes fewer than now-Del. Waldstreicher, Daniel Farrington did not apply to replace the late Del. Jane Lawton. He practices law in Bethesda.
Coming in fifth in the 2006 race, Dr. Dana Beyer works as a senior policy analyst for MoCo Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg and is the VP of NOW Maryland and Equality Maryland. She’s already running to represent D18 in the House of Delegates in 2010.
Public interest advocate James Browning returned to his Common Cause roots, helping to lead the Pennsylvania branch of the good government group.
After finishing seventh in the race for delegate in district 18, Kensington City Council Member Al Carr was appointed to fill the seat of the late Del. Jane Lawton.
District 19
Former Del. Adrienne Mandel serves on the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission after losing her bid for the senate to Mike Lenett.
District 20 After finishing just out of contention to be a D20 delegate, Aaron Klein returned to the Senate Banking Committee, before moving to be Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary in the Office of Economic Policy.
Lucinda Lessley returned to the staff of Rep. Elijah Cummings and serves on the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board.
Former Delegate Gareth Murray is now the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Maryland Higher Education Commission
District 21
Former Delegate Brian Moe, who lost his reelection bid, is now Maryland’s Deputy Secretary of State.
Tekisha Everette went on to work as Senior Government Relations Manager at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP and was named a Young Woman of Achievement in 2007 by WIN
6:50pm - I finally found a minute to sit down and type up some thoughts on my first trip to Netroots Nation. We are close to done with day 1 of filming. We filmed 8 panels, interviewed a handful panelists, and are prepping to film President Bill Clinton's keynote address. Below, you will find a play list of day 1 coverage, including interviews with Greg Dworkin (DemFromCT), Nate Silver, Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Monique Hoeflinger, and Michael Wilson:
Like a lot of people, I wasn't able to get into Sen. Cardin's town hall meeting on health care reform (see the Post's report for details), so I had to settle for observing some of the activity around the Kepler Theater at HCC:
Some more observations:
As is obvious to anyone who has seen these town hall meetings, the debate over health care has become completely unmoored from anything that President Obama or Congress is actually considering -- and I suspect that the Republican Party is pleased to see that happening. The sooner we get away from these ginned up controversies over fantasy provisions in the health care reform bills, the better it will be for all of us.
As the crowd was gathered behind a TV reporter, the conservatives broke out into a chorus of "God Bless America." The liberals, for their part, hit back with a chorus of "This Land Is Your Land." So I guess it's true that in addition to "The Star-Spangled Banner," we have a national anthem for Democrats and a national anthem for Republicans.
I had my little moment of victory when I said to the same crowd that if you're a senior citizen, you have single-payer health care, and -- gesturing to an elderly man in a Navy cap (and clearly conservative) -- if you're a veteran, you have socialized medicine (and some of the best health care in the country). The man agreed, but began dissembling about the VA medical system being just a small part of the health care system in the US. But I think I got my point across.
It seems Sen. Cardin mostly got shouted down, though not as badly as in Towson earlier this week (see Melissa's post about that event). Thankfully, Cardin has been a strong voice for health care reform for years, so I doubt he lost his nerve. Indeed, it's important to remember, as the August recess rolls on, that public opinion is still firmly behind the essential aspects of health care reform; if Congress is to make that reform happen, it must avoid getting dragged down in the mud of right-wing scare tactics.
Delay may be business as usual in Washington, but Baltimore isn't having it.
Yesterday evening, amidst news that President Obama now sees immigration reform delayed until 2010, the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution-- the first like it in Maryland-- calling on President Obama and Congress to act swiftly to pass real, comprehensive immigration reform.
According to Baltimore City Councilmember Rochelle "Rikki" Spector:
As a city with a rich immigrant history, we recognize that our city and country will be stronger if we can assist new immigrants in fully assimilating into our community, There’s no doubt that the country has a broken immigration system, and that local municipalities are paying a big price as a result of Washington’s inaction.
We at Sum of Change, attended a health care town hall last night, hosted by Congresswoman Donna Edwards. The Congresswoman gave a brief speech, and then opened the floor for questions. The town hall was heated, which should come as no surprise. Not only were conservative groups organizing to get people out to these town halls (with detailed instructions about how to act and talk), OFA 2.0, several Unions, and liberal bloggers pushed progressives to turn out as well. The debate was vigorous, but not disrespectful. If anyone came there with the intent of disrupting the town hall, they failed miserably.
We'll go through a round of the Q&A's. I strongly recommend watching these all the way through, the Congresswoman knows how to finish an answer.
As many of you are probably aware, a number of conservative groups, including Conservatives for Patients' Rights and FreedomWorks, intend to derail health care reform by disrupting town hall meetings held by members of Congress while on August recess. The tactic is reminiscent of the so-called Brooks Brothers riot in 2000, in which conservative activists, pretending to be ordinary citizens, successfully shut down the recounting of the vote in Florida. By creating the appearance of mass outrage over President Obama and Congress' attempts to enact comprehensive reform, conservatives hope to scare members away from finally making health care available and affordable to all Americans.
The latest example of this faux grassroots uprising happened in New York, and involved our own Steny Hoyer.
As Eric Kleefeld notes, the guy yelling at Rep. Hoyer organized one of those Tea Party protests back in April. So he's hardly just a concerned individual.
We're likely to see more of these antics in the next few weeks. Below the fold, I've posted some of the scheduled town hall meetings that our representatives will be holding in Maryland. If you have the chance to attend one of these meetings, see if these conservative groups try to disrupt the proceeedings there.
On Thursday, July 30th, the Progressive Caucus held a press conference to draw a line in the sand when it comes to the inclusion of a strong public option in the health care bill.
(video quality will improve once it has finished processing)
I don't have a whole lot to say about the whole "Kratovil hanged in effigy" incident -- it appears to be the act of a lone wolf wingnut rather than something endorsed by a conservative group of any significance -- but I think this is of a piece with the Birther movement: Republicans, and conservatives in general, are increasingly unable to keep extremist sentiments from clouding their political message. Of course, having courted extremist sentiment for so long, you could kind of see this one coming.
Plus, the story gives me an excuse to use the Rilo Kiley lyric from More Adventurous for a title.
James Surowiecki's article this week in the New Yorker is a must-read. He discusses how the recession could be prolonged by the budget crises the states are facing -- that is, slashing state spending on education, health care, transportation, etc., shrinks GDP, puts people out of work, and deprives people of services most needed during an economic downturn. This is the "fifty little Hoovers" argument that many commentators have made. While the stimulus package seems to have alleviated some of the pressure, the money doled out hasn't kept up with need. Maryland, for one, faces a $700 million deficit for the next fiscal year.
Surowiecki goes further, arguing that the legacy of federalism in the US could act as a major obstacle to economic recovery:
Fiscal federalism also makes it harder to spend the stimulus money efficiently. Much of the tens of billions of dollars that will be spent on roads, for instance, will be funneled through the states. As a result, a disproportionate amount of the money will be spent in rural areas (which exert disproportionate influence on state governments), leaving cities--which happen to have most of the people and most of the traffic--shortchanged.
[...]
Even more important, federalism is getting in the way of the creation of a "smart" American power grid. This would involve turning the current hodgepodge of regional and state grids into a genuinely national grid, which would detect and respond to problems as they happen, giving users more information about and control over their electricity use, and so on... But since nobody likes power lines running through his property, building the grid would require overriding or placating the states--and the prospects of that aren't great.
I would add to this analysis the point that the way in which the federal government shares financial or operational responsibility with the states can go a long way toward improving the effectiveness of these programs. For example, Marc Korman recently discussed some proposed reforms to federal transportation funding that would, among other things, make mass transit projects more attractive than they are under current formulas. If states want to invest more heavily in mass transit, it will help to have the federal government be more inviting to such projects. Whether these reforms are adopted is another matter, however: If rural areas exert disproportionate influence on state governments, their influence on the federal government, thanks to the US Senate, is gargantuan.
It's also worth asking whether certain federal-state partnerships, even those that aren't inherently of an interstate nature, make sense in the first place. Take Medicaid, for example: the program was designed from the beginning to be run jointly by the states and the federal government, and ever since has been plagued by inconsistent eligibility rules and inadequate funding -- and, thanks to the recession, it now weighs heavily on most states' budgets. No surprise, then, that the House health care reform bill would expand Medicaid eligibility solely with federal dollars -- and could possibly open the door to federalizing Medicaid outright. I would be fine with that, as it seems that the federal government does a much better job of running health care (e.g., Medicare, the VA health care system) than the states. But I'd be interested in hearing from those who think Medicaid would be better off remaining jointly run.
UPDATE: Also worth reading is Ben Adler's account of states grappling with dwindling operating funds for mass transit -- even as new transit projects are in construction.
