Show your Support for Howard Dean and the 50 State Strategy

Some rumors have been flying around that Howard Dean could face a challenge from James Carville and the DLC side of the party. This is a terrible thing to do to the man whose strategy led to numerous pickups for Democrats around the country a few days ago.

What can you do? You can contact members of the DNC from Maryland and DC and tell them to support Governor Dean. Their votes will be the ones that keep or remove Dean, and they need to know that he has Democratic grassroots support.

Thomas Buffenbarger
Alvaro Cifuentes
Maria Cordone
Hon. Elijah Cummings
John Gage
Janice Griffin
Hon. Sue Hecht
Weldon Latham
Hon. Isiah "Ike" Leggett
Belkis (Bel) Leong-Hong
Richard Michalski
Glenard Middleton
Hon. Thomas "Mike" Miller
Mary Jo Neville
R. Scott Pastrick
Hon. Gregory Pecoraro
Carol Pensky
Michael Steed
John Sweeney
Beatrice Tignor
Susan Turnbull

Those are many of the names of Maryland members of the DNC. Some should be easy to contact, others, not so much. Howard Dean needs our support. We cannot let the DLC wing of the party take control once more. 12 years of republican control have been enough, lets not let Carville and Harold Ford Jr. return Democrats to those days.

If anyone finds contact information for these folks, please list it in the comments.

Steele to the RNC?

Some folks over at Red State are hoping Mike Steele, 10 point loser in the Maryland Senate race, will become head of the RNC.

This is hilarious to me. I consistently hear people saying that Steele ran a great campaign, that Steele was the embodiment of conservatism. None of this is true of course. Well, his campaign was certainly interesting. I can't call it the best, because he lost rather badly. Steele also ran one of the most blatant "Democratic-lite" campaigns of the year. Numerous examples of Steele's run to the left and his attempts to claim status as a Democrat were evident throughout this campaign. From the "Steele Democrat" signs, to the "Ehrlich/Steele Democratic Voters Guide", to the lies about endorsements from Kweisi Mfume, it is clear that Steele ran anything but a campaign based on "conservative principles."

Running as Republican-Lite doesn't work for Democrats, and the inverse does not work for Republicans. The much reported "Conservative Democrats" such as Webb and Tester are not in the Steele mold. Webb and Tester never abandoned the Democratic label. They believe in, and ran on solidly Democratic principles, such as the minimum wage, the environment, health care, and opposition to flagrant use of our military power. Steele tried to run on traditionally Democratic values, and often on issues that he, as a senator, would have little control over. Senators have little control over Baltimore crime, recidivism rates, and city schools. In the end, Steele really didn't run on much, other than his race and his "outsider" status. And this is man Republicans want to be running their party?

Well, I think they should go for it. If the Maryland Senate race wasn't enough to teach Republicans the lesson that voters are intelligent, and that voters will vote in their best interest based on the issues, and not on race, than I am not sure they will ever learn. Michael Steele will be perceived by many as a move towards the left for the RNC. While this perception would be wrong, it would certainly cause a schism in the party, much larger than the one in the Democratic party over Howard Dean.

Either way it will be interesting to watch what Republicans decide to do with the RNC. Steele was head of Republican Party in Maryland for 20 years, and we all see how well things worked out for Republicans in Maryland.

I believe the Steele's leadership at the RNC would be a great asset, to the Democratic party that is.

Baltimore's Daughter, Nancy Pelosi, is the First Female Speaker of the House

Born in Little Italy to Italian immigrants, Pelosi grew up around politics. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro was a three term Democratic Mayor of Baltimore.

It feels good to see a child of Baltimore make good:



Congratulations, Mrs. Speaker.

It was All Worth It

Good work Maryland, I am proud as hell.

If the polls are correct...

then things look awesome for Ben Cardin.

If you look at the polls, Ben Cardin has been up in almost every single poll for the past 6 months. There is one Rasmussen outlier and then there is SUSA. Every SUSA poll of this race has been well outside the norm. My recent freakouts over the SUSA poll that showed Cardin and Steele tied were most likely unnecessary.

So stop worrying and get to the polls tomorrow.

Thoughts on the Mason-Dixon Senate Poll

New MD Senate Poll


Mason-Dixon for MSNBC. 10/31-11/3. Likely voters. MoE 4% (10/17-19)

Cardin (D) 47 (47)
Steele (R) 44 (41)

So Steele has something that appears to be momentum, but with 9% undecided, who can really tell how this race looks right now. I still believe that there will be record turnout tomorrow, and that will put Cardin on top.

But do you want to know what will really take Cardin over the top (from the same poll):

Which ONE of the following issues will be MOST important in determining your vote for U.S. Senate this year:

IRAQ 31%
ECONOMY/JOBS 13%
TERRORISM/SECURITY 10%

Cardin is right on Iraq. Steele's biggest misstep this year was saying he would still support invading Iraq today. That will hurt him a good bit.

Also, maybe someone else can tell me, is this too low a percentage of Baltimore City voters? 8% seems low to me, and it also seems like it would be a large area of support for Cardin and O'Malley/Brown. If the polling in the city was too low, this poll could be showing Cardin and O'Malley/Brown lower than they should be.

EAST SHORE/SOUTHERN MD 12%
BALTIMORE COUNTY 15%
BALTIMORE CITY 8%
CENTRAL MD 23%
PRINCE GEORGES CO 14%
MONTGOMERY CO 18%
WESTERN MD 10%

Now, I have been volunteering in the city for the past few weeks, and the GOTV operation is well run and well staffed. If the Maryland Democratic Party gets the city above 8%, we should all be pretty happy come tomorrow night. I will be part of that GOTV effort, starting tomorrow at 8 am.

JOIN ME