Maryland House Races

by hilzoy

Two races in my very own state of Maryland are worth watching, and, if you happen to live in the neighborhood, working for. Descriptions below the fold. Short version: Go Donna Edwards and Wayne Gilchrest!

In the 1st Congressional District, Wayne Gilchrest, a generally good and decent Republican, has been fighting what the Baltimore Sun called "one of the most corrosive and expensive congressional primaries in the nation." Here (h/t OCSteve) is one of the low points of this campaign, courtesy of one of Gilcherest's challengers:

"There's a nasty pink political flier floating around Maryland's 1st Congressional District, and don't blame prepster-candidate Robert Banks. The gist of the piece - purportedly paid for by Progressive Marylanders for Social Justice - is that incumbent Wayne Gilchrest has been a friend to gays.

"That took courage, conviction and ... family Loyalty," the flier says. "Wayne's Brother David married his 16-year partner at a service on the beach in Massachusetts."

For the record, Gilchrest does have a gay brother who married his partner in Massachusetts. But Progressive Marylanders for Social Justice, the group credited on the authority line, is a fictitious organization. The Gilchrest campaign says the flier is a dirty trick courtesy of one of his Republican challengers, state Sen. Andy Harris.

Equality Maryland, a real gay-rights group, accused Harris of a similar trickery in November 2006, when he beat back Democratic challenger Pat Foerster. Constituents in the conservative district received middle-of-the-night robo calls from the nonexistent "Gay and Lesbian Push," urging them to support Foerster. Equality Maryland complained at the time.

"Unfortunately, this is not surprising," said Gilchrest chief of staff Tony Caligiuri. "But it's so below the dignity of anybody who wants to be a member of Congress that it's just really sad.""

Ewww. If I lived in the First CD and I could tear myself away from watching the shorebirds around Ocean City, I'd consider registering as a Republican just to vote against Harris. I'd also be thinking: I hope the Democrats are running a good candidate this time around, because a fight this ugly could make it easier for us to take the seat. For any Democrats in the area, the Baltimore Sun writes: "the clear choice is Frank M. Kratovil Jr., the two-term Queen Anne's County state's attorney. Mr. Kratovil, 39, who has won nearly every endorsement within his party, is the most accomplished candidate in the four-person race."

In the 4th CD, Donna Edwards is running against Albert Wynn, and I very much hope she wins. Albert Wynn is a sort of living, breathing embodiment of everything one might dislike in a Congressperson. There's his voting record:

"He voted in October 2002 for President Bush's Iraq war resolution. In 2004, Mr. Wynn voted for Vice President Dick Cheney's energy proposal, even though every other member of Maryland's House delegation, including both Republicans, voted nay.

He has accepted more than $200,000 in campaign contributions from banks and lending institutions, and, not surprisingly, voted in 2005 for a Bush administration-backed bankruptcy "reform" bill with punitive provisions for working-class borrowers."

And:

"His vote to scrap the estate tax suggested he was indifferent to his own middle-class constituents. By flip-flopping on fuel-efficiency standards and opposing campaign finance reforms, he showed his contempt for clean air and clean government. And he seems scarcely aware of the import of his votes to permit federal courts to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case and to support a constitutional amendment banning flag-burning: granting federal courts a license to meddle in private affairs and cramping free speech."

For the Iraq War Resolution, for the bankruptcy bill, for repealing the estate tax, for intervening in the Schiavo case, for a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning: yikes. I knew Wynn was bad, but until I saw his votes listed one after another, I didn't realize just how bad.

Then there are his tactics:

"To put it bluntly, Mr. Wynn, an eight-term congressman, is an embarrassment to his Prince George's County-based district, the state and the Democratic Party. And his past - his machine-style bossism, dirty politics and political bullying - is catching up with him.

In 2006, he sent out a flier implying he had won endorsements from some unions that hadn't endorsed him.

That same year, two of his supporters physically harassed one of Ms. Edwards' campaign volunteers.

This cycle, he filmed a political ad fashioned to look like a news reporter had caught him randomly on the street for an interview, when in fact the ad was staged by his campaign.

And then last week, Mr. Wynn, who is a lawyer, filed a completely bogus Federal Election Commission complaint that charges Ms. Edwards with violating election law. As The Sun has reported, the complaint is so slapdash that it doesn't even bother to cite specific election law provisions."

The only possible reason to support someone like Wynn is the absence of a decent alternative. Luckily, we don't have that problem, thanks to Donna Edwards. From the Washington Post:

"Ms. Edwards, a lawyer and foundation executive, has been an effective, energetic advocate for a range of liberal causes -- the environment, higher minimum wages, stemming domestic violence, campaign finance reform. As a community organizer, she has been an unstinting voice for improving mass-transit options, although sometimes at the expense of building roads that the 4th District badly needs. Even in cases where she clashed with local developers, however, she won their respect as a sensible and no-nonsense adversary. Poised, persistent and principled, she would make a fine representative for the 4th District."

Democrats won the House and Senate in 2006. But we will not keep them unless we are willing to police our own, and to work hard to make sure that our Congressional Representatives are as good as they can possibly be. Voters in the Maryland 4th CD have the chance to replace a hack with someone much, much better. I hope they do.

Comments

[Curt Adams]

Kos was pushing Donna Edwards' campaign so I took a look at her and Wynn's campaign sites. I was impressed enough by the contrast to send a contribution even though I live on the other coast. I'll be very happy if she replaces him.

[superdestroyer]

As the Republican party collapses and the Democratic Primary becomes the only relevant elections, more situaitons like Wynn/Edwards where an incumbent could lose 10 months before having to leave office and the representative-elect will be known for 10 months before office.

Maybe in the future, the Democrats should hold their primaries in September since the general election will be irrelevant.

[OCSteve]

hilzoy: I hope the Democrats are running a good candidate this time around, because a fight this ugly could make it easier for us to take the seat.

Not going to happen. It will stay an R seat. As I noted on TiO, Gilchrest is AWOL, at least on this side of the bay. Whoever wins the R primary on Tuesday wins the seat, and Gilchrest does not seem to be fighting for it.

It is Saturday night before Tuesday. I still have not seen one single Gilchrest ad on local TV. Picked up the local papers – nothing. I walked around town this evening, not a single lawn sign. No campaign events scheduled.

Either he is very confident and not at all worried about it – or he gave up.

It will be a damned shame if Andy Harris wins the seat.

[John Heywood]

I'm in Silver Spring, in MD-4, and we received a bunch of robo-calls today from Wynn's campaign. Most of them were the typical "This is politician X, and I am supporting Wynn for Congress." But one of them was really sleazy, saying she had tax liens against her, and if she can't keep her own finances in line, how can she blah blah blah. He is such a sleazy piece of work. I think she is going to do it this year.

[Percy Percy]

OCSteve--the only commercials I've seen for the first district contest were run in Baltimore for E.J. Pipkin, who's also contesting the seat from the right. I've been hoping that Pipkin and Harris would knock each other out.

I also caught Gilchrest on CSPAN last week, talking about global warming on the house floor, and wondered why he wasn't out campaigning. Climate change is my top issue and Gilchrest is about the only Republican I can ever imagine voting for.

Ironically, Harris was the go-to guy in the state legislature on verified voting. The grassroots effort was mostly Greens with a few Dems.