Tag Archives: David Lublin

Maryland’s Election Outlook From A Statewide Perspective

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For an excellent and concise report on the recent history of gubernatorial politics in Maryland, see “Looks Like We Have A Governor’s Race” over at David Lublin’s blog.

Last weekend, The Washington Post reported poll results showing Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, the Democratic candidate, with a relatively slim lead over Republican Larry Hogan.

Slim, but hardly surprising. The Brown candidacy has seemed eerily reminiscent of KKT from the beginning. The one encouraging difference is that Brown chose a much stronger candidate as his running mate than did KKT.

The political view from Montgomery County and Prince George’s County exaggerates Democratic invincibility in the state as a whole. Baltimore County remains the critical swing county.

Martin O’Malley, Peter O’Malley and County Executive Jim Smith worked to strengthen the Democratic position in Baltimore County, producing a safe margin of victory for O’Malley in 2010. It will be interesting to see how many of those Democratic votes show up in Baltimore County returns in 2014.

— John Hayden

 

Too Many Lawyers In Politics, Not Enough Ordinary Folks

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David Lublin calls Montgomery County’s District 16 a “chock full o’lawyers” district, in his blog post, “D16 Not So Competitive After All.”  (District 16 borders the D.C. line from Bethesda to the Potomac River.)

How true! Attorneys are over-represented in politics throughout America, and even more so in Montgomery County.

Montgomery County also has the odd distinction of electing more political officials with Capitol Hill staff experience on their resumes than anyplace else on Earth. In addition, we have “local officials” here with experience in some of the many union national headquarters located in D.C., and others with backgrounds in the many business special-interest groups headquartered here.

Most of these folks have one foot rooted in their home town far away, and one foot rooted in national politics in D.C. Many have law degrees. Naturally. By coincidence, they happen to reside and vote in Montgomery County. They make local politics in Montgomery County unique. Sometimes they overwhelm MoCo politics and make it crazy.

More on this odd mix of pols at a later date.

— John Hayden

If you’d like to see a superb blog about Maryland politics, which David Lublin has developed in just a few weeks, check out theseventhstate.com.