Posted on 02/01/2010 12:59:29 PM PST by Towsoncrs
The leading Republican with clear plans to challenge Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley this fall has dropped out of the race.
In a long note posted today on his blog, Hogan cites the looming possibility of Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s gubernatorial bid as the reason his own bid is ending:
(Excerpt) Read more at weblogs.baltimoresun.com ...
In a long note posted today on his blog, Hogan cites the looming possibility of Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s gubernatorial bid as the reason his own bid is ending:
"Today I am officially concluding my exploratory committee and calling on my friend Bob Ehrlich to enter this race for governor. Not only do I believe that Bob Ehrlich should run, but I am convinced he will run and that we should all push in the same direction to elect him as Maryland's next governor."
Hogan had put up more than $300,000 of his own money to run his campaign, but he'd said all along that he had no interest in running if his former boss did.
Ehrlich has said recently that he continues to mull whether to run in this heavily Democratic state. After one term in office, he lost his reelection bid to O'Malley in 2006. Ehrlich says he'll likely announce one way or another in March.
Ehrlich will enter the race in March. He has a shot..
Larry Hogan? Is that Hulk’s brother?
OTOH, Mikulski, if she runs, is untouchable.
....not if he doesn't run a better campaign than last time. He was a very good governor, but ran a campaign of what-you-see-is-what-you-get. This is good to a point, but not so far as to have a "debate" in which your opponent packs into his opening and closing statements many sound bites (lots of them not so accurate) and you don't prepare anything but just ramble around. Ehrlich also says things indicating that Repblicans-to-it-too. He'll have to be tougher or he won't stand a chance against a half-truth Dem in an overwhelmingly Dem state.
Let me get this right, he wasn’t in the race, but he’s making headlines that a Republican is dropping out of the race.
Something fishy here.
The insiders know Ehrlich is running. That’s it.
Why is that?
State demographics. It’s almost as difficult in MD to win a Senate seat as MA. The last Republican to win a Senate seat was Mikulski’s predecessor, Bob Mathias. Mathias was a Socialist with a voting record indistinguishable from far-left Democrats. The last centrist Republican to win was Glenn Beall, Jr. in 1970. Between the parasites in Bawlamer and the government workers in the DC suburbs, it’s just very hard to win as a Republican. Remove Balto, PG & Montgomery Counties, and the state would be GOP-leaning.
*ping*
It would certainly be difficult to defeat Mikulski, but not impossible. Remember, Michael Steele is not the best campaigner in the world, and 2006 was the worst GOP year since at least 1974, and Steele still came within 10% of defeating Ben Cardin in 2006.
Of course, we’d need a first-tier candidate to have a legitimate shot against Mikulski, and neither of the two Republicans that fit the bill, Ehrlich and Steele, will be running against her.
Yeah, but remember that ‘06 was an open seat, too, and Steele was about the strongest candidate we could’ve put up. My former Senator Bill Brock ran a decent race in ‘94 in a good year, and still barely broke the 40% mark against the incumbent Sarbanes (and that was the best showing of anyone against Sarbanes). We do lack for first-tier candidates in MD, since as of now, only the elderly Roscoe Bartlett is the sole federal Republican, and he isn’t going to run for the Senate.
He should wait until he’s positive Ehrlich is gonna run.
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