Gov. Ehrlich Chooses Running Mate

WTOP on-line ^ | June 28, 2006 | no byline

[sitetest]

WASHINGTON -- Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich has chosen a running mate, WTOP Political Analyst Mark Plotkin has learned.

Ehrlich will choose Kristen Cox, the current Secretary of the Department of Disabilities, as his lieutenant governor. Cox, who is almost completely blind, will be named by the governor in Annapolis on Thursday.

Cox, 36, served in the Bush administration in the Department of Education in 2001. She lives in Towson with her husband and two sons.

Incumbent Lt. Governor Michael Steele is currently running for U.S. Senate.

Ehrlich and Cox will face Democrats Martin O'Malley and Anthony Brown in the November election.

[Vision]

Steele was very active, very public and a great choice in '02. I've never heard of her, and you need drive and charisma to win elections.

[dmw]

Well, in my office my secretary does, but here on this FR board I do. And this is an important question--because?????????

[sitetest]

Dear Vision,

Time will tell. We don't know her story. I'm more than willing to give her a fair shot.

I still have a difficult time perceiving that her physical blindness has much of a political downside.

From a completely cynical perspective, I see more upside than downside. Which is why, I suspect, Gov. Ehrlich chose her.


sitetest

[dmw]

Wow, that's deep! Actually, in my experience, it's people like you who are scared. You are scared to come in contact with people who are different from yourself because of your own insecurities. That's been my experience in dealing with people like you. There is hope for you, and I pray you will find the courage to overcome your prejudices someday. And by the way, if you ever want to come over to my home and hold my hand, you are more than welcome too. Maybe if we hung out together you would come to find out that people with handicaps are no different than people like you.

[Vision]

LOL, I have no ill feelings towards the handicapped. My God man, what is your story?

[alarm rider]

sitetest,

The whole Smith thing was an indicator of Bobby getting nervous. He is looking for fringe groups to appeal to, it's simple panic on his part, and it has dulled his political sensibilities. Then he approved of an openly "gay" judge. That tells me he is looking for the "gay" vote. That is desperation, pure and simple.

Bobby could have stood for what he said he stood for, conservative values, but no-he chooses the RINO path and trembles in fear of being ousted
We few, we proud (those of us who elected him in the first place), Maryland conservatives are not amused. There are other, better candidates that could have delivered Western Maryland, Upper Montgomery County, most of the Eastern shore, parts of Baltimore County, Frederick and the rest, but no. IMO, this choice shows just how scared he is, how he has failed the trust we gave him and how much a facade he feels he must put up. He is not fooling anyone, except the fence-sitting touchy-feely democrats. I am, for one, disgusted.

[fishbabe]

She's the perfect foil...She won't be able to see any thing he does wrong...AND she can keep giving him high fives in the community[Having a blind woman won't hurt for the democrat vote,even if he is republican]

[Vision]

That's it in a nutshell.

[sitetest]

Dear alarm rider,

Well, to me, he looks like he's been flailing around, but he's a pretty smart politician. He may find his way, yet.

Who knows? Perhaps Ms. Cox will be the start of recovering his footing.

I just don't know anything about her to judge whether the selection will help him any or not.

I'd be unsurprised if, before the election, he tacked back a bit to the right, to try to regain part of the base he's lost.


sitetest

[JohnnyZ]

And by the way, if you ever want to come over to my home and hold my hand, you are more than welcome too.

Whoa there, no hand-holding for me. I don't believe in it. Except for with chicks, and children crossing the street.

[alarm rider]

My point here is that while I am sure the lady in question is a good conservative, and probably a swell person, the fact of the matter is that this is a TRANSPARENT attempt by Ehrlich running scared. THIS IS ABOUT EHRLICH, not about the political appointee or her perceived disability.

Let's try to gain some perspective. Ehrlich started out as a guy that won mainly because conservatives were alarmed by the fact that a dunce like KKT thought she could waltz in and use the KENNEDY name and win without having anything in the way of a CLUE.

Bobby had two things going for him, the fact that he was running against KKT, and the fact that he supported slots, which most Marylanders want in the first place. Then he talked Steele into being his running mate. That was a really good move. Steele is an excellent politician, a true conservative who has not yet waivered.

In truth, Bob has shown himself to be just another Maryland politician of late. He never had the base or the stones to break the democrat hold over Maryland, and he made some really dumb moves to alienate those that elected him, especially lately. He reads the polls, he gets panicky, he looks for an edge. He has already done the "black running mate" thing, so he looks now for another edge. Ah ha, capture the squishy democrats and the alleged PC "republicans", nominate someone with a "disability".

The nomination of this lady is a weak attempt to capture the horse that has already left the barn. Anyone who follows Maryland politics can see the blatant game he is running here, and IMO, it is not going to work.

Although Maryland conservatives are few, we are not stupid. The Smith thing and the "gay" judge thing cancelled his PC Lt. Gov. thing because simply, he has not delivered on anything else. Not only has he not delivered, this particular trip into panic makes me for one determined not to return him ot office.

[dmw]

Alright, no hand holding then. :)

[Vision]

I agree with you on all points, expect that we only have a few conservatives. 18 of our counties are red, 4 are blue.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/MD/P/00/

The reason those 4 are blue, government workers and blacks who until now will only vote Dem. If the GOP continues it's hard work, I believe Maryland can be turned into a solidly Red State.

[alarm rider]

I disagree with you about Maryland becoming a "red" state.

While 18 counties are counted as "red", the population centers, the democrat voting machines, and the democrat money is located in 4 to 5 counties.

Ehrlich had a golden opportunity to really make inroads by appealing to conservatives, but he is now poll driven it would seem. He just wants to get elected again, and he is appealing to the democrats with this selection as he did with Lt. Gov. Steele. A happy by-product with Steele is that he appealed also to moderate democrats at the time of the election. Truthfully, Steele was a home run.

His big splash by firing Smith and the appointment of the "gay" judge was another poll driven message to the democrats. He bet that he could do a RINO move and that Maryland conservatives would overlook that because they cannot stomach O'Malley. From what I am hearing locally, he is wrong.

My guess is that he will soon throw a couple of bones at the conservative side, because by now, or very soon, he will see the disgust and anger over his moves lately. If a simple observer of Maryland politics such as myself can get this, then my guess is that Ehrlich is toast. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

[Vision]

I think Ehrlich has a slightly better than 50% chance of winning because O'Malley is such a terrible politician and not liked in the DC suburbs. You have to be a real ass to have a Dem like Pete Angelos hate you.

While 18 counties are counted as "red", the population centers, the democrat voting machines, and the democrat money is located in 4 to 5 counties

But who are in those population centers...a lot of blacks that are so racist they will only vote for other blacks. With decent black GOP candidates rising, those areas are changing. With that, Maryland becomes a Red State.

[sitetest]

Dear Vision,

"But who are in those population centers...a lot of blacks that are so racist they will only vote for other blacks. With decent black GOP candidates rising, those areas are changing. With that, Maryland becomes a Red State."

Don't bet on it.

Although I'm crossing my fingers that Mr. Steele will pull historic numbers of black folks for a Republican, even that might only be 25% - 30%. (Even still, with 30% of the black vote, Mr. Steele would win comfortably.)

Until the actual message gets through to individual black folks that they are closer to social and economic conservative Republicans than to liberal Democrats, blacks will vote overwhelmingly Democrat in this state and around the country.

But there's part of the problem. When Mr. Steele speaks with black audiences, they find appeal in his social conservatism, rooted in his religious faith, and his economic opportunity views. These very attitudes that gain a hearing with many black folks are diametrically opposed to the views and policies of the Ehrlich regime.

We ain't gonna win with RINOs.

I think that the key to making Maryland a red state, or at least a more purple, less blue state, is at the level of the legislature and the localities. What we see is that a moderately weak Republican governor must act like a Democrat to pass anything at all through the legislature, or suffer spaying at the hands of the veto-proof legislature.

Although it's more boring, perhaps we just need to focus more on increasing our representation in the House of Delegates and the Senate.

We need to identify districts where folks are voting for relatively-conservative Democrats (as happens in the Bowie area). We need to challenge some of these folks hard, with well-financed campaigns. If we knock a couple of folks off, then we can appeal to others to change party affiliation to Republican, as it may suit their ideology better anyway.

Even then, it's unlikely we could get to a majority in either house any time soon. But a 40% minority would provide significant support for a charisma-challenged, lackluster Republican governor, even a RINO.

And a 40% minority would be the foundation of great success for a charismatic, bold conservative Republican governor.


sitetest

[sitetest]

Dear alarm rider,

"If a simple observer of Maryland politics such as myself can get this, then my guess is that Ehrlich is toast."

He may be toast now, but it's a long way to election day.

Don't underestimate him. Yeah, he's really fouled the nest with a big part of his base - that wasn't very swift. But he was smart enough to jump into the governor's race in a year where the Dems put up a very poor candidate (although, frankly, the Dems have been running weak since at least 1994 when the buffoon Spendening got out the Vote of the Dead to "win" against Ms. Sauerbrey). He was smart enough to pick Mr. Steele.

He can recover.

I'd be very surprised if he didn't try to make up with social conservatives in some way. Who knows? We don't know much about Ms. Cox, perhaps she will be as big a winner as Mr. Steele.

As well, the urgings of Mr. Duncan aside, it's true that the Dems are saddled with another poor candidate.

Anyway, we'll see how it all turns out. It should be very interesting, don't you think?


sitetest

[alarm rider]

site,

I agree that with real conservatives, RINOs are on the way out. As for me, I have had enough.

I voted for Ehrlich, and I knew at the time that the democrats had a strangle hold on the state. I was hoping that through smart moves and courage, Ehrlich would set an example for thinking outside of the box. I also hoped that his election would awaken some younger politicians and inspire them to public service. In retrospect, that was naive. He got "Annapolitis" fairly quickly.

I have already heard a "no vote" for Ehrlich is a vote for O'Malley. What those people do not understand is that a "no vote" might also be construed as a message for the next generation of conservatives.

[wallcrawlr]

Ehrlich will choose Kristen Cox, the current Secretary of the Department of Disabilities, as his lieutenant governor. Cox, who is almost completely blind, will be named by the governor in Annapolis on Thursday.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing ping list
with interests in health and society

[sitetest]

Dear wallcrawlr,

Thanks for the ping to your list. Could you add me to it?

I'm interested in your thoughts and the thoughts of the folks on your ping list.

One poster here pointed out that roughly 20% of folks here in Maryland approximately come under the rubric of "disabled," and that that's a big group of folks to whom to appeal.

So, let me ask folks with disabilities, or with close relatives who are disabled: what impact does Lt. Gov-nominee Cox's disability (near total blindness in her case) in deciding whether or not to vote for Gov. Ehrlich?

Point of full disclosure: My own son is partially deaf, and I have my own views on the question.

Thanks,


sitetest