Quite so. Border states like it had a weird persona. They never were under the Reconstruction gun, but yet they were not fully comfortable and fitting the pattern of a Northern or Southern state. For awhile, Kentucky shared some similarities with it, although they were clearly more Southern in outlook, but both had some modest GOP presences, and a rare occasion of a GOP majority (at least at the federal level), although the resemblence is gone now. WV also was somewhat in the style between them, but they had a much stronger GOP presence than either (and from 1895-1933, it basically was a Republican state, but the heavy unionization turned it Democrat from that point on -- absent unionization, WV was a lot like East TN, an odd duck in the South for being a solidly GOP area from Reconstruction right up until today).
"Yeah I decided to leave Charles out of my proposed district there with it's huge swing to Obama. Dole won it with 48%. Bush lost it in 2004 with the same 48. Bam 62% for Obama, yikes."
It's clearly due to the new arrivals. It's one of the fastest growing counties in the state. No doubt these suburbanites, sadly, are mostly rodent.
"I checked the list. Hogan was the last GOP County Exec (or only GOP one I guess they didn't have them before 1970?). He was succeeded by Glendening. I believe MD Governors are styled your excellency. I reading once "His Excellency Parris Glendening"."
PG County first elected an Executive in 1971. There was a mistake on Wikipedia stating the first, William Gullet, was a Democrat, he was a Republican and Presidential elector in 1972. He likely would've won a second term were it not for local difficulties. Hogan put it back in the GOP column in '78 (but he didn't run for reelection, preferring to try to take on Paul Sarbanes, then a first-term Senator). Glendening was the last White County Exec PG will probably have for some time to come. His successor, Wayne Curry, was a bit more pragmatic (fairly close to DINO). Curry endorsed Ehrlich-Steele in '02 and there was some speculation Curry would succeed Steele on the ticket with Ehrlich in '06 (something I personally endorsed), but that didn't materialize. The Republicans were the first to run a Black candidate for statewide office, but that wasn't Steele. State Senator & Dr. Aris T. Allen was the first in 1978 when he was the Lt Gov nominee with ex-Sen. Glenn Beall, Jr. Allen had high leadership positions both in the legislature and in the state GOP. Unfortunately, Allen was nearly 70 by the time he was the nominee. He was back in the House as late as 1990 and died in '91 at the age of 80.
"Who did? Seeing as how he voted for Tricky Dick's impeachment you'd think that would be popular."
It was former State Sen. Louise Gore. She narrowly beat Hogan for the nomination. But Barone stated in the almanac of the time, Gore made the rounds meeting the GOP primary voters while Hogan was exclusively focused on running against the troubled Mandel, and that accounted for his surprising loss. She got a disappointing, but respectable 37% against the troubled Marvin Mandel. Barone theorized if Hogan had gotten the nomination, despite the bad GOP year, he might've actually managed an upset. The state wasn't ready for a woman Governor (and still has yet to have one), although Gore would've probably done decently. She was described as a Conservative. As for poor Glenn Beall, he did even worse in the better year of '78 when he got only 29% (!) in the open race. But Harry Hughes was not the person he expected to face, Beall was expecting to run against Lt Gov (and acting Gov during Mandel's legal troubles) Blair Lee. When Lee was beaten by Hughes in the Dem primary (and Hughes ran as the anti-Mandel), it was all over for Beall.
"Interesting he was elected. PG was never exactly Republican was it? I see the last Republican to hold his seat before him was elected to the 83rd."
By the '60s with its increasing suburbanization, PG moved towards the GOP, displacing an old rural Democrat machine settled on Upper Marlboro (the courthouse), and was clearly GOP by the early '70s, but by 1976, it was moving back to the Dems and with the dramatic increase in middle-class Blacks, followed by poorer ones fleeing the likes of Anacostia. You can see by these figures ('68-41%R/40%D; '72-59%R; '76-42%R; '80-41%R; '84-41%R; '88-39%R; '92-25%R; '96-22%R; '00-18%R; '04-17%R; '08-10%R). PG is now more Democrat than Baltimore City, simply unimaginable in the 1970s, the most Democrat area in the state of MD. One wonders where all those Republicans still present in the '80s went.
But, yes, prior to Hogan, Frank Small, a PG County native, won in '52, swept in on Ike's coattails. He lost by a 6% margin in '54 (Small was a bit too much an early bloomer, as the Dem machine was still in place then). As the district shrunk in size with the addition of another Cong. district and became more suburban by the mid '60s, Hogan ran against the incumbent Dem, Hervey Machen in '66, but lost by a respectable 8% (Machen escaping the anti-LBJ bloodbath). But Hogan caught a wave in '68 (Spiro's help ?) and this time beat Machen, 53-47%. Hogan quite probably would've been reelected in '74 had he stayed put. As it was, and a demonstration the district was still Republican, the Dem, Gladys N. Spellman won by only 53-47% over John Burcham, a Hogan protege. Her increasing margins from that point on were due to increasing Black voting percentages.
Spellman would've probably settled in for a long career in the House, but when she was just 62, she had a massive heart attack days before the '80 general election. Unfortunately, she didn't die (which would've been a blessing), but lingered horribly in a coma for the next 7 years of her life, dying at 70, without ever regaining consciousness. The Dems had her seat declared vacant after waiting 4 months to see if she would make any progress. When the special election was called, we ran a very respectable candidate, Audrey Scott, who got 44%, but she lost to Steny Hoyer. Too many Black Dems were in the district now and refused to consider voting GOP at that point. 6 years earlier, with different demographics, Scott would've won. As it was, Miss Scott, I believe became the last Republican to be elected to local office within PG County. She ran for County Exec against Jack Johnson when Curry retired, but lost by a 2-to-1 margin (still, with 34%, that was double the percentage most Republicans in the county receive, now 3 1/2 times today). Ehrlich gave her a position in his administration. After Curry, I'd have probably chosen Scott for a running mate for Ehrlich in '06.
Of note, Larry Hogan's son (Larry, Jr.), when the lines were redrawn in '92 to make the district more GOP and White (Hoyer could've tried to run in the 4th, but it would've been difficult against Al Wynn), ran against Hoyer, and gave him the closest race since Audrey Scott. He got 44% and Hoyer got a subpar 53% (with a 3rd party candidate getting 3%). Junior had placed second to Audrey Scott in the 1981 GOP special primary. Had the seat been open in '92 or '94, Junior probably would've won, but the seat has continually gotten more Dem. Our best year since was in '96 with John S. Morgan, who got 43%, but the figures have dropped precipitously since, and Hoyer has never had a first tier challenger since.
"Dayum that's a huge drop and a pathetic % for 80 years. What's your problem Maryland. Gerryland?"
I think gerrymandering is part of it, but the GOP was never deeply ingrained. The reason for our winning the legislature in 1917 was due to a one-time uptick in anti-Dem voting. In Baltimore City, for example, of the 24 member delegation in 4 districts (6 members apiece) the GOP swept 16 of them to 8 Democrats. In 1919, they lost 10 of those seats, and only won in the 4th district, sweeping all 6 of those (the sole gain they made, they held 5 of those in 1917). By 1922, they lost all of those to Democrats and had zero Republicans. To get an idea of how badly the GOP was perpetually shut out of Balto City, the district lines (then in 1924 split into 6 districts of 6 members elected to each, 36 members in total, whose districts remained in place (albeit some added a member over time) until 1974, no Republicans were EVER elected again in the 1st district, although at that point, the last time any won was in the 1909 election when they swept 4 of the 6. None won ever again in the 2nd district from 1917-75. Not until 1954 did won win again in the 3rd. In the 4th, there were occasional GOP wins from the '20s & '30s, and then one in the '50s, but it became a Black area, and then no more Republicans were ever elected. In the 5th, one guy was elected in the late '20s, but then never again. This became the district later where Marvin Mandel and Ben Cardin came from (Cardin being elected as long ago as 1966 when he was about your age, and has never been out of office since). The 6th district never elected a Republican in the period between '24-'74, either. By 1974, there were a whopping 43 members in those 6 districts alone, and it was all-Democrat. There were only 21 Republicans in the entire House spread out all over the rest of the state. MD has been sort of infamous for its bizarre multi-member House districts that it has, and they're not just confined to urban areas, either. Many districts have 3 members, but some have districts with just 1 or 2, and some of the districts are numbered and lettered (such as 9A, 9B). Confusing as hell.
"Wow I would have thought he was a moderate like the Bealls. Perhaps he would have made a good running mate for Nixon in '60."
Butler may have been perceived as too close to Joe McCarthy (who was thoroughly vilified by 1960, nevermind that the Kennedys even in '52 wanted McCarthy's support when JFK ran for the Senate, McCarthy detested Lodge and vice versa. Lodge considered McCarthy part of the "rabble" that he didn't wish to be a part of. That superior, smug Brahmin attitude was the reason the GOP disintegrated in MA from majority party status at that point). Butler may have also been tired. He was 63 in 1960 and a WW1 veteran (he was born right around when my grandfather was in 1897), and he voluntarily retired in 1962, undefeated. Ironically, his 1956 opponent was the legendary George Mahoney, the "George Wallace/Lester Maddox" of Maryland (Populist/Conservative). Mahoney really irritated the urban liberal Democrats in the state. His nomination in '66 for Governor was the last straw for them, and they ran a 3rd party Democrat, which enabled Agnew to win.
One weird note about Butler: He actually did not win the 1950 Senate primary in real total votes. David Markey, who lost by only a half percent to ex-Gov. Herbert O'Conor in 1946, won by 2% over Butler, but because there was a proportional voting system ("unit voting"), Butler won a higher total in units. Markey's problem may have been age. He was 69 in 1950 and would be dead by 1959. He might've been able to defeat the ultraliberal Millard Tydings, but the seat probably would've been back in Dem hands before long (and Tydings, who had been in office continuously since about 1916, was still 9 years younger than Markey). Butler was 16 years younger. Markey, at 71, tried one last time to make a run in the GOP-leaning 6th House district, but lost the primary by a wide margin to DeWitt Hyde. Hyde was almost 30 years younger. He was one of the casualties in the 1958 anti-Ike landslide (although we won the seat back in '60 - with, you guessed it, the liberal Chuck Mathias). Mathias was followed in that seat when he was elected to the Senate in '68 by, yup, Glenn Beall. Beall won the Senate seat after a single term in the House by beating Millard Tydings's adopted son, Joe Tydings. The Democrats, Goodloe Byron, followed by his wife, Beverly, held the seat for the next 22 years. But the Byrons were well to the right of both Mathias and Beall. Poor Roscoe Bartlett ran against Bev Byron in 1982, and she obliterated him by the margin of 74-26%. Bev probably would've kept on winning (had we not been able to persuade her to switch parties) had she not been beaten in the '92 Dem primary. Roscoe Bartlett lucked out enormously when the Byroncrats (which were really Republicans anyway that supported the Byrons) rebuked the Dem nominee and he won, otherwise he'd have just been a placeholder candidate for the GOP.
Got to hate em. Back in the day of near-slave like conditions in the factories in the early 20th Century they could be seen as a positive. Today they are just a drain on the economy and the premier rat power base. Public enemy #1.
There was a mistake on Wikipedia stating the first, William Gullet, was a Democrat,
Ah good someone fixed it. I love/hate Wikipedia.
there was some speculation Curry would succeed Steele on the ticket with Ehrlich in '06 (something I personally endorsed), but that didn't materialize.
Too bad.
The Republicans were the first to run a Black candidate for statewide office, but that wasn't Steele. State Senator & Dr. Aris T. Allen was the first in 1978
Oh. I don't remember if I heard that or not in 2002. I forgot it if I did.
Barone theorized if Hogan had gotten the nomination, despite the bad GOP year, he might've actually managed an upset.
I have the feeling sans-watergate that '74 would have been a decent mid-term. So much scum won only because it like Leahy.
That hypothetical McGovern Mcmidterm could have been sweet.
The state wasn't ready for a woman Governor (and still has yet to have one),
Thank goodness they weren't ready for KKT. Too bad about Ellen Sauerberg though.
it was moving back to the Dems and with the dramatic increase in middle-class Blacks,
Such a travesty suck voters are just as rat as a resident of the Bronx.
Unfortunately, she didn't die (which would've been a blessing), but lingered horribly in a coma for the next 7 years of her life, dying at 70, without ever regaining consciousness.
Yikes I heard of her I didn't know she lived that long after that.
Audrey Scott
I see a black dem took her county council seat.
36 members in total, whose districts remained in place (albeit some added a member over time) until 1974
That's whacked out. This survived Baker Carr?
Confusing as hell.
Yeah. Kinda seems like the the way the British Parliament used to elect members long long ago. And it stinks they have 4 year terms
Lodge considered McCarthy part of the "rabble" that he didn't wish to be a part of.
What and awful VP Choice. Worst ever.
Human Events ran a piece, it used to online now it's not, about the '52 Senate races and they were rooting for the "Nationalist" Kennedy over Lodge.
I'm thinking a Southerner or quasi-southerner would've been best. Time magazine mentions Thurston Morton (moderate I think) and Ike's Sec Treas. Robert Anderson of Texas who it seems Ike liked a whole lot (bad sign). But given what happened to him later with the booze and criminality obviously not a good choice.
the legendary George Mahoney
Segregationist huh. Was he better than Agnew otherwise? Smells like Huckabee.
but because there was a proportional voting system ("unit voting"), Butler won a higher total in units.
I see that stuff was later called unconstitutional. Too bad. I'd like to use here in a general election to blunt Crook County.
David Markey
Did he ever hold an office? The political graveyard doesn't think so.
the Byrons were well to the right of both Mathias and Beall.
What a state. Dixiecrats and superrinos. How much of a DINO was Guv Schaefer? He sounds like a big one.