Speaking if Maryland, that establishment RINO Bob Erhlich really got me with his lame challenge to O Malley in 2010 as governor. It was pathetic. It was like he was paid to take a dive.
A long story about those two, Michael Steele was Erhlich’s Lt Governor, then ran for Senate and lost, then Hannity pushed him as RNC chairman I assume because he was black.
Erhlich was on CNN Crossfire today, just annoying. It makes me skeptical of Maryland Republicans.
That Michael Steele couldn't have done a worse job.
Ken Blackwell was the superior Black choice in that race. With Katon Dawson the White option, did a good job in SC.
Larry Hogan Jr. enters the 2014 GOP primary for MD Governor. Surprisingly crowded GOP field.
Just out of curiosity, I looked up Howard County in other races. It hasn’t voted GOP for Senator since Mathias in 1980 (Mathias carried every county in the state, even the city of Baltimore with 57% !). Gubernatorially, it has only voted GOP twice in a half-century, in 1994 for Sauerbrey (54%) (though she lost it in ‘98 with 47%) and 2002 for Ehrlich (where he got 55%). Ehrlich lost the county by 677 votes in ‘06 and a wider margin in ‘10, just 44%. Curiously, before 1994, you’d have to go all the way back to 1962 to the last time a GOP candidate won there (by a one-time Congressman named Frank Smalls). Even Spiro Agnew didn’t carry it in ‘66 (his main county was a huge landslide in Montgomery, he failed to even carry Balto County where he was County Executive).
Ehrlich wasn’t a bad sort, more liberal than I would’ve liked. He was the only gubernatorial casualty in 2006, attributable to the terrible climate for the GOP (Pawlenty in MN came within a hair’s width of falling, too... winning only because the Dem Lt Gov candidate committed a public faux pas that brought down her running mate). Still, I was surprised O’Malley won, he was such an awful Mayor of Baltimore. The rematch in ‘10 turned out to be ill-advised (on par with Sauerbrey’s rematch in ‘98) and I didn’t much follow it, given the other races across the country that appeared more winnable. If you believe he took a dive in ‘10, that would be a serious disappointment to hear.
Steele I had high hopes for, but he ended up a disaster. At best, he might’ve been a mediocre Senator (which is about as best as one can hope for in MD), though he had the bad luck of having to run in ‘06. Who knows, had the seat been open instead in ‘02, he might’ve pulled it off. Where I had an inkling of Steele’s being on the wrong side was the infamous 2008 1st district primary where he backed the RINO Gilchrest over Andy Harris (Ehrlich conversely backed Harris). As we know now, Gilchrest went full-Democrat for Kratovil and sabotaged Harris after his victory, and we needlessly lost the seat for 2 years as a result.
I need not run down his track record as National Chairman, but I did not endorse him for the post (in fact, he was next to last in being qualified of all the candidates - with SC’s Katon Dawson and OH’s Ken Blackwell being the top two choices at the time). He was thoroughly AWOL during 2009 when we could’ve hit the Dems hard in the special elections (ask FReeper Chicago Lady, who was the GOP nominee for Rahm Emanuel’s House seat, he didn’t give her the time of day). He then acted like he alone was responsible for the 2010 wins rather than the Tea Party grassroots movement. I publicly called for him here to step down or be removed as chairman very early on. It’s amazing how truly lousy the GOP Chairs have been in the past decade. The last “great” chairman was, of course, Lee Atwater. The only person who exhibits that sort of fearlessness today is Ted Cruz. Of course, an Atwater couldn’t get elected chairman today... he actually wants to win, not to run ringers and collaborate with the bipartisan big gubmint cabal.