The land of middle temperament
Maryland had some interesting, if not completely unexpected, election results.
On the day of the filing deadline, Larry Hogan entered the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, and, to be honest, everyone else may as well have gone home. On Tuesday we found out just how far near-universal name recognition will get you as Hogan smothered the seven-person field with over 62% of the vote. Perennial candidate Robin Ficker was a distant second with just under 30%; however, he won four counties: Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Garrett. So the lower Eastern Shore and far west Maryland aren’t Hogan territory. My personal favorite, Lorie Friend, finished in fourth with just over 2% of the vote, which is a pity. She ran strongest in her native Western Maryland.
On the other side, you had a race reminiscent of the old Big Ten, back when it was the Big Two and little eight. I’ll let you decide who was Michigan and who was Ohio State between PG County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Congressman David Trone, but, for all of the latter’s money, he still lost by 11 points when no other candidate passed one percent.
And remember, this is Maryland, where the Democrat vote on the primary Election Day was larger than the TOTAL Republican vote. Throw in mail-in ballots and twice as many Democrats as Republicans voted. While it could be the lack of excitement on the GOP side - where the result was a fait accompli three months ago - it’s a huge built-in advantage for Alsobrooks, whose long list of priorities includes the laundry list of liberal lunacy. When she held serve in Trone’s home of Montgomery County yet won her home in PG County by almost 50,000 votes, the election was over.
There are those who argue that Hogan is probably the best Republican you can get from Maryland, but as I’ve often said: why vote for liberal-lite when you can get the real thing in Maryland? If Hogan is the guy who makes the Senate 51-49 GOP, that’s one thing, but the chances of that are fairly slim.
Meanwhile, it appears the Eastern Shore will keep its Congressman despite the fact he’s now looking for his second term beyond his initial self-imposed twelve-year limit in office. You know, all the people who supposedly hate Andy Harris and troll his social media sure don’t turn out to vote in the Republican primary, which he won with almost 78% of the vote. He crushed a credible challenger in Chris Bruneau, who ran on being a change agent, as well as the unknown Michael Scott Lemon. Harris actually did best in Wicomico County, where he was just a shade under 85%. So I suppose I can continue to refer to the trolls as the “traveling roadshow.”
While it wasn’t quite enough to overtake, the situation in the First District was the opposite of the Senate race - Harris had almost as many votes on Election Day in a contested race as the two Democrats secured overall.
One last interesting race to me was the one in Cecil County, at the northeast corner of Maryland. Pound for pound, it’s perhaps the county with the most intrigue and infighting in Maryland among Republicans and this election was no exception as incumbent County Executive Danielle Hornberger was upset in her primary by Adam Streight; meanwhile, friend and supporter Jackie Gregory is hanging on by the skin of her teeth in her District 5 Council race, leading by ten votes over Dawn Branch with provisional votes to count.
The interesting thing to me is just how many Democrats changed their registration in the last few months, boosting the GOP total by almost 900 voters - more than enough margin to sink Hornberger and place Gregory in jeopardy. Since Democrats are such a minority in the county, they figured out another way to take out a conservative pair of incumbents.
So we go through another primary six months before the fact. It makes me pine for the days when they had their September primary like Delaware does, because I sense a batch of buyer’s remorse coming on.
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Finally, a quick word about how I’ve overbooked myself: two side jobs (one for family), plenty of work at my real jobs, and doing some iVoterGuide work in a Midwest state. So something had to give, and it’s been my Substack for this week. Not saying things won’t be slow for a bit as I finish the side jobs, but that’s why I skipped a day or two.
Remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.
This election is CERTAINLY going to be interesting!