Soccer Dad: This is a kick

Posted by Soccer Dad.

Attila gives me too much credit. As my wife says, I'm a repository for useless information. Sandra O'Connor's (that's Baltimore County's outgoing state's attorney) prosecution strategy is useless information. Unless you're posting about "bias" in the application of Maryland's death penalty. (I haven't heard about the bias against Jews in the application of the death penalty, even though a Jew was executed in Maryland, making Jews 50% of those executed by the state since Robert Ehrlich became governor. I assume that's way out of proportion to the Jewish population in Maryland.) But I digress. When's my anniversary.

Since Attila founded the Maryland Bloggers Alliance the ranks of the alliance have grown by a whopping 300%, a testament to his superlative organizational skills. And it is in tribute to the alliance that I'm posting some news about the gubernatorial race for Maryland this year.

The leader of Attila's jurisdiction, County executive Doug Duncan, is facing off against the leader of my jurisdiction, Mayor Martin O'Malley, in the Democratic primary.

First it seems that Duncan pulled an excellent stunt. The Hedgehog Report tells us

Of course to most people, Ehrlich is just railing against ads. Some people will think he is whining and others, like me, will agree with Ehrlich that the ads are misleading. But Governor Ehrlich’s attack on the ad has managed to turn this 15-second Duncan advertisement into a four-day news story about the battle between Duncan and Ehrlich. By making it a four-day news story, that means Duncan is prominently displayed in the news on an issue that probably helps him in Maryland, especially in a Democratic primary. And every day Duncan is a bigger news story than O’Malley gives Duncan a much-needed boost if he hopes to overtake O’Malley in the primary.

So by throwing a spitball at Ehrlich, Duncan manages to get in news stories several days running raising his profile - for free. An excellent maneuver for the relatively underfunded Duncan campaign. Positively Rovian.

Apparently there's been a consequence O'Malley has shaken up his campaign staff. (again the Hedgehog Report.)

So there you have it, his guy is scaring my guy. Frankly both of them scare me. I'd rather keep Maryland a red state.

Oh and in the Senate primary race, Kweisi Mfume's playing the race card. Yawn.

Thanks for the opportunity to post here, Attila. Hope your readers enjoyed it.

Technorati tags: Maryland politics.