The Senate Race to Watch: Steele vs Mfume

Maryland Dems do all you can to prevent Michael Steele from getting his party nomination.

This race would no doubt become a national battleground for the GOP attempting to grab Black voters.

Since Steele is not firebrand like the last black Senate candidate, Alan Keyes, I expect he will get a huge amount of support from the RNC and Bush. Can you imagine the dirty tricks Rove would come up with?


<snip>

Mr. Steele, the presumptive GOP nominee, has delighted Republicans and unnerved many Democrats for precisely the same reason -- the chance that he may shave off slices of the Democrats' traditionally solid base of African Americans

<snip>

Like black Republican candidates elsewhere, Mr. Steele has been attacked by some black Democrats who suggest -- outrageously -- that the fact of his party membership constitutes a betrayal and an affront to African Americans. As former NAACP chief and congressman Kweise Mfume, himself a candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination, pointed out in the Washington Times, "Black bigotry can be just as cruel and evil as white bigotry."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120300879.html

about the people of New Orleans? I think these folks don't have any kind of heart to be turning their backs against their own. Just ask Keyes.

likely won't be the nominee.

Voting for a black person will not excite them enough to go to the polls.

Gov Bob Erlich (R) is leading the fight to get Steele elected. I think he would get major repug support from within MD and nationally.

"Look, see, we're a diversified party."

the republican agenda or the national ticket that will get Marylanders excited about a republican senator..black or white?

Millions of new jobs created since 911..
(and record low UNemployment numbers)
Stock Market hitting new highs...
Iraq will be the first democracy in entire muslim
middle-east history....
No terrorist attacks in the US since 911.....
Drug benefits for the first time added to medicare...
Federal Education spending highest ever....
Budget deficit as a percent of GDP lower than anytime
during the previous 50 years....

Be prepared for these ads in the coming elections. I am
listing these here so we can prepare a proper response.
I would love to see some posts knocking down the repug
propaganda.

cancelled out by Marylanders being so close to the bush scandal house all these years.

when the GOP voters made Steele the Lt. Governor of Maryland.

more so than re-electing Ehrlich. This is their first realistic opportunity to pick up a United States Senate seat in over 20 years.

Half of them will stay home.

Which will more than make up for the 2% of blacks who will switch from Mfume to vote for this guy.

Gov. and Lt. Gov are elected together

the ticket I doubt that they would have voted for Erlich.

I don't think that analogy works as well.

His name escapes me, but I remember his face.

Party, different time and state

Maybe 10% if he faces Cardin. Blacks simply aren't going to vote for someone who's going to be Bush's rubberstamp and the racial argument the GOP is trying to stir up is not helping. Prince George County and Baltimore City when most blacks live, were 82% Kerry and Steele will get trounced there no matter who he faces. They expect people to support him just because he's black and that's an asinine way to run a race. Bush saying he's the right man for Maryland probably will turn off alot of people. As for blacks in the GOP, almost everyone I know who is black has a huge distrust for black Republicans and it's based on their actions, not ideology. After Katrina, the GOP probably killed it's chances to get black votes. I'd really love to see how many of the white votes in the panhandle which is where most Bush supporters in Maryland are and that area is the fundiest part of the state. He'll have to get their votes to even get above 45% and I doubt they'd vote for black man for Senate. I say he get 42%-43% or maybe more if he can swing more GOP voters.

of having another black Senator, even if he's conservative.

Our best bet is to ensure he's defeated in his primary.

The only guy challenging him is a complete nobody. He'll win the primary with over 90% of the vote. The GOP in Maryland maybe weak, but they are not dumb. They know Steele is the only shot they will have at a United States senate seat for years to come.

He will have no primary opponent of any standing. He is the GOP nominee.

but still losing overall by 9%. Steele does not do nearly as well w/ blacks when faced of against Mfume, but he does much better overall.



Maryland Senate
Michael Steele (R) 41%
Ben Cardin (D) 49%
Other 3%

Michael Steele (R) 45%
Kweisi Mfume (D) 44%
Other 6%

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2005/Maryland%20Senate%20Nov%2021.htm

This is one of the few seats Republicans got the candidate they wanted. I do think Cardin will win, but by less than Democrats usually do in this state.

election day.

yet to release. He's waiting until the last possible minute so he can mold his campaign around what is popular. IMO, he could do very well among blacks. By very well I mean 20-30%. A lot of middle to upper class blacks will probably be willing to cross party and ideological lines to break the 'glass ceiling'. Thats why it is very important that we do well among white suburban voters who have drifted away from the democrats in recent elections. Cardin can definitely fulfill this role. He will run very strong in the Baltimore and Washington suburbs, which will ultimately lead him to victory.

among black voters....

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.steele07nov07,1,6027286.story?coll=bal-mdpolitics-headlines

Thank god.

Maryland Senate
Michael Steele (R) 41%
Ben Cardin (D) 49%
Other 3%

Michael Steele (R) 45%
Kweisi Mfume (D) 44%
Other 6%

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2005/Maryland%20Senate%20Nov%2021.htm

a great congressman.

Ive also sent him a little cash, but its hard for a broke ass college kid like myself. So I give my time instead. :)

aren't that bad. If he does get the nom he'll still have a good chance.

Cardin should get at least 55%. Sarbanes always got at least 60%.

he's currently leading the primary by a small margin despite having the lowest name id of any major candidates.

Cardin has about $2 million cash on hand.
Mfume has around $100,000 cash on hand.

Apparently the repugs are already working this campaign hard:


<snip>

The president came to Baltimore from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he had delivered an address defending his handling of the war in Iraq.

He also talked about the war during his speech at the fundraiser, saying he needs people like Steele in the Senate to help him as he lays the groundwork for peace in the Mideast.

Steele spoke very briefly in introducing Bush, sounding a major theme of his campaign -- the need to build bridges to cross lines "that for too long have divided us by party, class and race."

Outside the stadium in a small nearby park, about 50 people gathered at a protest organized by Progressive Maryland, a liberal lobbying group. The protesters carried signs with slogans such as "Taking Bush money will cost you in Maryland" and "Just say no to Bush's money."

Stephanie Goodwin, a member of the Service Employees International Union, said Steele "tries to tell the public he's a moderate, but he's taking money from one of the most right-wing presidents we've had."

Republicans hope that Steele, seeking to become Maryland's first black U.S. senator, will be able to cut into the huge margins that black voters usually give to Democratic candidates.

Victor Clark, a longtime black Republican activist from Baltimore, said he thinks Steele will get a lot of the black vote with his emphasis on education and creating what he calls legacy wealth that black Marylanders can accumulate and pass on to their children.

"The new mindset of young African-American professionals is about all the things he's about," he said.




http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-steele1130,1,4562406.story?coll=bal-home-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

I don't trust many voters, to include black voters. "Legacy of Wealth" is such a bullshit statement, but it appeals to the "whats in it for me."

No longer is there a true sense of community that Dr. King spirited, where the races would come together and bridge gaps between rich and poor, mend divisions of centuries past, create a harmonious world where we could all live a nice life no matter if we had "a legacy of wealth" or not.

No, now its about getting what you can while you can get it. If you can get a "legacy of wealth" and your brothers and sisters are left iin shitsville, thats too bad, you worked hard, be happy. The amount of money flowing back into the inner cities from the super wealthy black athletes is an embarassment so I don't pretend that increased wealth for individual blacks will do anything for those left behind...other than just create NeoCon Blacks.

There are a few that do amazing things (Tiki Barber, Derrick Brooks, and actual africians like Dikimbe Mutumbo and Lual Deng), but too many don't give a shit about anything but how big a rock they can stick in their ear. It's a sad exercise and embarassing.

Then we have Jesse Jackson pimping for a goddamn millionare Terrell Owens. WTF? Just like the white race, the black race is full of sellouts.

"I don't trust many voters, to include black voters. "Legacy of Wealth" is such a bullshit statement, but it appeals to the "whats in it for me."

Actually, I think a legacy of wealth, (home ownership, business ownership) is less selfish than expecting to get what you need from the government.

I think that is pretty much a non-partisan agreement, which is why welfare reform passed under Clinton.

Mfume has too many skeletons in his closet...Cardin is a very good congressman in the Sarbanes mold

Query:

Would the Post's editor's ever allow a story to run without slanted copy?

The accent he uses doesn't sound like anything identifiable, kind of like Jude Law trying to speak American, or more accurately, Richard Pryor doing his old schtick where he makes fun of suburban white people. It sure ain't the dialect he was born with. The man is about as genuine as Naugahyde.

Are you saying Ebonics is a birthright?

We have to be careful with racism vs even repug blacks. It will be used to drive some to the other side.

We saw a lot of that type of think when Rice was going thru the confirmation process.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.steele07nov07,1,6027286.story?coll=bal-mdpolitics-headlines

And Steele has tied himself to both Ehrlich AND Chimpy...neither of whom are popular with black voters.

Nor has it helped him that notorious racists and bigots (Michelle Malkin and the Washington Times editorial board, for example) are trying to prop Steele up with a phony account of him being pelted with Oreo cookies at predominantly black Morgan State U.

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=428&sid=622881