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Governor and U.S. Senate Losses Just the Tip of State GOP Collapse
Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, elected Tuesday to the Senate, speaks with reporters yesterday morning with Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski.
(By Michael Robinson Chavez -- The Washington Post)
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Maloney said he believed that tactic enraged and energized black voters. "It was hugely offensive," he said. He also said he thought that some African Americans in Baltimore felt wounded by Ehrlich's television ads, which were intended to attack O'Malley's leadership of the city schools and his crime-fighting effort but portrayed the city as an urban wasteland.
The governor's aides attributed the loss to strong anti-Republican sentiment nationally. In another year, issues such as crime and education would have been at the forefront, and an incumbent with high approval ratings would have won, they said.
"It's simple math," said spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver. "A governor with near 60 percent approval rating has lost the election due to a hostile national climate."
Certainly, the pull of national politics exerted itself on the Senate race. Voters were more convinced by the Democratic message that "Steele was just another vote for Bush" than they were interested in sussing out Steele's subtle differences from the White House, said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report.
"When voters are angry, they don't parse the argument," she said. "If you're name ended in 'R' this year, you had a problem."
Steele's aggressive effort to make inroads with black Democrats did not appear to make much of a difference. He drew support from 25 percent of black voters, and Ehrlich tapped only 15 percent of the group. But Steele's performance in Prince George's was no better than that of four years ago, when he and Ehrlich rolled up 23 percent of the vote.
Frostburg State University political science professor John Bambacus said he believed that Steele suffered from something of an identity crisis and that Cardin appeared solid and steady, if not as exciting. The former chairman of the state GOP, Steele had to abandon his partisan past to attract independents and Democrats. "I don't think he could figure out who he was, and I think that probably hurt him as well," Bambacus said.
Steele signaled yesterday that his search for his place in the world will continue. "The future is bright for me," he said. "To me, the glass is always half full. I just want to figure out how to fill it all the way to the top."
Staff writers Robert Barnes and John Wagner, polling director Jon Cohen and database editor Dan Keating contributed to this report.
