Text 24624, 82 rader
Skriven 2006-11-08 10:35:09 av Mimi Gallandt (1:123/789.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Alan Hess
Ärende: The price of a seat
===========================
Alan Hess -> RICHARD HELM wrote:
 AH> Whilst masticating on <Nov 06 06>, RICHARD HELM (1:123/140)
 AH> wrote to ALL:

 RH>> The article goes on for several more paragraphs but lives out a
 RH>> couple of significant points.  One being that $240,000 of that
 RH>> $269,000 is the Democrat's portion.

 RH>> It does mention that 85% of her money is from outside the
 RH>> district.

 RH>> Tomorrow we'll see if money wins elections.

 AH> Similar things are happening here in Maryland.  This has been the
 AH> costliest election ever here, lots of out of state money (Republicans
 AH> running for the big jobs, Governor and Senator, had much more money to
 AH> spend than their opponents, but I don't know what percentage of their
 AH> warchests came from out of state.)  The money is apparently helping - a
 AH> close race was expected for governor between incumbent Republican Bob
 AH> Ehrlich and Democrat Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley (polls show a
 AH> statistical dead heat), but the Senate race was supposed to be a
 AH> cakewalk for Democrat Congressman Ben Cardin over (handpicked by Karl
 AH> Rove) Republican Lt. Governor Michael Steele, who's never held any
 AH> political office other than his four years as Lt. Gov.  Hasn't worked
 AH> out that way.

 AH> Lots of money has gone into Steele's campaign, which has been run well.
 AH> Steele is a handsome black man, Cardin is a frumpy white man, and looks
 AH> have been shown to play a role in voting, so Steele has an advantage
 AH> there.  Steele has backed all of Bush's positions, which aren't the
 AH> positions of most Marylanders.  He shouldn't be getting more than 35-40%
 AH> of the vote, yet, in the latest poll, Cardin led 49%-46%, within the
 AH> margin of error.  I think Cardin's campaign has done a worse job than
 AH> Steele's.  For example, Steele once said while addressing a Jewish group
 AH> that embryonic stem cell research is like the Nazi Holocaust (Jews
 AH> support ESC, and have no religious problem wth it.  Most Marylanders,
 AH> regardless of religion, support ESC research.)  Steele apologized, but
 AH> Cardin should have used the quote in a commercial (Republicans have made
 AH> hay with Kerry's quote all over the country, before and after he
 AH> apologized), but the only ESC commercial he ran was the Michael J. Fox
 AH> commercial, and that didn't run nearly often enough.

 AH> This race depends on the black vote.  Polls say blacks favor Cardin
 AH> 74%-26%, but blacks tend not to turn out to vote.  A good black turnout
 AH> in Baltimore and Prince Georges County likely means a fairly easy
 AH> victory for Cardin, but low black turnout means a close race and
 AH> possible Steele victory (Steele is ahead in polls of white voters.)

 AH> SOAPBOX MODE ON - It pisses me off that so many people of all races
 AH> don't vote, but I'm especially pissed that so many blacks (regardless of
 AH> party choice) don't vote!  For so many years, blacks were denied the
 AH> right to vote, and, when they had it, were kept away from the polls by
 AH> various means.  Black and white people fought to end these tricks so
 AH> blacks could take advantage of their right to vote, and they don't!
 AH> It's spitting on the grave of MLK and others, IMO.  The worst part is
 AH> that the black people that didn't vote will be the ones complaining
 AH> about the government not responding to their needs.  Well, they have a
 AH> chance every two years to vote for candidates they deem more interested
 AH> in their community, and they don't.  Sure, there are still claims of
 AH> dirty tricks that seek to keep blacks from voting, and some may even be
 AH> true, but that doesn't excuse not trying!  The current turnout in
 AH> Baltimore City is 28%, I believe, if I heard correctly.  That is just
 AH> pathetic. *adh*

I agree, it pisses me off no end that women don't vote (especially Black
women). People have died for the last 230 years so we can vote. It seems that,
if for no other reason, we owe them and voting is a recognition of that
obligation. There are, of course, other reasons that all eligible voters should
vote, it's our civic duty to do so.

-- 
L'Chaim

Mimi

In the beginning
the Word already was.

mimigalATcoxDOTnet

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