I’m putting up a live blog for Marylanders to add their comments as the election returns come in.
Hillary Clinton is expected to carry Maryland easily, but after the fiasco of 2014 when the relative few who bothered to vote elected a Republican governor, it ain’t over till it’s over. Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen is expected to easily beat Republican Delegate Kathy Szeliga. Last week, the Washington Post had this to say about Ms. Szeliga:
Szeliga is an evangelical Christian with a voting record far more conservative than the Maryland mainstream. She opposed stricter gun-control laws, the legalization of same-sex marriage and a 2014 law barring discrimination against transgender individuals in hiring, workplaces and public establishments.
Even though the transgender law does not apply to locker rooms and other places where people disrobe, Szeliga wrote that it could “jeopardize the safety of women and little girls by allowing predators and pedophiles access to the women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms and other similar places.”
Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), who sponsored the bill, said Szeliga’s opposition amounted to “trafficking in fear.”
Yet, drawing from the playbook successfully played by Larry Hogan in 2014, Szeliga has downplayed her social conservatism and instead has painted herself as another moderate, willing and eager to work across the aisle. It’s not supposed to be close, but all the Szeliga signs (with almost no Trump signs) in my Orthodox Jewish neighborhood make me nervous.
All of Maryland’s six incumbent Congressmen, five Democrats plus Tea Party ideologue Andy Harris, are expected to be easily reelected. Democrats Jamie Raskin and Anthony Brown (who as Lt. Governor lost to Larry Hogan in 2014) are both expected to win their elections, replacing, respectively, Chris Van Hollen and Donna Edwards (who lost to Van Hollen in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate).
There is one state constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot: The amendment requires the governor, if a vacancy occurs in the office of Attorney General or state Comptroller, to name a replacement from the same political party as the person who left office. The state legislature has already made this change with respect to U.S. Senators, but, as the rules for replacing the Attorney General and Comptroller are spelled out in the Maryland Constitution, the voters have to ratify this change. In my opinion, every state should have this rule — the certainty that the Republican governors of Ohio and Massachusetts would have replaced Senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren with a Republican senator probably affected Hillary Clinton’s decision to choose Tim Kaine as her running mate.
Also, here in Baltimore City, we are electing a new mayor and city council. Democratic Delegate Catherine Pugh is expected to easily win the election over long time radio talk show host Republican Alan Walden, and Green Party candidate Joshua Harris. I do predict that Harris (for whom I voted this morning) will finish a strong second.
While we are waiting for the returns, lets here how voting went today, or last week if you voted early.