I’ve got a secret! The 2016 Democratic Primary ended over 2 years ago. Even though some people seemed to be determined to fight it endlessly and ad nauseum. I say this because it matters and because it might lose us the Governorship in Maryland, which might in turn lead to an extra seat or two for the GOP in Congress.
We have a compelling candidate for Governor – a national figure who could have a great future in electoral politics, but he’s getting literally no support from the national party – not $1 – and the many wealthy Democratic donors in Maryland (with one on the highest %s of millionaires) is holding on to their money. Ben has donors – but he’s not taking corporate money or money from industry PACs. He had more in-state donors than his 6 primary opponents had combined, but his average donation is only $42. His opponent – the incumbent Republican Governor -- has close to $10 million in his own campaign war chest, and has really benefited from millions of dollars that the Republican Governors Association dropped on blistering attack ads that have helped build a double-digit lead in the polls for Gov. Hogan. Despite Ben’s personal appeals, the Democratic Governors Association is just watching from the sidelines in one of the bluest states in the country.
Accept no substitutes. Ben Jealous is the real deal.I’m an unabashed progressive. I was elected as a Sanders delegate. I lead my local county chapter of Our Revolution, and no one did more to help elect progressives in our June primaries. We scored some really impressive wins across the state – retiring some of the most intransigent state Democratic leaders who had blocked progressive legislation for years. Our candidates for County Executive won the primaries in 2 of the 3 most populous counties in the state, and our candidate for Governor triumphed over a cadre of candidates who either had long pedigrees in Maryland politics or who tried to capitalize on having worked in the Obama Administration.
Here’s what we’ve seen since. The loser in the Baltimore County Executive primary race wasted no time in announcing his support for the Republican in the Governor’s race. And he was hardly alone in expressing support for Gov. Hogan or in publicly voicing their displeasure and refusal to support the Democratic Gubernatorial nominee, Ben Jealous. Even the Democratic leader of the State Senate failed to really support Jealous, or to correct reporters who have noted his tepid support. The outgoing Montgomery County Executive – an African-American himself – has studiously avoided endorsing Jealous (though he will finally join other electeds at a fundraiser this weekend) .
In Montgomery County, new term limits forced out 4 of 9 sitting members of the County Council. 3 of the 4 being termed out ran for County Executive, whereas the 4th said she was heeding the message of voters who had voted for the term limits and was sitting it out. Then, the most progressive candidate, Marc Elrich, won the primary while running on small donor financing and public matching, even while facing a wealthy scion of a super-rich noted Republican family who spent $5 million in the primary race (that’s more – in a low turnout primary -- than any Presidential general election campaign would spend per voter).
So, what happened next? The 4th Councilmember (who had proudly led the county’s Clinton delegates) announced she would leave the Democratic Party to run as an independent in the general election against the Democratic nominee. She’s getting big money from the developers who recruited her to run and is now up with TV ads referring to her as a “lifelong Democrat.”
The Washington Post Goes On the Warpath
And, then there’s The Washington Post editorial board. Whatever you might think of the paper because of the investigative journalism the reporting staff has put together on the Trump Administration, the editorial board of this paper which is owned by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, is a different kettle of fish.
Frankly, I’m also deeply critical of their Maryland reporting which had been almost as slanted against Elrich and Jealous as the editorial board which endorsed primary opponents. Ironically, the Posts’s consistent reporting aimed at trying to scandalize Elrich and Jealous may have worked to raise their profile. The Post board’s endorsements were uniformly for candidates who were supported by the developers and the realtors’ PAC. They made a special point of attacking Elrich even as they endorsed one of his 5 primary opponents. Whether the Post remains a neoliberal or if it has become a moderate conservative publication remains to be seen, but they sure hate the left of the left and want to warn us off from electing an leftists.
The Post’s choices were followed by a plurality of voters except in Elrich and Jealous’ races (and one County Council seat). The paper’s picks clearly carry a lot of weight with a highly educated, financially well-off set of voters that, frankly, know much more about national politics than they do about local politics. Even though Elrich won, it came down to a recount that was won by fewer than 100 votes, despite his long career in electoral politics and the very Trump-like experience of the near winner, heir to a fortune and devoid of any political background. I offer this to say that Democrats are also often low-information voters that are easily swayed by image and media saturation by/for a slick, media savvy candidate.
So, in the last 10 days, surprising no one, The Washington Post board has endorsed the independent former Democrat – the independent candidate for County Executive; and yesterday (Wednesday), the Post endorsed the incumbent Republican Governor, despite (mostly) praising the progressive policies proposed by the Democratic candidate, Ben Jealous.
Actually, the Post went in deep for some serious, classic right-wing scare-mongering, suggesting that Jealous would scare off wealthy residents and push them to move out of state. Those ideas include restoring a 1% income tax marginal rate surcharge on millionaires and imposing a financial transaction tax to pay for more education funding including free tuition at public colleges and for struggling inner city and rural public schools. Jealous also wants to raise the state minimum wage to the $15/hr we passed in Montgomery County (an initiative led by Elrich, while his general election opponent led the opposition). And, of course, Jealous has come out for single-payer health care, though I have to tell you that those who think he’s an extreme left-winger don’t have a clue how much convincing he and his campaign needed to be this bold on this issue.
The Divide Is Real, but….
The civil war in the Democratic party is still on – I hate to think of it as a civil war, since it’s really an ideological, political competition for defining the party’s identity. But, for the establishment centrist elements, it seems to be a fight to the death. They’d rather see Democratic candidates lose if those standard-bearers are legit progressives. That’s especially true if they supported Sanders in the 2016 primary, as Elrich and Jealous did. Did some Sanders supporters refuse to get behind Clinton? Yes, but it was a smaller % than we’ve seen before from losing factions, including from Clinton supporters who did not vote for Obama in the general election.
Mind you, I’m not talking about the very tiny number of people who vote for Green Party candidates because they’re determined to tear down the Democratic Party from the outside. And, it’s unfortunate that too many who are aligned more in the center are so quick to throw all progressives in the same bucket. We’re not. Leftists are on a spectrum ideologically and also in terms of party affinity. Some are never going to support most Democratic candidates and some will never support any because they are serious about their party.
For me – and most on the party’s left -- the Democratic primaries are mostly fair game – at least, people should be free to make an informed choice for any candidate, though we should feel free to criticize other choices. The party – and the country cannot afford that level of division in the general election. I said as much hundreds or thousands of times 2 years ago and ended up volunteering for a 17-hour day on behalf of Clinton’s team on Election Day. I’d like that to be true for all Democrats, but I’ve been stunned by the level of hypocrisy we’re seeing this year in Maryland from those who criticized Bernie supporters. Even though Barack Obama lives a few miles away and recently announced an endorsement of Jealous, there’s no sign of him here and informed sources say the DGA has advised Obama not to campaign for Jealous.
I honestly and often argued that Jealous was not only my preferred choice but the best candidate to challenge the popular GOP incumbent, because I saw him as a potentially transformative figure that could unite and motivate both camps. However, I didn’t anticipate that the establishment would decide they’d rather see Jealous lose than win. Perhaps some are just reluctant to do anything to help him win, but they’re actively undermining his campaign because of the lack of financial support, the refusal to volunteer and the skewing of public opinion polls which creates its own dynamic. That’s not just bad for the Party ‘s candidates in Maryland this cycle. It will have vast ripples in the body politic.
The Future?
Some of those consequences will be direct and obvious. The next Governor is required by law to present the legislature with a legislative redistricting plan. A GOP Governor will offer a plan that would be aimed to take away the Democratic supermajority that allows them to consistently override his vetoes (overrides which ironically have fed the narrative that Democrats can live with Gov. Hogan). By tradition, the Governor also submits a Congressional redistricting plan. Maryland was wildly gerrymandered 10 years ago by Democrats. In part this moved the state from a 6-2 Democratic majority in Congress to 7-1, but it also was meant to serve the ambitions and concerns of a few Democratic leaders. It’s unlikely that we will be able to maintain a 7-1 map with GOP governor, especially if Democrats lose their supermajority next month – a distinct possibility as the GOP is really targeting a few races to achieve that objective.
There’s also the incalculable but certain disastrous impacts when the chasm between the left and right of the party are driven farther apart at the exact moment when unity is so crucial. It is really apparent to me that the donor class and the Establishment that funnels donor’s money into their own considerable bank accounts are very nervous about growing influence of progressives. They need to get over that. Let the primaries play out, but if they’re genuinely Democrats they need to be just as enthusiastic in support of Progressive candidates as the centrists and Blue Dogs.
What About Us Civilians?
And, of course, it’s not just the leadership. You should see the venomous stuff I see on Twitter attacking Bernie supporters as traitors, notwithstanding that he’s consistently polling as the most popular AMERICAN politician and notwithstanding that 99.99999% of Bernie’s supporters have not worked for Russia Today and are no fans of Putin or Putinism. There are Twitter accounts that get thousands of likes BECAUSE (not despite) the fact that they’re devoted largely to offering regular, scurrilous attacks on Sen. Sanders and other progressives. These posts tend to be filled with comments that attack Sanders and supporters as Russian stooges and encourage followers to troll progressives online.
Yes, I know there are some popular Twitter accounts that regularly criticize Clinton. It ain’t the same thing – and not just because of the power disparity (which is oft cited for making criticism of white people more acceptable. No one runs around slamming the patriotism or the intelligence of Clinton supporters. The left is largely engaged in a policy debate, though it can seem to take on a more personal bent in discussing the influence of money. Honestly, that’s about policy, to though – it’s just an argument that centrist policies are either inequitable or simply a reward to big donors. That’s a debate about why we have the policies we do and what a leftist party policy agenda should be. It’s not about patriotism or intelligence. It’s ultimately about where the party should go. Debate is healthy., but when it comes down to supporting candidates, no good comes out of hoping Democratic candidates lose in November. We have to work together.
Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3.
I believe that Ben Jealous can be the future of the Democratic Party (somewhere between Chuck Schumer and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) – and that’s a future we could all embrace if we get over the bitter feelings and pettiness left over from the last campaign. He can win here in Maryland, but he’ll need the establishment support over the next 3 ½ weeks.
Ben needs your support — and, unless the DGA steps up, he needs some money to introduce himself to a lot of voters who still don’t know who he is and why they should suport him over the Governor that the media insists is a moderate Republican that even a Democratic state should support. Donate here.