Happy Sunday everyone! I have a few points to bring up for the beginning of the week (and to end last week)…
1) THANK YOU! On Tuesday, September 14th, I won the race for the Chairmanship of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee. With 99.1% of the vote in, I won by about 1,000 votes out of 30,000 cast. The good news for Republicans is that our turnout in the primary was higher than four years ago and much higher than the Democrat voter turnout. Hopefully, our motivated voter base is a good trend that will continue into November’s general election.
2) A trend that is negative is the friction between Tea Party movement candidates and the Republican Party establishment. in two cases, Alaska and Delaware, the Republican establishment candidate have lost the primary and the establishment has decided to attack the primary winner. I believe this strategy is short-sighted. In 2010, the Tea Party grass roots may not have anywhere to go but in 2012 they may choose to start their own political party. If that happens, the conservative base leaves the GOP and we will be stick with Democratic office holders in states across this country.
My advice to the Republican Party establishment – embrace the Tea Party winners – if you don’t, the GOP may be without its strongest supporters and financial donors in the 2012 cycle and beyond.
3) Speaking of Delaware – what is up with the Bill Maher / Christine O’Donnell story? According to Maher, O’Donnell went on his show to announce that she had tried witchcraft. Of course, the clip was edited to show O’Donnell in the worst possible light, Maureen Dowd at the New York Times goes one step further by stating:
From O’Donnell: “On the one hand, there’s the attitude that’s normally on the conservative side — as a conservative woman, I feel I can say this — that stifles women. There’s almost the stereotypical attitude of, to be a true woman, you have to stay at home. And I’ve actually had people say to me, ‘Why do you choose a career over marriage?’ Honestly, I’ve had only a few significant relationships, and they’ve broken up with me. And one of the things I’ve been told is, ‘If you weren’t so strong, you’d be married by now.’ ”
Dowd: This anti-abortion, anti-masturbation, anti-premarital-sex, anti-stem-cells, anti-gay-marriage, dubious-about-evolution Christian conservative has rocked politics by snatching the Delaware Republican nomination for the Senate away from the seemingly sure-thing moderate Mike Castle.
I do not know enough about Christine O’Donnell to give any kind of reasoned opinion. However, her opponent Democratic primary winner Chris Coons is a self-titled “bearded marxist.” O’Donnell was even dissed by Karl Rove the other day which helped her raise $1 million dollars in a span of a few days. Whatever her flaws, my gut tells me that it will be a close election that will be decided in the final days.
Faculty, Department of Political Science, Towson University. Graduate from Liberty University Seminary.