Epiphany in Baltimore

2002-11-06

Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com

I'm depressed. I went to bed depressed, right after I heard that Kathleen Kennedy Townsend lost by six points to Bob Ehrlich. I'm now waking up depressed, as I learned that the Republicans had taken control of all three branches of government.

The former is disappointing me more. I did my part, I believe, but I feel like this state has let me down. I know this is a selfish way to feel, but Maryland is supposed to be a Democratic state, and unless the Democratic candidate was really awful or the Republican candidate was really good, then the Democratic candidate should have won. And, sorry, but KKT might not have been the model candidate, but she was fine. She was a successful Attorney General and ran a campaign without any major blemishes. Sure, she probably tried to go too moderate with her own Attorney General pick and should have went left more. But by all media reports and by watching it myself, she whomped Ehrlich in the one debate the two had, and that should have been significant. It's like people all had an idea that she was a lightweight, and never let anything she did counter it. I think a lot of it has to do with sexism, and also for other surface reasons - she's short, her voice is sort of screachy, she looks like a soccer mom - all reasons that should have nothing to do with how an election is won or lost.

Kennedy-Townsend also ran into some bad luck. Right after she trounced Ehrlich in the one debate that he showed up for, the sniper attacks began, putting political news on the backburner. How ironic it is that people thought that the sniper would hurt Ehrlich, since he's in the right pocket of the NRA, and it ended up hurting Kennedy-Townsend intead.

And what do people see in Bob Ehrlich? I can understand if you're a conservative person, but if you're a moderate, why would anyone vote for a guy who voted not to ban assault weapons? Why is he allowed to make mistakes that seem egregious to me, like not showing up for a debate without telling the debate organizors and showing up for a Ravens game instead despite saying the reason was your schedule was full? Why was that not reported heavily? Like the 2000 election, I think the media was unfairly biased towards the Republican candidate - and this is bizarre, considering that every major newspaper in the region endorsed KKT at the end.

Oh well. It's only four years. I think people are going to be immediately disappointed. One of the first moves Ehrlich will make is to lift the capital punishment moratorium. The moratorium was put on to study the punishment and how it is used in Maryland, to see if there are any racist tactics in how it is imposed. I'm expecting Ehrlich to open it right back up again. Family planning will also take a huge nosedive.

Oh well. I'm very disappointed in the state's voters right now. A left-leaning state has no reason to elect such a conservative Republican to be governor, and I think it's lack of voter education on just how conservative Ehrlich is and a heavy emphasis on things like charisma and personal attractiveness rather than policy that led to moderates voting for him. Again, if someone is conservative to begin with, it's fine to vote for Ehrlich - he probably represents their values well. But if someone was moderate, then voting for Ehrlich instead of Kennedy-Townsend is a mistake if s/he wants their values represented. The only solace is that he is probably just a 4-year placeholder until Martin O'Malley runs in 2006. I doubt I'll be living here then, but it's still a bit of solace.

Boo, Maryland.

Then I wake up to find that almost every close race went to the Republicans. With all three legislative bodies being in Republican control, I'm sure this will be a thrilling country to live in for the next couple of years. By thrilling, I mean we'll be going to war, probably against the advice and without the support of the rest of the world.

What a bummer. I feel like Mr. Lambdin, my high school government teacher, must have felt coming in the morning after the Republican takeover in 1994 - he was so dismayed that you could read the disappointment on his face and posture.

Then I had another page of attacks on my guestbook this morning. I'm beginning to be tempted to take the advice of Chloe, who offered to get one of her hacker friends to take over the computer of the random signers.