Day By Day

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Maryland Politics -- Steele Stumbles

There are disturbing signs coming out of the Steele campaign. First his campaign manager, Graham Shafer resigned, Then Steele was forced to apologize for remarks comparing embryonic stem cell research to Nazi medical experiments. Now, his communications director, Leonardo Alcivar, has resigned. Through this all Steele has kept a fairly low profile, refusing to issue major position statements.

Normally I would say this looks like a campaign in real trouble, but that might not be the case here. The officials who have been forced out were picked by the national Republican Party leaders and have reportedly been fighting with Steele's Maryland staff. Steele might simply be clearing the decks and getting rid of potential sources of conflict before opening his campaign. And there is a potential upside to this. Running as a conventional mainstream Republican is not going to gain Steele the black votes he needs to win. Declaring his independence from Ken Mehlman might be a smart move. And, for black voters, having a run-in with rich Jewish power brokers is not a bad thing either. This could turn into a very interesting campaign.

Read about it here.

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