The concept of writing a post about Superfoose appointing her new Chief Accountability Officer didn't appeal to me. I did find out an interesting nuggest about something the HoCo PoPo is proposing, but I may hold that in reserve for later in the week. But what did float my concrete boat was writing the second in my series about the 2014 Gubernatorial candidates; namely, Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown. So let's do that! Presented in no particular order of importance, these are some reasons why Anthony Brown can win:
1 and 2. The O'Malley linkage. Anthony Brown's greatest asset right now may also turn out to be his fatal liability. No one knows him for anything (outside of Prince Georges County, that is) other than being Martin O'Malley's #2. That's great now, but I have a feeling it won't be later. Rest assured that the other candidates will get around to criticizing things the administration has done, and so Brown's mission will be to defend the record while championing while he should be the man to lead Maryland forward. Which then begs the corollary question: what would you do differently than Martin O'Malley would have? That's a two-front war that I'm not sure this veteran can overcome. However, it's possible things are great in Maryland and the "Third O'Malley Term" to a Brown candidacy not only may not stick, but may instead be a positive thing to the voting public.
3. Dominating the minority vote. Anthony Brown is the only minority candidate. The race could break such that as the other candidates split the white vote, should Brown capture a large enough margin of the minority vote, he wins and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it. But I estimate it's a high margin indeed-- greater than 85%.
4. Holding serve in Prince Georges County. Brown hails from Prince Georges County, and County Executive Rushern Baker is seen by many as a great choice for Lieutenant Governor-- by the other candidates, of course. The tactical advantage gained by having Baker on a ticket would strongly undercut Brown in his base, and would make it very hard for #3 above to happen. If Brown can get Baker to sit this one out, Brown can keep his prince Georges base intact.
Now, the really ballsy move here would be for Brown to name Baker HIS Lieutenant Governor candidate. In a state where winning the Democratic Primary basically means winning the election, why not? The dominance over the African-American vote in the state should be well-established (reminding, of course, that Governor O'Malley still has strong ties to the Baltimore African-American community) and that large ablock of votes already in hand would prove, I think, an insurmountable hurdle for any other candidate.
Next up, whenever I feel like it: State Comptroller Peter Franchot!
