By Adam Pagnucco.
With primary election day behind us, it’s time to hand out awards for this part of the campaign cycle. No spreadsheets are required!
Best Surrogate: Congressman Jamie Raskin
Sure, Governor Wes Moore and Senator Chris Van Hollen are great to have in your corner. But Jamie is magic with Democratic voters, especially here in MoCo. His endorsements of Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and April McClain Delaney were much valued by both campaigns. Jamie is careful about expressing his support, but if you can get it, you have an edge.
When Jamie speaks, Democrats listen. From Alsobrooks’s X account.
Runner-Up
Moore. He may not be a beloved national progressive like Jamie and his toughest days in office are ahead of him, but his charisma is off the charts. Whatever Wes Moore does, he looks great doing it.
Best Media Outlet: Maryland Matters
Maryland Matters is the state’s premier site for politics and they proved it again with outstanding, granular coverage of the races for U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
Runner-Up
With the decline of the Big Two (the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun), the Baltimore Banner has stepped up with solid coverage of state politics. Today’s media outlets will struggle to create a veteran like the Banner’s Pamela Wood, who has been reporting on Maryland politics and government for more than 25 years.
Best Pollster: Fred Yang
Yes, I’m partial to Fred Yang because he’s a fellow Blair campaign alum. But think about this – his April poll showing a tight race between Alsobrooks (his client) and Congressman David Trone kicked off the narrative of an Alsobrooks comeback, which proved true. And his poll showing a solid lead by Delaney (another client) also proved true. If you are running a big race, and if you can afford him, hire Fred Yang.
Game Changer: Larry Hogan
In the late stages of the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, Hogan had a bigger impact than anyone even though he is not a Democrat. As soon as he got into the race, Trone and Alsobrooks began fighting over who was better positioned to beat him. That was the final factor weighing on Democrats as they went to the polls.
They’re Back Award
Did you see the folks gathering signatures for term limits on the county executive at early voting? I did. These people were almost broke in January but they are back in the game now. Elrich supporters beware.
The term limits table at the Wheaton Library on May 9.
Best Operative: Sheila O’Connell
It was December 2023. Alsobrooks’s campaign looked like it was in bad shape. Trone had been on TV for months and had released an internal poll claiming that he had a double digit lead. The chatter was all about what Alsobrooks was (supposedly) doing wrong. You know how that chatter can get – when a candidate looks down, the chatterers will say that everything is wrong.
Alsobrooks reacted by firing her senior staff and hiring Van Hollen veteran Sheila O’Connell, who had lengthy experience in state politics. My sources report that it took O’Connell awhile, but she brought confidence, competence and stability to the campaign. By early April, Alsobrooks was on TV and polling showed she was closing the gap. There are multiple reasons why Alsobrooks won but her staffing changes were a key part of it. O’Connell is now arguably the number one campaign operative in Maryland.
Runner-Up
Pat Murray, campaign manager for CD3 Democratic primary winner Sarah Elfreth. Is there anyone who can match Murray’s experience in politics and government all over the state? Ironically, Murray succeeded O’Connell in Van Hollen’s 2016 campaign. (You have to be good to work for CVH!)
Best Campaign That Did Not Win: Joe Vogel
Delaney’s folks will hate this award because of all of the negative attacks against her, but consider this: three years ago, no one had any idea who Joe Vogel was. Then he easily won a delegate seat in 2022 and put together a serious campaign for Congress that forced Delaney to self-fund more than a million dollars to win. No, he didn’t win, and he will have to live with lasting enmity from Delaney. But the talk of dismissing Vogel as “too young” must end because this guy has game. What will he do next?
Rolling in Dollars Award: TV Stations
Any time Trone gets in a big-time race, the local TV executives can start scouting out new yachts. They should line up outside Trone’s home and beg him to run again, again and AGAIN.
Runner-Up
The mail houses. How many statewide mailers did Trone send? It must have been at least a dozen. The mail guys need to buy their yachts now before the TV people snatch them all up.
Best Robocall: Bethany Mandel
“We’re going to expose every secret the school board has kept from parents.” Mandel may not get out of the primary, but she understood the role of an insurgent candidate. Who knows what could have happened if she had had money.
Switcheroo Award: Council Member Will Jawando
Jawando in July (when he was running for U.S. Senate): “I’m the Only Real Progressive in This Race”
Jawando in September (when he was running for U.S. Senate): “Will is the *only* candidate in Maryland’s U.S. Senate race who: Supports ending the filibuster; will fight to balance the Supreme Court; isn’t backed by millionaires and developers”
Jawando on election night:
Underrated Issue: Antisemitism
Antisemitism will never equal jobs, crime, schools and transportation as a broad-based political issue. But Jewish voters have high turnout, especially in MoCo. If you’re running a targeted campaign and you want to get a lot of votes out of an influential and focused demographic group, do what school board candidate Rita Montoya did and take a hard stand to combat antisemitism.
Worst Campaign Remarks: David Trone
First, Trone tweets, “Our criminal justice system is systemically racist and therefore, it doesn’t work for everybody, and things like increased police presence don’t make everyone feel safer.” (Can you imagine what Hogan would have done with this if Trone won the primary?) Next, Fox 5 jumped all over it and gave Alsobrooks and Hogan a chance to attack Trone. Then Fox 5 put a camera in Trone’s face and he took the bait with an angry rant. One can debate how meaningful this was, but it was not a good look for Trone in the last days of the race.
This picture is going to stick around.
Runner-Up
In implying that Alsobrooks needed “training wheels” in Trone’s negative TV ad, Prince George’s County Council Member Ed Burroughs lobbed a grievous insult that rightfully upset Alsobrooks’s supporters. Alsobrooks is a four-term elected official who has served in two tough positions: state’s attorney and county executive. Additionally, she has spent more time in elected office (14 years) than Trone (6 years).
Runner-Up 2
Trone’s remark to NBC 4 that Alsobrooks’s endorsers in Prince George’s County were “low-level folks” was an unforced error. Not only is it not true – are Rushern Baker and Dereck Davis “low-level?” – it also stoked fury in the county’s leadership that Trone did not need.
Best T-Shirt: State Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis
Folks, check out this tweet from the state’s elections administrator.
DeMarinis should make a version of this shirt incorporating Maryland’s famous state flag and sell it on behalf of the State Board of Elections. The money would pay for a boatload of new staffers just in time for the general election. Count me in for the first shirt!