2006 Campaign Bringing Attention to the African American Vote in Maryland

The Washington Post reports today on a new internal Democratic poll of African American voters in Maryland which apparently shows they are open to voting for conservative Republican Lt. Governor Michael Steele in November's election to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Paul Sarbanes.

Whether this data is true or not shouldn't matter much at this point to the Democratic operatives responsible for winning the Senate seat in November. But it should serve as a reminder that Democrats need to aggressively court African American voters and demonstrate why they believe they would provide better representation, and have a better record of service to the community, than Steele.

It should come as no surprise that a well-liked African American Lt. Governor would have a chance to do better among African American voters than any previous non-African American Republican candidate. I posted about this recently after The New York Times Magazine ran a favorable profile of Steele.

Today's Baltimore Sun also has an article written out of New York which ads depth to the discussion of the African American vote in Maryland this cycle while referring to the potential implications of a campaign battle between two black candidates (Steele and former Congressman and Democratic candidate Kweisi Mfume).

Click [here] for The Washington Post article.

Click [here] for the Baltimore Sun article.

Meanwhile, since I teach political Internet strategies at Johns Hopkins University, I was personally intrigued by the "Maryland Political Quiz" interactive ad the Friends of Doug Duncan (for Maryland Governor) campaign is running on the Baltimore Sun website.

The site is a "push-poll" of sorts: pushing out negative message against his main opponent for Governor, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. One question asks: "In his battle to reduce city crime, how many different police chiefs has Martin O'Malley appointed?" And it gives the "Correct Answer" as "Four."

At the same time the ad pushes out negative message against Governor Bob Ehrlich who is running for re-election, and positive message about the two leading Democratic candidates Congressman Ben Cardin and Mfume. This gives Duncan, the Montgomery County Executive, a chance to take the high road by appealing to Democratic supporters of both Democratic candidates and appearing to be a Democratic team player.