Discussion: Reports: Sen. Mikulski Won't Run For Re-election

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Discussion for article #233827

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There’s the opening for Martin O’Malley, who now won’t have to worry about challenging Hillary.

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No gaddamn way.

We NEED O’Malley to primary Clinton. Absolutely!! This seat is safely Blue so it can go to either Edwards or Van Hollen.

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Sad. We will miss Babs here in the Free State.

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Donna Edwards would be a better candidate.

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That’s a bummer. We still need more women in the Senate, and now here goes another one soon.

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Thank you Senator for doing this in a presidential election year so it will be harder for us to fuck this up.

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No one anywhere is worrying about HRC being challenged by O’Malley. But I do applaud his stance on the death penalty

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Maryland voters are sick to death of O’Malley, it’s not happening. Someone like Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, maybe, but O’Malley’s toast in Maryland politics.

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Well, I wasn’t expecting that kind of blowback. Whew!

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I don’t live in MD so I don’t know the specifics of which you speak. Can you provide them? What’s happening? If you don’t think he can successfully challenge HRC, who could?

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Long story short, he was never that popular to begin with but he originally won in ‘06 in the Democratic wave, and then survived the debacle in 2010 because he ran against the same opponent. But just the mention of his name gets flecks of spit flying out of their mouth when they talk, mention “rain tax” and watch someone start going off (this is actually partially due to Republicans’ Orwellian gifts of naming things to make them unpopular). He’s also part of the reason why Brown got beat last fall - Brown also ran a weak campaign and seemed to take black voters for granted while Hogan at least showed up, but Brown was Lt. Gov. under O’Malley and couldn’t or didn’t try to distance himself.

It’s one of those idea that looks good on paper to the national electorate but locally, it’s a non-starter. Rawlings-Blake has a much better shot IMO (and as a bonus, she’s a woman, and black, for what that’s worth).

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Thanks for giving me some perspective on the ground. I’m more than willing to admit that I don’t know MD politics. What I’ve seen of him is from a national perspective and limited. The reason I said we should put someone like Edwards or Van Holland in the seat is that we desperately need someone to primary HRC. She can’t be allowed to just sail through primary with some weak Dem who won’t even try. Because, quite frankly, I don’t believe she can win the general. That’s the reason why I said what I did.

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How much hell can Ms. Mikulski raise now that she doesn’t have to pander?

I’ll miss you.

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No offense, Brooklyndweller, but when someone like me has to think, “who?”, the chances of the subject of the question actually having an affect on the Democratic presidential primary, are pretty slim.

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Yeah, surprising to me, too. @SarenArterius has the local’s perspective, which I find more compelling than “No, he’s got to challenge Hillary.” So consider my " like" withdrawn. :wink: