Bad news for Democrats in Maryland

They are finding out that a sizeable number of black Democrats in Maryland are open to voting for Senate candidate and current Lt. Gov. of Maryland Michael Steele:

An internal document prepared by a top Democratic strategist warns that a majority of African American voters in Maryland are open to supporting Republican Senate candidate Michael S. Steele and advises the party not to wait to “knock Steele down.”

Just how will they “knock him down”? By using Oreos?

The article goes on to report:

The 37-page report says a sizable segment of likely black voters — as much as 44 percent — would readily abandon their historic Democratic allegiances “after hearing Steele’s messaging.”

“Governor Ehrlich and [Lt. Gov.] Michael Steele have a clear ability to break through the Democratic stronghold among African American voters in Maryland,” says the March 27 report by Cornell Belcher, polling consultant for the Democratic National Committee, which bases its findings on a survey of 489 black voters in Maryland conducted last month.

The report, given to The Washington Post this week, drills into a topic that has emerged as a key focus of this year’s U.S. Senate contest in Maryland: race.

In 2002, Steele became the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland, and he has designed his Senate campaign to cut into the black support that has traditionally flocked to Democrats.

More power to him.

I heard him speak at the Republican National Convention and found his message *very* inspiring. White Republicans like myself can talk all day long about how Republican ideas are good for all people – white, black, Hispanic, etc but the message resonates more (to the skeptics of those claims) ten fold when it comes from black Republicans.

Support Michael Steele for Senate!

On a related note, Betsy Newmark references a Washington Post editorial that chides Democrats in Maryland for “tilting Maryland’s vote” – from the editorial:

IN THE SANCTIFIED name of expanding the popular vote and widening access to the polls, Maryland Democrats have sacrificed fairness to partisan advantage. The Democrats, who dominate the state legislature in Annapolis, pushed through a bill allowing voting to take place for five days before Election Day — but mostly at polling stations in Democratic strongholds.

This isn’t the first time a majority in a state legislature has sought electoral advantage by ramming a brazenly partisan measure down the throat of the minority party. The justification generally comes down to, “Well, they’d do the same to us if they were in power.” But no matter which party is behind such partisan mischief, the effect is the same: to subvert the faith that Americans place in the electoral system’s fairness.

Read the whole thing.

(Hat tip for the Newmark link: The Political Pit Bull)

Related Toldjah So posts:

• NYT profiles Md. Lt. Gov. Michael Steele
• Dem researcher to face charges in Steele case
• On group think and how it threatens our freedoms
• Black Democrats in MD make candid admission
• Sludge politics
• Getting to know Michael Steele