All Politics Is Local

In case establishment Democrats didn't get the message that their time is up, take a look at what happened in the June 26 primary election in New York's Fourteenth U.S. House District, which encompasses northwestern Queens and the southeastern Bronx (the Whitestone Bridge is the connection between the two parts).  Joseph Crowley, the district's current representative and an Irish urban pol in the old-school tradition of Richard Daley, Tom Pendergast, and the Bronx's own James Farley, just got his Irish butt handed to him in the primary by a political newcomer and self-described democratic socialist named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

She's a supporter of Bernie Sanders who advocates Medicare for all, guaranteed employment, and tuition-free public education. And while not every Democrat will get on board with her agenda, that's not important.  What's important is that voters in her district are on board with Ocasio-Cortez's positions more than they were with those of Crowley, who as Queens County Democratic Committee chairman and as a white guy was a mainstream liberal in a district that is half Hispanic and less than one-fifth non-Hispanic white.  Crowley is someone who has always been accountable the needs of his district, but his constituents (or at least those who voted in the primary) decided that the old way wasn't just working for them anymore.

Although this is already a Democratic district, Ocasio-Cortez's victory in the primary should send a message to Democrats vying to flip Republican House seats in other districts - that is, you have to be able to respond to the concerns of the voters and be more in tune with local issues than with the national party's agenda.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is right for her district.  In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, running to be the first Democrat to be elected to represent my U.S. House district since 1982, is right for my district, even though she's not nearly as liberal as Ocasio-Cortez.  Both women realize that the key to helping their party regain the House is to listen to the voters and focus on what you're for rather than just being against Trump.

In other words, what Martin O'Malley has been saying for months.

O'Malley was pleased with Ocasio-Cortez's June 26 win for all the reasons stated above, even though he had nothing to do with it. Ironically, he came up on the losing end in his home state of Maryland that same day. O'Malley got behind Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker's bid for governor of Maryland but saw former NAACP President Ben Jealous, who's closer to Sanders than O'Malley politically, win the June 26 primary instead.  O'Malley, who's not really part of the establishment but is viewed with suspicion by many progressives for having once been part of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, didn't do himself any favors by supporting a candidate with establishment backing.  Good grief, Baker was backed by Steny Hoyer, the Maryland congressman who is establishment right down to his toenails. 

Quite frankly, I don't know why O'Malley involves himself in primaries when his focus should be on the general elections.  Perhaps he supported Baker because he had the best chance of defeating incumbent Republican Governor Larry Hogan (who's favored to win re-election and would likely win a second term even if the Democratic nominee were Saint Francis of Assisi) in the fall.  Even more perplexing is why O'Malley should involve himself in the politics of his own state.  O'Malley's reputation at home has suffered since he left the governor's office in 2015; Hogan's popularity is partly based on rolling back some of O'Malley's policies.  O'Malley isn't unpopular with everyone in Maryland, but enough Maryland voters hold him in such low regard that the best thing for his political future is to continue his efforts for the Democrats elsewhere.  Conclusion: Martin O'Malley has done a good job with his Win Back Your State PAC so far, but the last state he should help Democrats win back is his own.

And if Ben Jealous is whom Maryland Democrats want, then he's the best candidate for them.