Jealous of Larry

It seems that every time the Democrats find candidates for office who have the answer to their problems, the candidates in question become problems themselves.  And nowhere is that more obvious in 2018 than in Maryland.   

Incumbent Republican Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (left, above) faces former NAACP President Ben Jealous (right, of course) in the 2018 gubernatorial election.  Many Maryland Democrats are enthusiastic about the election and are ready to vote for their candidate, which should their candidate's campaign a huge boost.

The Maryland Democrats I am referring to - one out of three Democrats in the Old Line State - are Hogan voters.

Hogan has appealed so effectively to voters of both parties with a moderate posture (though he's far more conservative than he appears to be) that he's ahead of Jealous in polls by double digits - twenty percentage points, according to one survey.   There are two reasons Jealous is losing.  Here's the first.  Considered one of the most progressive Democratic nominees in this election cycle, Jealous hoped to appeal to Bernie Sanders supporters with his Sandersesque agenda - Medicare for all, living wage, and all that - while espousing his belief in a capitalistic society that encourages entrepreneurship and aspirations.  Right.  Jealous' progressive stands have alienated mainstream Maryland voters, and his support for capitalism - even a small-business-friendly, well-regulated capitalist system - has turned off the socialism-supporting young voters that is Jealous' base.  In short, he satisfies no one.

The second reason?  Jealous has comedian Dave Chappelle, his lifelong friend, campaigning for him.  Chappelle may be the funniest and most relevant black comedian since Richard Pryor.  He also may be the most controversial black comedian since Richard Pryor.  Chappelle may help Jealous with young, hip, urban voters, but he probably doesn't do Jealous any favors in the suburban areas Jealous needs to win.

As I predicted earlier this year, Martin O'Malley (below), the last Democratic governor of Maryland, who may yet be the next President of the United States, is nowhere to be found in his home state campaigning for Jealous.  Why? There are many obviously possible reasons.  First of all, Jealous was not O'Malley's first choice for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.  (O'Malley supported Prince Georges County Executive Rushern Baker.)  Secondly, O'Malley is elsewhere helping state and local Democratic candidates for office and also talking and listening to people in advance of a possible 2020 presidential run; he attended a conference in New Jersey on urban issues earlier this week, in fact, and he was in Colorado campaigning for local Democrats just before that.  A third reason may even be that O'Malley's popularity in his own home state has declined since he left the governor's mansion in 2015, and so he may think he's not welcome back home. 

But the most likely reason of all may be that O'Malley knows that the only way Democrats are going to win back power is to advocate a pragmatic liberal agenda and not a quixotic one like what folks like Sanders and Jealous espouse.  I suspect that O'Malley refused to back Jealous for the Democratic nomination for governor of Maryland for the same reason he opposed Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid with a bid of his own.  He knew that Jealous, like Hillary, could . . . not . . . win.

It's a shame that his fellow Marylander, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez - who backs Clinton centrists over both O'Malley pragmatist liberals and Sanders democratic socialists - doesn't have the same innate ability to see who can win and who can't.