Statewide Candidates for 2006 Maryland Democratic Primary

Since the Maryland primary is also coming up on September 12, and since some DCDL folks live in Maryland, I thought I’d put together a list of candidates like the one I did for DC. But things in Maryland are a lot more complicated. This year Marylanders can vote for candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, comptroller, attorney general, state senators, state delegates (usually three of those for each legislative district), circuit court judges, county executives, county council members or commissioners, county treasurers, state’s attorneys, clerks of the circuit courts, registers of wills, judges of the orphans’ court, sheriffs, members of the board of education, members of the party central committees, city offices, US senator, and US representative, and your ballot depends on which of the overlapping counties, congressional districts, and state legislative districts you live in (mdelect.net can tell you if you’re not sure).

Given all that, I’m going to stick with a rundown of the candidates for statewide office that all registered Democrats in Maryland have the opportunity to vote for. I may post something later about candidates in some of the districts near DC (for now, see the Maryland State Board of Elections for more information).

Governor/Lt. Governor: Since Montgomery County executive Doug Duncan dropped out of the gubernatorial race because of clinical depression, there will be only one option on the Democratic primary ballot: Baltimore mayor Martin O’Malley and his running mate, Del. Anthony G. Brown. O’Malley will face the Republican incumbent, Gov. Robert Ehrlich, in November.

Comptroller: The Democratic incumbent, former governor William Donald Schaefer, has served in Maryland politics for 50 years. As his campaign website says, Schaefer “marches to his own drummer”, but people may be finally losing patience with his eccentricities and offensive comments. He’s being challenged by Del. Peter Franchot (endorsed today by the Washington Post) and Anne Arundel County executive Janet S. Owens.

Attorney General: Montgomery County councilman Tom Perez was just ruled ineligible to run, so only two candidates remain in the Democratic primary: Montgomery County state’s attorney Douglas F. Gansler and former Baltimore state’s attorney Stuart O. Simms.

US Senator: The race that those of us outside Maryland care the most about is the one to replace retiring Democrat Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in the general election (assuming no miracle upset by one of Steele’s primary opponents). At this point the primary race is really between Rep. Ben Cardin and former representative Kweisi Mfume, but there are actually 18 candidates on the ballot, including several that seem a bit crazy):

• Benjamin L. Cardin
• David Dickerson
• George T. English
• James H. Hutchinson
• Anthony Jaworski
• A. Robert Kaufman
• Allan Lichtman
• Thomas McCaskill
• Kweisi Mfume
• Josh Rales
• Dennis F. Rasmussen
• Bob Robinson
• Theresa C. Scaldaferri
• Mike Schaefer
• Charles Ulysses Smith
• Blaine Taylor
• Joseph Werner
• Lih Young

As with the DC list, if you know of a website for any of the candidates I haven’t linked, please share it in the comments, along with anything relevant, rational, and contentful you have to add.