C. Fraser Smith

By C. Fraser Smith
 — The state of Maryland is a bastion of liberalism in America, but its Republican wings – Eastern Shore and Western Maryland – are crucibles of the political Right.

Republicans almost always win there. The trend was interrupted in 2008.

Many assumed State Senator Andy Harris would ride the First District’s GOP wave to victory. Didn’t happen. 

The very conservative and hard-ball Harris helped to unseat the nine-term Republican incumbent, Wayne Gilchrest, an Eastern Shore man who had served well but apparently a bit too moderately for some of the party faithful.

Gilchrest then supported the Democrat, Frank Kratovil, who won narrowly in the General Election.

Like the famous fictional Mr. Smith, Kratovil went to Washington. He could never forget the folks back home, of course, and he apparently assumes that at least half of them expect to be as Republican or conservative (if those terms, taken together, are no longer redundant) as possible.

Read more: Kratovil’s high wire act

C. Fraser Smith — The blessing known in Maryland as BRAC remains a mixed blessing.

The national military Base Realignment and Closure Act was added to the state’s vocabulary as if we had dodged a bullet. Base closure has often meant the loss of jobs, a scramble for local economies to re-invent themselves and for political figures to cry out in despair.

Ah, but not so in Maryland. Here, BRAC would allow Maryland to continue with business as usual. We’d have tens of thousands of new jobs and new revenue sources. Housing markets would be sustained. Infrastructure would be propped up.

Some gave a little thought to the downside. The wave of new workers and families would represent challenges for planners and budgeters.

But few spoke of BRAC as a threat to the Land of Pleasant Living.

Read more: BRAC: The gift that keeps on taking

By C. Fraser Smith — More evidence arrives daily – if more was needed – that there’s no easy way out of the deep trouble wrought by the practitioners of exotic financing devices on Wall Street.

And, difficult as it may be to contemplate, this downturn is not the worst thing that could happen. Maryland and, no doubt, other states face a deferred maintenance time bomb.

The economic hit we’ve taken exacerbates the anti-tax mood. That in turn deepens the sour political mood. Almost no public official will concede that taxes have to be raised – not just to solve immediate problems but to restore costly water and sewer lines which come unglued all the time.

We’re on the cusp of an election year, so no one in Annapolis lets the t-word pass their lips.

Read more: When dodging the downturn looks like a day in the park


By C. Fraser Smith —

Gov. Martin O’Malley’s second term will be easily won if he can solve severe budget challenges, head off debilitating Democratic Party strife and his own periodic loss of passion for the job.

Piece of cake.

Each of these obstacles is manageable, so it’s already O’Malley’s race to lose. (No. It’s not too early for that kind of prognostication. The race is underway even if invisible.)

Important, but somewhat abstract arguments, can be made against his re-election. He’s chosen not to use the economic crisis as leverage for dramatic changes in Annapolis — reductions in government size and services. He’s decided that Marylanders like the government they have notwithstanding a certain disconnect between what they like and what it costs them in t axes.

In times of economic stress, people can have epiphanies about the value of government in their lives.

So, in strictly political terms there’s little in the way of a second O’Malley term.  He should win for all the usual reasons.

Read more: Politics as usual