Friday, June 29, 2012
At the bottom of this piece, you can see the statement by incumbent Senator Ben Cardin in reaction to yesterday’s ruling by the Supreme Court. It’s on the Senator’s Senate website, www.Cardin.Senate.gov. It’s very neatly typed, and generally well-written. Personally, I’m not a big fan of third person statements that, I think, make the elected official sound aloof. Even though he staffed it out, the Senator should be talking directly to his constituents.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Hi. Next Contestant has been paying a lot of attention to two Congressional races in Maryland. One is for the U.S. Senate, between incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin and Republican challenger Dan Bongino. The other is for the House, between Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger, the incumbent Congressman from the Second Congressional District, and his Republican challenger State Senator Nancy Jacobs. Maryland is a state where registered Democrats outnumber their Republican counterparts 2:1, more than 2.6:1 in the Second Congressional District. It’s a state where the people tend to vote their party affiliation.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
The other day, I challenged Marylanders, including, in particular, Maryland’s Second Congressional District, who are not in favor of re-electing Senator Ben Cardin and/or Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, to let me know why.* What’s wrong with these incumbents? Next Contestant has reasons they should be replaced, but what are yours?
Friday, June 22, 2012
A few minutes ago, I published an article inviting Maryland’s Second Congressional District voters who do not want to re-elect their incumbent Congressman to let Next Contestant know why. The same reasoning and invitation apply to the voters, statewide, who have problem with re-electing Senator Ben Cardin.
…Including a challenge to Republican Dan Bongino.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Today, as you can see from the header, is June 19. The date is important because websites change from time to time. The first position statement we’re going to discuss is taken, verbatim, from Senator Cardin’s Senate website, www.Cardin.Senate.gov. It’s the “Economy & Jobs” statement from the “Issues” tab of his U.S. Senate website. We’ll go through this text first, and then the “Economy” statement from the campaign’s website, www.BenCardin.com.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
The big reason is money. Almost regardless of what they do or don’t do while they’re in office, incumbents tend to be re-elected because their campaigns raise so much more money than their opponents’.
Most voters have no real idea what their incumbents have been doing in Washington. Who they vote for is largely based on campaign rhetoric. Money buys organization and advertising. The more money you have, the more likely you are to win, and that’s that. It’s unfortunate, but Congressional campaigns aren’t so much about ideas as they are about dollars.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
On Monday, May 21, Next Contestant published a piece called “9. Ben Cardin v Dan Bongino: Money buys access.” The article was about campaign financing and, specifically, the $563,946 which Senator Ben Cardin’s campaign has received from 43 organizations related to the health care services industry. Of those 43, the top 2 contributors are the American Medical Association PAC ($141,588) and the American Hospital Association PAC ($64,757). Please refer to the original article for source information.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
I’m thinking of having a debate, a debate between Maryland’s first-term, Democrat incumbent U.S. Senator Ben Cardin and Republican newcomer Dan Bongino. As far as I know, it would be the first blog debate ever. Major newspapers in our market, including The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post, and broadcast television have all but ignored the race since the primary. I think they’re planning on waiting until it’s too late for the newcomer to overcome the incumbent’s huge advantage with respect to name recognition and campaign financing.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Why do people and organizations contribute to campaigns? The simple answer is “self-interest.”
People, meaning individuals like you and me, contribute because we feel some affinity for a candidate. We agree with what he or she believes and/or we’re hopeful that the candidate, once in office, will do good for our country, our state, whatever, and for our families. Ours is a relatively small contribution that is passive in that we don’t expect anything specific for our money except to help our candidate get elected. We have no expectation of access or ongoing influence.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Turns out, you don’t always get what you pay for.
Hi. A couple of weeks ago, I published a piece entitled, “Ben Cardin v. Dan Bongino: What exactly has Senator Cardin been doing all this time?” It talked about how ineffective, how inconsequential a legislator Senator Ben Cardin has been during his first term in the Senate.
April 27, 2012
First of all, and perhaps most importantly, this piece has nothing to do with politics per se. I’m a registered Independent with a history of voting for candidates of both party affiliations. What this column is about is how I’m deciding for whom I’ll vote in November.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Hi. Yesterday I posted an article (Ben Cardin v. Dan Bongino: “Next Contestant”) which generated surprisingly strong traffic. My point was that, while Ben Cardin (Democrat), the one-term incumbent U.S. Senator running for reelection in Maryland, was more or less competent, he had failed to make any significant difference toward resolving the major issues of our time.