I’ve been doing some research for an outside writing project about Maryland’s Republican Party and I’ve been amazed, literally astonished, by the state GOP’s willingness to … what’s the word I’m looking for … cheat. There are plenty of irregularities this year, and plenty of state GOP networks that disregard legal and ethical boundaries, but Maryland seems to have a special place in the campaigning Hall of Shame.
The state party is distributing an Election Day handbook, for example, that urges GOP thugs to “aggressively challenge” voters’ credentials, in an apparent attempt to intimidate voters. There’s also, of course, the obligatory dishonest push polls, which comes after several campaign cycles of dishonest, borderline-illegal campaign tactics.
Today we learn from Washington Monthly Jesse Singal that it’s just the tip of the Maryland GOP iceberg.
As I approached the polling place here at Parkdale High School, a man in an Ehrlich-Cox shirt handed me a two-page fold-out pamphlet. I immediately recognized the front — it was the misleading Curry/Mfume/Johnson “endorsement” from “Ehlrich-Steele Democrats” that I blogged about earlier. Inside, however, was a clear attempt to mislead Democratic voters. Under the headline, “DEMOCRATIC SAMPLE BALLOT” was a comprehensive listing of candidates, each with an X next to his or her name. In the parallel universe contained within this pamphlet, Robert Ehrlich is the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and Michael Steele is the Dems’ pick for the Senate. The intent could not be clearer: to confuse those looking to vote a straight Democratic ticket. The handout cleverly conceals its purpose by leaving Democrats intact under many of the categories — for instance, Steny Hoyer is listed for district five.
I talked to the man who handed me the pamphlet. A thirty-something African-American who wouldn’t give his name, he told me that, starting last Friday, some people had come to the Philadelphia homeless shelter where he said he volunteers, and had begun to recruit residents. Eventually, he said that 300 people filled five buses. He said he was paid $100 for the day’s work…. Kristin Awsumb-Liu was also on scene. A volunteer supporting O’Malley, she was convinced the pamphlets could have an impact. “People don’t know necessarily who the candidates are. I’d hand them the O’Malley literature, and they’d say, ‘Oh, is he the Democrat?’ And when I say yes, they say, ‘Oh, OK, I’ll vote for him.’ But if someone hands them literature that says Ehrlich’s the Democrat, then who knows?”
They’re afraid of a fair fight in Maryland, too.
What’s more, Singal didn’t mention it, but this exact scheme has happened before.
TNR’s John Judis noted what happened four years ago with the Republicans’ Ehrlich/Steele efforts.
In 1979, Maryland passed a law barring campaigns from paying workers on election day to button hole voters. The law was in response to the widespread use in Baltimore of “walking around money” to buy black votes. On the eve of the 2002 election, candidate Ehrlich complained to State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli that the Democrats were planning to pay campaign workers. Warned by Montanarelli, the Democrats complied with the state law. But Ehrlich and Steele did not.
Part of Ehrlich’s strategy was to use Steele, an African American, to attract black votes away from Townsend, who is white, particularly in predominately black Prince George’s County, a suburb of Washington, D.C. But to do this, he and Steele took a page out of the old Baltimore playbook. Campaign aides went to predominately black Bowie State College and to Washington, D.C.’s largest homeless shelter to hire African Americans to campaign for Ehrlich and Steele on election day. They didn’t try to win them over politically; they offered them between $100 and $150 and free meals to pretend they were backing Ehrlich.
At Washington’s homeless shelter, the campaign workers were instructed to say they were “volunteers” and to conceal that they were getting paid. They were told to go into black areas of Prince George’s County and tell voters that by electing Ehrlich, they would give Maryland its first African American lieutenant governor. At Bowie State, students who agreed to campaign were given shirts with “Democrats for Ehrlich” written on them and a picture of Steele. One student who was recruited told The Baltimore Sun, “They had young African-Americans standing out there like we were supporting him, when they know most African-Americans are Democrats.”
About 250 recruits, drawn by the promise of free meals and a day’s pay, participated in what one recruit later called a “scam from the start.” The students didn’t get their meals, and they didn’t get paid. The homeless recruits also weren’t paid, and, that night, the van that had taken them at dawn to Prince George’s County and was supposed to transport them back to Washington, D.C. never showed up.
Of course, Ehrlich and Steele won four years ago, and since there were no political or legal consequences — the media generally neglected to follow up on the underhanded campaign tactics — the Maryland GOP apparently had no qualms about pulling the same kind of stunt all over again.
Republicans cheat. It’s a shame, but it’s true.