Political analysts disagree over whether a federal contracting fraud lawsuit against her husband’s company — where Republican lieutenant governor candidate Mary D. Kane was a director for six years — will have much impact on this year’s governor’s race. Thomas Schaller, associate professor of political science, said the lawsuit will be a factor only for the handful of voters directly involved with the legal action.”This race will be 99 percent about Governor O’Malley and former Governor Ehrlich,” Schaller wrote in an e-mail. “Of course, these episodes do make for good media coverage.”
The article, “Impact of Kane Co. suit on governor’s race unclear,” ran Friday, July 16, in The Gazette.
There are plenty of conservative voters in the Washington area, including some who are just as angry at President Obama and Democrats in Congress as their tea party cohorts across the rest of the country. And yet, because the region exists to surround the seat of national government, it’s being largely insulated this election year — not only from the worst of the recession, but also from the worst of the voters’ resulting bad mood. That doesn’t mean members of Congress from Maryland and Northern Virginia are entirely protected from political mood swings just because of the federal jobs and spending in their districts, said Schaller. But, he says, “it definitely doesn’t hurt when you have thousands of voters who either work for the federal government directly or earn their livelihoods indirectly from the government, doing everything from contracting to consulting to sandwich cart vending.”
The opinion piece, “Anti-Washington Feeling Isn’t Strong in Washington Itself,” ran Saturday, July 17, in CQ Politics.
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