O’Malley’s Major Boost

BALTIMORE Mayor Martin O’Malley just received a huge boost in his campaign for governor of Maryland when his primary opponent Douglas Duncan dropp-ed out citing problems with depression.

Duncan’s unexpected departure means that O’Malley has an uninterrupted run against Governor Robert Ehrlich, a Republican who now finds himself in a major dogfight.

O’Malley is celebrated in the Irish community as much for his Irish rock band “O’Malley’s March” and his wholehearted embrace of his roots has been a very successful mayor of Baltimore but was facing a tough primary fight to get the nomination.

Now with Duncan gone the mayor will have a real opportunity to come very close in this race. Ehrlich has been targeted by Democrats as one of the most vulnerable governors in the upcoming elections. Maryland has been trending more and more Democratic in recent times, which certainly gives O’Malley an outstanding chance.

In April O’Malley led Ehrlich by nine points in a Rasmussen poll and now with Duncan out of the way it certainly seems possible that he may forge even further ahead given that he can give the race his undivided attention.

O’Malley has often been described as a great white hope in Irish American politics and has even drawn speculation about him running for president one day. Certainly, if he is elected governor, his good looks, up from the bootstraps background story and his success in turning around Baltimore would make him very good copy.

At just 43 years old O’Malley also has plenty of time but he is unlikely to look further ahead than the tough race he faces in November. Irish American Democrats in Washington D.C. are holding a fundraiser for him in early July to boost his campaign.

Webb Wins in Virginia

Not far from Maryland in Virginia another Irish American James Webb secured the Democratic nomination to run for senator against incumbent George Allen.

Webb is the author of a definitive work on the Scotch Irish entitled Born Fighting, which tells how the Scotch Irish shaped America.

Webb is proud of those Irish roots, so much so that he adopted the book title as his campaign slogan and proudly shows off his roots as often as he can.

Webb was not generally expected to win the recent primary as he has only recently become a convert to the Democratic cause after years as a Republican. However, somewhat surprisingly, he got the nod.

What was most interesting about that was that even liberal Democrats voted for him even though he was undoubtedly the more conservative of the two candidates. It seems the chance to defeat a Republican presidential front-runner was a bigger prize than any liberal considerations.

Now he is in deep with Allen, former governor, the son of the former famous football coach of the same name. Allen has presidential ambitions and is generally believed to be the strongest candidate outside of John McCain on the Republican side.

If Web can beat Allen it would be the biggest shock of the elections but the polls show that the race is quite close. Little wonder then that Allen recently announced that he would not be making trips to Iowa or New Hampshire, or other sites of the early presidential primaries and caucuses until he had his race in hand in Virginia.

Webb has a couple of negatives. He was Republican until recently and he even endorsed George Allen in his last campaign against his Democratic opponent. Republicans are bound to make hay out of that.

Pete King’s Dear Leader

THE more we see of Pete King these days the more we worry some Manchurian candidate has taken up residence in his head.

That movie you might remember is about a spy taking over the personality of an American politician.

Last Sunday on Fox News King set new standards for raving lunacy with an attack on the New York Times, which would have gladdened the heart of any North Korean apparatchik.

King seemed to be saying the newspaper had no right whatever to reveal information about the tactics the government are using to seek out bank records of individuals who may well be accused of fomenting terror.

King’s solution was to prosecute everyone at The Times and essentially throw them in jail and to hell with the First Amendment.

Senator Arlen Specter, his Repub-lican colleague certainly put King in his place with a brief history lesson of the important of a free press and an educated electorate. These days Pete is sounding more like he might have a future in North Korea politics, sucking up to the Dear Leader over there, than he does in America.

Crowley for Queens Boss?

With Queens boss Tom Manton ailing, the word is that Congressman Joe Crowley may well be the heir apparent if Manton becomes too incapacitated to continue.

Manton has ruled the Queens Democratic party with an iron fist and in the process has ensured that it has remained the smoothest political machine in New York politics. Rarely does a high office get decided today without significant input from Queens.

The Queens machine compares well with the other borough machines, most of which have disappeared after corruption scandals or are just plain ineffective.

Not so Queens which is why any candidate even thinking about elective office has to pay homage.

Now with Manton ill and one of his prob-able successors Brian McLaughlin, the union leader, under doubt because of indictments, the spotlight switches back to Crowley, who has become a very popular and well liked congressman.

Manton handpicked Crowley for the Queens seat and seems likely to do the same again now to make him county boss. Recently Crowley had a huge fundraiser in Queens attended by all the great and the good. Clearly they see the way the wind is blowing.