UPDATED: Should Andy Harris be worried?

Harris defeated an incumbent moderate REPUBLICAN Senator in a PRIMARY election in a heavily Republican district to win his first state senate race.

Talk about distinct differences compared to a GENERAL Election in a Congressional District.

He's now the gop nominee after spending millions himself and from others and he failed to even close to half of those voters to vote for him.

The right-wing loves him. They vote. That's useful any year in a PRIMARY.

Single issue? The GOP spent millions to threw everything and the kitchen sink at the Dems in all three of these special elections. The voters cared. They cared a lot. So much so that they rejected the flame throwers.

The question now isn't just how negative you can get. You better offer something about yourself that doesn't involve late-night robo calls with fake gay endorsements from fake gay organizations or cheap flyers talking about a Congressman's gay brother.

Andy hates gay people. We get it.

So, light'em up if you think that wins this year. Please.

Special elections are different. A lot less different when both sides are dumping millions into the race to get their voters to the polls. A lot less different.

Whenever Republicans start running against a different Democratic personality than the candidate actually competing, it shows extreme fear and desperation on their part.

From the posts here, it looks like they are running Harris against O,Malley. Heads up my Republican friends, the Democratic Congressional candidate is Frank Kratovil.

They tried similar tactics agaiinst Democratic Congressional candidates in Louisiana and Mississippi this year in special elections. They lost badly in very strong Republican Congressional Districts.

Yeah yeah, Frank and Martin are joined at the hip, and Frank will always stand with that San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi. Keep saying it and you might actually start to believe it. That's why Ehrlich appointed Kratovil to the Maryland State Board of Victim Services, because he's such a lib. Not. Andy's tighty whiteys must be squeezing him a little bit these days as he watches one conservative GOP district after another turn bright blue. America will be much better with Kratovil in office than Mr. Bobblehead.

What you guys are ignoring is that State's Attorney Kratovil has been a prosecutor for 13 years. Don't the libs usually end up as public defenders, TT? Your argument is, like most GOP propaganda these days, a total fabrication... it's your wishful thinking manifesting itself as a warped reality that only the far right can believe in.

So what if Kratovil and MOM are friends? Does Andy have any friends, TT? I have some doc friends at Hopkins, and you know what? It's hard to find one that has (m)any nice thing(s) to say about the good doctor. And it will all come out, don't you worry.

Keep trying to win with that "Kratovil is a friend of MOM" argument, because that is all you got. Keep in mind that next to Andy Harris, Orrin Hatch is a liberal. Hells bells, next to Andy Harris, Mussolini was a liberal.

Leave the dark side, TT, while there is still hope for your eternal soul.

Andy Harris is purely a Republican tool from the Tom DeLay wing of the party... another district that they lost, albeit two years ago. The only entitlement program that he has any belief in at all is the one that says that if you have an "R" next to your name on the ballot you are the automatic winner in the 1st district in Maryland.

He is a single issue candidate, and that issue is cutting taxes. He chooses to forget the fact that we remain in a war that never should have been. He forgets the fact that our soldiers return home to a broken system that cannot deliver the mental and physical health care that they need and deserve. He forgets the fact that our dollar is at record lows against other currencies, leading to $4.00 per gallon gasoline. He forgets that he has one of the worst records on the environment in the Maryland legislative bodies. He forgets that almost 50 million Americans do not have the ability to afford decent health care or health care insurance. To him, all is rosy...must be them ol' fumes from the workplace, right Andy?

Where was the pandering tool this week? On the beach in Ocean City, already earmarking federal funds to protect the few, the proud the condo owners.

As I posted on another site, nine years of being a right wing tool will not be erased, Andy. Not by stunts such as these: “Oooh, I’m gonna buy a house in Cambridge”, “ooh, Kratovil is really from PG County”, “oooo, send me some nickels so I can retire”. Dang, Andy, I have a whole drawer full of nickels. What’s your address?

Anyway, federal money for beach replenishment? How about New Orleans, Andy? How about some federal money to fix a true national treasure? What? I can’t hear you. Oh, they aren’t your type of people. I get it.

Andy, take any one of those 15-20 story buildings. There’s what, 200 condo units in there, worth about $400k each and being leased out for $2000 a week during the summer? Hells bells, if the owners want a beach, then they should pay for beach replenishment. Let the county, which rakes in about half a mil per high rise, pay for any replenishment, or better yet, let the owners hire a private sector beach replenishment guy to do it. Free markets, right Andy? Capitalism at its best. Here’s a classic example of American ingenuity — the owners of these overpriced condos want sand so they can rent their units out for $2000 a week, some beach replenishment guy builds a huge beach vacuum cleaner to suck the sand up and will charge the owners based upon a free market supply demand system. The owners don’t want to pay…poof! No beach. They want to pay, they have a beach. Don’t ask me to pay for their beach. Your pandering makes me want to puke.

Me, I’d rather have my federal tax dollars go to our returning soldiers with war caused physical and mental disabilities. How about you, Andy? You want to fix the beach…how about fix our soldiers? Our roads. Our schools. Our bay. Our borders.

Andy, you pandering tool. Not only will you lose in November, but the nickels will then send you home once and for all in 2010.

JL here is voting for Frank Kratovil. He's smart and he makes sense. Harris has a lot to fear. The good thing is that he still believes his tights and cape with the "R" on it will protect him.

But Baltimore, Harford, and Anne Arundel county never have reprsentitives in Congress and don't seem to mind. The location issue is a one way street that favors of Kratovil.

There is indeed a distinct difference between the MD race and the others. Harris was financed heavily from out-of-state donors; he is from the Western Shore (eastern Baltimore County) and is so far right that even Wayne Gilchrist's staff people are actively working for Kratovil. Shoremen (if they are REAL shoremen) are very protective of the shore, and would much prefer a candidate who is one of them--a resident with a record of good citizenry, conservative values (he is State's Attorney for Queen Anne's County), and a picture-book family. Plus, Maryland Democrats are united in their support of Kratovil and the campaign will be well-led and well-financed. The Eastern Shore will stick with its own--not an outsider from Baltimore County.

There is a distinct difference between this race and those races. Anyone who has managed or run in a special election can tell you that. There is a whole set of factors that go into a race like that, many factors which don't exist in a race like this. This is not a purely "open" seat. Harris beat a moderate incumbent of 18 years, and whether you like that or not, it is notable. That gives him some firepower which these candidates in these open elections have not had.