“Good morning!” Brown bellowed for nearly an hour, his booming voice rising above the din of commuters and about two dozen campaign volunteers and staffers handing out fliers and holding up signs. “Good morning, good morning! Don’t forget to vote June 24! Early voting through Thursday! Good morning!”
Gansler was all smiles meeting with voters on their way into the D.C.-area public-transit system — until Brown positioned himself in front of Gansler and stole the scene. To Gansler, Brown wasn’t a charismatic politician campaigning with the confidence of a candidate more than 20 points ahead in the polls. Brown was “robotic,” Gansler said, and sounded like he was “on a loop.”
“He’s a little uncomfortable around people, huh?” Gansler joked to his running mate, state Del. Jolene Ivey, after they finished campaigning.
Welcome to the ugliest statewide Democratic primary in the country.
The vast majority of bitter, intraparty fights are on the Republican side this cycle, as the GOP rank and file, which holds low opinions of the party’s leadership, looks for new stewards. But the Maryland gubernatorial race is perhaps the roughest Democratic primary out there — only Charles Rangel’s House primary in upper Manhattan comes close.
