Perhaps the biggest surprise (to some, but not all) was Republican businessman Larry Hogan's defeat of Lt. Governor Anthony Brown to succeed outgoing (thank God!) Governor Martin O'Malley. Honestly, I thought the election would be close, but I was convinced that Anthony Brown would pull out the win. Late season polls indicated that Brown's lead was somewhere between 2-9%, though a poll commissioned by Hogan indicated that the race was dead even. Brown dismissed the poll because Larry paid for it. End result - EVERYONE was wrong. Not only did Anthony Brown lose, but he lost Big Time Rush. I've never been happier to be wrong.
Larry Hogan got in the lead with about 15% of the precincts reporting. Conservatives across the state muddled around waiting for the other shoe to fall and for Brown to take the commanding lead. And they waited. And waited. And that moment never came. After midnight it was clear that Hogan was going to win. WBAL's reporting showed the Brown headquarters filled with morose lethargic followers. The Hogan headquarters, on the other hand, was handing out alcohol and jubilantly celebrating and singing and jamming to the music as if the Berlin Wall just fell.
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| Larry Hogan speaking at a rally on Sunday November 2nd, 2014. |
So how did Hogan win? Here are some numbers.
Without absentee ballots, Hogan received 51.48% of the votes, while Brown only got 46.82%.
Hogan's largest margin of victory was in Carroll County (no surprise there). He received 82.41% to Brown's 15.88%. The Brown voters in Carroll County are currently being rounded up and sent to reeducation camps.
The closest contest for Governor was in Howard County where Hogan won 51.74% - 46.5%. There Hogan won by 5,000 votes in blue Howard County. Wow!!!
Blue-leaning Charles and Somerset Counties all went to Hogan, as did purple Baltimore County and Frederick County. In fact, Brown only carried Montgomery County, Prince George's County, and Baltimore City.
Of Brown's 3 victories, his largest margin of victory was in his front yard of Prince George's County where he got 84.35% to Hogan's 14.76%.
In his backyard of Montgomery County, the most populous county in Maryland, Brown won, but Hogan got almost 40% of the vote, which is HUGE!!! That's 90,000 votes to Hogan from Montgomery County alone. In fact, Hogan's votes from Montgomery County are the 3rd most votes by county after Baltimore County (150,000 votes) and Anne Arundel County (114,000). So in a manner of speaking, Montgomery County put Larry Hogan in the Governor's mansion.
Outside of the governor's race, the next most interesting race was in the redrawn Maryland 6th Congressional district where Democratic incumbent John Delaney is on edge with his battle with perennial Republican challenger Dan Bongino. Without absentee ballots, Delaney leads 49.59% to 48.39%, separated by a mere 2,160 votes. If Delaney ends up winning, this should be a clear message to him that he needs to vote closer to the center than with the hard left-wing extremists like Nancy Pelosi. I don't think the good folks of Western Maryland want to be represented by the fringes of the despotic left.
Another interesting race was for the County Commissioner of Howard County, the seat being vacated by the jeans & sneakers wearing Ken Ulman, who boldly decided to go with Brown on the gubernatorial ticket. Legendary State Senator Allen Kittleman faced local mom Courtney Watson. I think any other year this would have been a cakewalk for Mrs. Watson, but in this year of voter rebellion, Kittleman came out on top, but barely. I've known and watched Kittleman for almost 10 years. He definitely thinks and votes right down the middle. He reminds me a lot of Eisenhower. Unfortunately in politics, the middle road is the road less taken. I think Kittleman will do a fine job in Howard County and I hope the good residents there will reward him.
In Maryland's gerrymandered 8th district, which snakes through 45 counties and down some alleys, Montgomery County incumbent Chris Van Hollen won, though by a much smaller margin than most anticipated. The 55 year old who was born in Pakistan had his closest battle since 2002 when he faced a newly redrawn district against Republican incumbent Connie Morrella. Challenger Dave Wallace received almost 40% of the vote to Van Hollen's 60.1%. This is the 4th consecutive election where Van Hollen has seen a reduction in his percentage of votes. If all goes well, in 3 or 4 more elections he can finally be defeated.
I think the remaining elections across the state ended as expected. Racist Steny Hoyer handily beat Chris Chaffee. Just Call Me Dutch Ruppersberger defeated David Branch. The other results were boring.
What do you think about the election results in Maryland? Any race in particular worth noting?
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