{"id":7710,"date":"2017-03-08T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7710"},"modified":"2017-03-07T19:34:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T00:34:18","slug":"give-kathleen-matthews-a-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7710","title":{"rendered":"Give Kathleen Matthews a Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Former WJLA anchor and Congressional District 8 candidate Kathleen Matthews has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/md-politics\/maryland-democratic-party-picks-kathleen-matthews-as-interim-chair\/2017\/03\/02\/2e264680-ff48-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html?utm_term=.fffe1bdfe27e\">picked as the Interim Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party<\/a>.\u00a0 And as someone who was asked to run by the party\u2019s senior elected leadership \u2013 namely, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Representative Steny Hoyer \u2013 she seems likely to be named the four-year Chair as well.\u00a0 That has set off a round of protest among some liberals in the party, with echoes of last year\u2019s primary battles.<\/p>\n<p>Two comments are noteworthy.\u00a0 First, former Montgomery County Council Member Valerie Ervin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/md-politics\/maryland-democratic-party-picks-kathleen-matthews-as-interim-chair\/2017\/03\/02\/2e264680-ff48-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html?utm_term=.fffe1bdfe27e\">said<\/a> that Matthews\u2019s appointment \u201cmissed an opportunity to open up the space for a new and different kind of leadership.\u201d\u00a0 That was essentially the rationale for the U.S. Senate campaign of Ervin\u2019s good friend, Donna Edwards.\u00a0 Second, Maryland Matters columnist Josh Kurtz <a href=\"https:\/\/marylandmattersblog.wordpress.com\/2017\/03\/01\/kat-on-a-hot-tin-roof\/\">blasted Matthews<\/a> as \u201can especially thin reed\u201d and \u201cthe wrong candidate at the wrong time\u201d who could not connect with either progressives or Hogan voters.<\/p>\n<p>In evaluating these criticisms, it\u2019s worth contemplating just how much trouble Maryland Democrats are in right now.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Governor Larry Hogan has rung up a string of job approval ratings of 60-70% or more, including majority approval in some polls <em>among Democrats<\/em>. He is on pace to raise tens of millions of dollars for his reelection campaign.\u00a0 He is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=6444\">absolutely dominant in social media<\/a>.\u00a0 And he is only seven GOP votes away from having his vetoes sustained in the House of Delegates.\u00a0 If Hogan returns to Annapolis with enough Republicans to support his vetoes, Maryland will have a real two-party state government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Outside Annapolis, the Democrats\u2019 hold on county offices <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=6501\">has collapsed since the 2002 elections<\/a>. The Democrats are almost extinct in most of Western Maryland, the Eastern Shore and Harford County.\u00a0 The Republicans firmly control Anne Arundel and are competitive in Baltimore County.\u00a0 The Howard County Executive is a Republican.\u00a0 The Democrats dominate in Baltimore City, Montgomery, Prince George\u2019s and Charles.\u00a0 That\u2019s about it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The Maryland Democratic Party apparatus has degraded. It could not help Anthony Brown get elected Governor in 2014.\u00a0 Some local parties complain about lack of support.\u00a0 The party\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/pacs\/lookup2.php?strID=C00141812&amp;cycle=2016\">federal receipts in the 2016 cycle<\/a> ($2.8 million) were the lowest in any two-year cycle since 2004.\u00a0 The party\u2019s state-level account raised just $6,650 last year, about one-eighth of what the Republicans raised.\u00a0 There is little in the way of an aggressive communications program on the Governor\u2019s record in office.\u00a0 Individual Democratic state legislators complain about issues like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/maryland\/politics\/bs-md-hogan-facebook-20170208-story.html\">Hogan\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> and his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7042\">executive order on Labor Day<\/a>, neither of which will result in electoral harm to the Governor.\u00a0 The party lacks a battle plan for taking on the Governor other than associating him with Donald Trump.\u00a0 It needs a plan, and fast.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enter Kathleen Matthews.\u00a0 As a candidate in CD8, she did a lot of things right: raising money, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/kathleen-matthews-our-choice-in-marylands-8th-district\/2016\/03\/16\/e8a911c2-ea27-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html?utm_term=.9afbf283fce4\">getting the Washington Post endorsement<\/a> and running a competent, professional campaign.\u00a0 She lost because she did not have David Trone\u2019s money, did not spend ten years building a grassroots base like Jamie Raskin and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=6064\">did not sufficiently address local issues<\/a>.\u00a0 Since the campaign, she has <a href=\"https:\/\/marylandmattersblog.wordpress.com\/2017\/03\/03\/martha-mckenna-responds-to-yesterdays-item-on-kathleen-matthews\/\">played a key role in helping women run for office through Emerge Maryland<\/a>, unquestionably a hugely important exercise in the Era of Trump.\u00a0 Let\u2019s recognize that unlike many other losing candidates who disappear after the election, Matthews has remained engaged.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the criticisms of Matthews relate to her positions and conduct as a candidate.\u00a0 But Matthews is not going to be a candidate for government office if she is Chair of the party.\u00a0 Other people will run for Governor, state legislature and county office and they will face the judgment of the voters.\u00a0 As Chair, Matthews\u2019s job will be to raise money and rebuild the party\u2019s communication and field capabilities.\u00a0 She is as plausible a choice as anyone to accomplish those tasks.<\/p>\n<p>Consider this.\u00a0 One of the most effective techniques of political communication is story-telling.\u00a0 Imagine a video interview with a Baltimore City teacher or family affected by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/maryland\/politics\/bs-md-hogan-budget-trims-20170118-story.html\">Hogan\u2019s cuts to city schools<\/a>.\u00a0 Or an interview with a provider of developmental disability services who would <a href=\"http:\/\/marylandreporter.com\/2017\/01\/18\/hogan-gives-caregivers-for-disabled-smaller-raise-than-promised-most-earn-fast-food-wages\/\">earn fast food industry wages under Hogan\u2019s budget.<\/a>\u00a0 Or a profile of a family who would lose Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7497\">Hogan stands idly by<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or a story about a positive initiative from a local Democratic elected official fixing a problem for constituents.\u00a0 Imagine a mass email and social media program spreading these pieces to hundreds of thousands of voters.\u00a0 Who in the entire state party is better suited to this kind of video story-telling than Kathleen Matthews?<\/p>\n<p>Of course, we\u2019re the Democrats.\u00a0 We often fight harder against each other than against Republicans.\u00a0 We could criticize Matthews as not liberal enough, not working class enough or not local enough.\u00a0 We could keep fighting the Bernie vs Hillary battles, the Donna vs Chris battles or the Tom vs Keith battles.\u00a0 We could keep arguing over who\u2019s perfect and who\u2019s not.\u00a0 Sure, let\u2019s do that.\u00a0 Hogan would love it.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what he wants us to do.<\/p>\n<p>Or we could unite all of our various factions, our passions and our abilities and take our case directly to the streets of Maryland.\u00a0 We could spread far and wide what we know to be true, which is that Maryland can do a lot better than Larry Hogan and Donald Trump.\u00a0 And we could take advantage of the fundraising and media skillsets that Kathleen Matthews has to help us do it.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats of Maryland, the choice is yours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adam Pagnucco. Former WJLA anchor and Congressional District 8 candidate Kathleen Matthews has been picked as the Interim Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party.\u00a0 And as someone who was asked to run by the party\u2019s senior elected leadership \u2013 namely, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Representative Steny Hoyer \u2013 she &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7710\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Give Kathleen Matthews a Chance<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,1772,1067],"tags":[1545,1308,1674],"class_list":["post-7710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-kathleen-matthews","category-maryland-democratic-party","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-kathleen-matthews","tag-maryland-democratic-party"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-20m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7711,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7710\/revisions\/7711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}