Know Your Democratic Candidates: Ben Cardin Running for US Senate from Maryland

I was intrigued by the debate last Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press between the two leading Maryland candidates for the US Senate, the Democrat, Congressman Ben Cardin and the Republican, Lt. Governor Michael Steele.

In so many ways, the contrast between the two couldn't be more stark:

* One has a decades-long reputation as solid and non-controversial, an able and substantive legislator widely admired for his bipartisan ways and respected for his ethics and heart for people. He draws daily on his deeply-held religious values, and hails from a close-knit tradition-bound family.

* The other has slick oratorical skills, a dazzling smile and a propensity to divide, not unite, using race, overheated rhetoric, and exaggerations that border on falsehoods. He's held public office for less than 4 years, although he's been involved in party politcs for a decade. His mother was a widowed laundress who he stated worked for minimum wage.

Now quickly, guess which is the Democrat and which is the Republican?

The correct answer... the former is Democratic ten-term Rep. Ben Cardin, and the latter Republican Michael Steele... reveals clearly how the moderate middle has moved into the Democratic party and away from Republican politics of late.

Fifteen years ago, the reverse might have been much more likely: the former might have been described as a steady, moderate, middle-class Republican, the latter a combative, race-card wielding Democrat.

And yet... unbelievably... Republican Michael Steele, an African-American, wants it both ways. Seems that Steele has distributed thousands of bumper stickers reading "Steele Democrat." When confronted on air by Russert to explain, Steele broadly smiled, stammered for a few awkward seconds, then half-heartedly likened it to the Reagan Democrats of the early 1980s.

Steele cleverly uses the precise shade of Democratic-blue in his campaign; never, ever uses the dreaded word "Republican" in placards and campaign materials; and it takes a trained auditor to track down the word "Republican" on Steele's Democratic-blue website.

Regardless of misleading campaign stunts by his opponent, Democrat Ben Cardin leads Steele by a small margin in recent polls. But his lead is slim and within the margin of error.

Rep. Ben Cardin had the wisdom to vote against the War in Iraq in 2002, and as a Social Security expert, he led the House Democratic charge against Bush plans to privatize Social Security. And I love it that he believes that women, "not judges and politicians," should make the decisions about their reproductive health.

Learn more about this worthy candidate at Inside Profile of Ben Cardin, 2006 Maryland Democratic Candidate for US Senate.

Click here to support Ben Cardin's campaign to beat-out Republican slickster Michael Steele for Maryland's US Senate seat.

Related Reading
Who Voted NO in 2002 on the Iraq War?
Know Your 2006 Democratic Candidates
Cardin and Steele Face the Nation: Senate Hopefuls Differ Widely on Iraq, Abortion, Stem Cells, Baltimore Sun on October 30, 2006