MD-Sen: New ad, new polls, new debate

Some interesting developments in the Cardin/Mfume race this week...

Two new polls give different results to the primary: The Gonzales Research poll has Cardin crushing Mfume 43% to 30%, but the Survey USA poll has Mfume with a narrow lead over Cardin, 42% to 38%. In either case, if 10-20% of Democrats are still undecided at this late stage, I don't think we can expect anything come Sept. 12.

Cardin and Mfume also debated each other again Thursday, and once again the differences rested mostly on style, with Cardin lamely joking that his granddaughters "think I'm the funniest person in the world, so I don't understand where this criticism [that I'm bland] comes from." Mfume, for his part, aptly summarized what makes him different: "We'll both be a vote. But I'll be a vote and a voice."

Meanwhile, three of the minor candidates -- Josh Rales, Allan Lichtman, and Dennis Rassmussen -- protested their exclusion from the debate, with Lichtman going so far as to get arrested. David Lublin has pictures.

And last, while Cardin and Rales have been carpet-bombing the airwaves in the last few weeks, Mfume put out his first TV ad yesterday, and it has a lot of punch: He has an inspiring life story of pulling himself out of the gang life, and he deftly draws a parallel between changing his life and changing the country. This is one of the more powerful political ads that I've seen, and it could tip the scales in his favor.



Tags: MD-Sen, Kweisi Mfume, Ben Cardin, Democrats