O'Malley was well received in Catonsville

[aintitfunny]

Mayor O'Malley with his wife Judge O'Malley and three of their kids walked in the Catonsville parade yesterday. The response was great, and considering that this is a pretty conservative town, you could call it super. He is really popular and well-liked. He was greeted by cheers and applause all along the parade route. Self-avowed Republicans came up to him and had their picture taken with him. One older gentleman said he was a Republican but he was voting for Mr. O'Malley. There were a couple of pockets of "We Love our Gov" holdouts, they booed, but there were seriously outnumbered. One guy was holding up a big banner with "Thank you Bob Erlich". It was very funny, a woman waving both arms at O'Malley was blocking the sign and the woman holding up the other end was really having a fit yelling at the woman blocking her sign. The guy on the other end kept yelling, "Catonsville in Erlich country, Mr. O'Malley" and was spouting statistics about 70% supporting Erlich. The crowd just across the street drowned him out with loud cheers and applause. Kate O'Malley just turned to the guy and shrugged her shoulders. It was a great.

I thought it was a very good sign should he end up the nominee in '06.

[DaveinMD]

1. we are winning this race

I think we win with either Duncan or O'Malley.

[aintitfunny]

2. Yes, I am beginning to believe that

I think Erlich is losing ground fast, and I hope this trend continues.

[Baltimore]

3. Duncan

Living in Illinois, I said in an earlier post that I'd never even heard of Duncan, but now I realize he was the guy I saw on TV being interviewed about the Beltway Sniper, only I never caught his name. He was saying, "I'm County Executive of Montgomery County," and the reporter said, "You'll have to explain to our viewers what that is,"
because in Illinois there is no such thing, so he said, "I'm Mayor of the County," and the reporter said "Mayor of the County, yes." Duncan said he was making an appearance at the scene of the latest shooting for the sake of morale. He was doing his job--elected officials are supposed to show up at disaster scenes, even if they have no clue what to do about it, but I guess there's something comforting in their mere presence. He struck me as OK, the little I saw of him; I got the impression he's an administrative-bureacratic type? You know, the kind of guy you'd hire to be your office manager. I don't really see him as a serious threat to O'Malley, because O'Malley comes across as a much more interesting person, and he's had all this favorable publicity. Maybe Duncan's got something extra going for him that I don't know about? But should he win, I'm sure he'd be an improvement on Ehrlich, whatever.

[aintitfunny]

4. That is kinda my perception as well

but I really have not had any real exposure to Duncan except, as you say, his presence during the Sniper tragedies. He has taken some shots at O'Malley, I am not thrilled with that and it worries me that he will spend his primary run attacking O'Malley rather than speaking to his own strengths. I hope that worry is unfounded. I want to wholeheartedly support the eventual nominee. Personally I like O'Malley, and people seem to like him. He has a strong likeability quotient and in this day and age that is a valuable asset in a politician.

[tabmasterflash]

5. I talked to the mayor yesterday

and he was really impressed with the response he got at all of the parades he was in. he was talking about it all day. thanks everyone who came out!!

[Frances]

6. I agree

The most important thing is to get rid of Ehrlich.

I lived in Montgomery County from 1974-2002, so I saw a lot of Duncan. I would vote for him over Ehrlich any day of the week, but I like O'Malley better than Duncan because Duncan is so in debt to developers. Duncan went after one anti-development county council member (Blair Ewing) in 2002 by distorting Blair's views.

[OnBackground]

7. Dirty Tricks

Thank you for saying that Frances.