JuiceBlender: Chris Van Hollen vs. Steny Hoyer for U.S. House Leadership, Voter Confrontation with Sam Arora & More!

Now that the Presidential election has ended, politicos are moving on with their other agenda items. Indeed, many efforts have been on hold until after the election was over. It has only been days, but already folks are now talking about the 2016 White House race, and 2014 gubernatorial candidates are getting busy. Below Maryland Juice discusses a few upcoming political showdowns, starting with pundit speculation about who might take Nancy Pelosi's place as the Democratic leader of the U.S. House:

JUICE #1: REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN VS. REP. STENY HOYER FOR U.S. HOUSE MINORITY LEADER - Maryland Juice has been following the evolving story about U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's potential retirement. Indeed, Congressional Democrats are gearing up for a leadership shuffle and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer has been propping up centrist candidates and incumbents around the nation to try and take Nancy Pelosi's place. But pundits are beginning to discuss the possibility that the younger, more progressive Congressman Chris Van Hollen might be poised to challenge Hoyer for the top U.S. House spot. Indeed, Maryland Juice thinks he would better reflect the current trajectory of the Democratic Party nationally than Hoyer. Check out excerpts from the pair of articles below from Roll Call and Capital News Service (via Patch.com):

ROLL CALL: As speculation continues about the House Democratic leadership structure in the next Congress,  Rep. Chris Van Hollen  has been particularly busy....  He chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for two cycles and served as assistant to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who named him to the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction in 2011....

The scenario that some Democrats envision is that Van Hollen would be the beneficiary of a Pelosi-backed challenge to Hoyer for the Minority Leader’s job, should she step down after the elections. That could be the final chapter in the long and storied Pelosi-Hoyer rivalry. But the hurdles would be significant. Hoyer appears to maintain strong support in the Caucus and he’s served loyally for years under Pelosi, giving him a strong argument that it would be  his turn to lead....

But others keeping an eye on leadership intrigue note that leadership positions do not open up often, and that those in the party’s top echelon are very ambitious..... A Democratic strategist said the timing  “provides an opening to a challenger for one of the top leadership positions, but not much. If there’s anyone looking to run such a challenge, they’ll need to get their ducks in a row pretty quickly.”

Capital News Service updated the coverage on the story with this report (excerpt below):

CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE: If [Nancy Pelosi] were to resign, the most likely replacements would be Hoyer, Van Hollen or Clyburn, according [to University of Wisconsin professor David] Canon. Hoyer would be the next in the chain of succession as Democratic whip. "There is a tendency to just go up the leadership ladder and (Hoyer) is next in line. On the other hand, he is 73 years old," said Canon....

Van Hollen is younger, 53, and has built a high profile as a ranking member of the Budget Committee. He also played a key role as a past Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, which makes him popular with other members. "They're the ones in charge of handing out the money," said Canon adding, "He's someone who creates a lot of goodwill."

JUICE #2: BACK TO DEFEATING DELEGATE SAM ARORA IN 2014 - Now that the marriage equality battle in Maryland has ended, some are beginning to return their sights to Montgomery County's anti-civil rights backstabber, Delegate Sam Arora. Indeed, MoCo voters approved marriage equality with a whopping 65% support from all voters, but that means that within the Democratic Primary voting population the margin will be much higher. Even in the senior citizen precincts in Leisure World (which are in Sam Arora's District 19), a clear majority of voters approved marriage equality. Moreover, voters have apparently not forgotten about Sam Arora's betrayal. Check out the following amusing Sam Arora sighting from AmericaBlog:

AMERICABLOG: You might remember Sam Arora. Liberal Netroots youngster who worked for Hillary and got himself elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, with the help of all of his Democratic friends. Then turned around and stabbed them all in the back....

So we don’t like Sam Arora much. And a group of our friends are going to make it their personal mission to make sure that pint-sized bigot Sam Arora never works in Democratic politics again...

Anyway, one of our readers, Sue Cohen, was early voting in Maryland today (marriage equality is on the ballot). And who should she run into but Sam Arora... Here is Sue’s story.

Subject: My confrontation with Sam Arora (hint: it did not end well for him)

On line for early voting at the Bauer Rec Center in Rockville, who comes strolling down the line to offer info on… well who cares? I He spoke to me and I yelled at him: “Just STOP!” I put my hand up and said: “Oh no Sam. You pussed out on marriage equality — you can never say anything to me again!”

He started to back away and I finished with: “You are a one term delegate — go now!”

My daughter who was with me started laughing, as did the two men we were chatting with.  Sam quickly moved away and I loudly said: “What a coward that guy is — He takes money from the Marriage Equality people, pledges to vote for it then turns his back and votes “no” — Do not trust him!”

So not only did I vote a straight Democratic ticket, voted YES on Questions 4 & 6 , but called that bastard to account. A very good day.

Thanks,
Sue Cohen
Rockville MD

Even those who just moved into his District are aware of Sam Arora's betrayal. Check out the amusing posts I caught on Twitter recently:

EARLY WARNING: Those Democrats who choose to stand by Sam Arora in 2014 should be judged harshly for doing so. STAND WITH THE PARTY BASE & LET HIM SINK.


JUICE #3: 2016 WHITE HOUSE SPECULATION BEGINS ANEW - The national pundits are already back to rating the 2016 White House race. The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza pulled together a list of possible GOP and Democratic candidates, and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is (of course) on the list. Interestingly, in a race without Hillary Clinton, Cillizza thinks that Cuomo is the front-runner. He also speculates that Maryland might be the most liberal state in the nation (excerpt below):

WASHINGTON POST: "Handicapping the 2016 presidential field"

Andrew Cuomo: If Clinton and Biden stay out, the governor of New York starts the 2016 race as the frontrunner. (Yes, those are big “if’s” but we are talking about a race that’s four years away!) Cuomo has a lot going for him as a national candidate: 1) he’s from a big and very Democratic state 2) He has already demonstrated an ability to raise lots and lots of money 3) He has a golden last name in American politics 4) He shepherded the New York same-sex marriage bill to passage in the state legislature, making him a hero to the gay community nationally 5) He is a political operative at heart, having played a lead strategy role in his father’s various political machinations.

Martin O’Malley: The governor of Maryland is, from all indications, the most “in” of any of the people on this list when it comes to 2016. O’Malley used his perch as the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association this cycle to boost his profile among reporters, donors and activists. (O’Malley was a near-constant on the Sunday show chat circuit.) Working for O’Malley is his record governing perhaps the most liberal state in the country, a top-tier (and experienced) consulting team and his own native political acumen (O’Malley was mobbed up in the Gary Hart presidential bids of the 1980s.) Working against O’Malley is the sense that he may be a poor man’s Cuomo and that he isn’t a proven commodity on the big national stage. 

JUICE #4: MARYLAND GOP INSULTS PUNDITS WHILE SPINNING THEIR EPIC FAIL - Maryland Juice just caught another amusing article where state Republican officials were trying to claim victory after their slaughter at the ballot box. Check out the ridiculous comments from the Maryland GOP in The Gazette. The Republican spokesperson quoted below even insults the political science professors who are calling the GOP out-of-touch with Maryland (excerpt below):

GAZETTE: ...the Maryland Republican Party did not have a bad night from Tuesday’s election results, the party’s spokesman said. “I actually think the opposite,” Maryland Republican Party spokesman David Ferguson said Wednesday. “We had a great day....” “If they say this is a Republican failure, that’s absolutely false,” Ferguson said. “If there’s any perception [Tuesday] was a bad day, it’s backwards....”

“It’s clear the Republican Party led by the Tea Party is out of sync with voters in Maryland,” said Tim Magrath, executive director of the J. Glenn Beall Jr. Institute for Public Affairs at Frostburg State University. “The times that Republicans have done well in Maryland is when they are moderate....”

The Maryland Republican Party’s opposition to the state Dream Act as it was approved in Maryland “flew in the face of what Latinos were looking for” and showed they were out of step with most Marylanders, said Stella M. Rouse, assistant professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, College Park....

“These are political science professors who sit in offices and have never run campaigns,” Ferguson said....

More on the post-election strategery soon!