From
Kos:
Saturday's Washington Post featured an article about how cozy Governor Bob Ehrlich and Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson are getting these days, as both are looking to get re-elected. Ehrlich and Steele need to win over Conservative Black voters, particularly in the DC suburbs of Prince George's County, in order to battle the state's 2 to 1 Democratic voter advantage.
After getting trounced in the Washington suburbs in 2002, Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that he is well positioned to gain ground there in his reelection bid in part because of his warm relationship with Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson.
Four years ago, "I didn't like him. He didn't like me," the Republican said of Johnson (D) at a lunch meeting with Washington Post editors and reporters at the governor's mansion in Annapolis. Since then, the bipartisan relationship has blossomed into something "really terrific."
In the past month, the two have played golf and worked to woo the NAACP to consider moving its headquarters from Baltimore to the Prince George's National Harbor development.
Ehrlich said he does not expect the executive to endorse him in a general election match with Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D). But he suggested that Johnson has been helpful in more subtle ways, such as his public praise of the governor for buoying the troubled Prince George's Hospital Center.
He drew a parallel between Johnson and former governor William Donald Schaefer, a Democrat with a soft spot for Ehrlich.
Also, a few weeks ago at an Al Wynn (MD-04) fundraiser in Prince George's County, several individuals, wearing Michael Steele (R) T-shirts were serving food at the event while others were seen passing Steele's literature to attendees. Johnson and Wynn are a close, powerful duo in Prince George's politics. Could they be making an alliance with Ehrlich and Steele in return for political favors for Prince George's County? One has to wonder.
Wynn has not backed any of the Democratic candidates for Senate (citing that he has several friends in the race) while Johnson endorsed Mfume late last year.
Note: More on the Washington Post story posted on Free State Politics by blogger Up the Pike.
On a related note....Wynn's latest political mailing has his headshot attached to the body of a cartoon superhero. (Dubbed "the Amazing Congessman Albert Wynn: Leadership Today...Defending the World Tomorrow.)
This absurd caricature is repeated throughout the brochure as it shows Wynn saving the 4th District from George Bush and Dick Cheney along with internet predators. Funny how he's shown fighting Bush and Cheney now, when he supported their Energy Policy, Estate Tax Repeal and Bankruptcy Legislation, in addition to gutting the Endagered Species Act. Who comes up with such silly campaign literature?