Lessons from Martin O'Malley for Maryland Democrats

'Democrats have lost three out of the last five gubernatorial contests in Maryland, where the party holds a two-to-one registration advantage over Republicans. Party leaders and campaign professionals have since invested in analyzing exactly how and where the campaigns went wrong. The shortcomings of these candidacies offer valuable lessons to the current crop of gubernatorial hopefuls. But so, too, do the victories of Maryland’s last two-term Democratic governor, Martin O’Malley.

The elements of O’Malley’s first statewide win — strengths in campaign organization, aggressive sparring with opponents and messaging that resonated with a broad cross-section of voters — are particularly instructive and offer insight that still holds promise more than a decade later.

For starters, before O’Malley was a candidate, he toiled as a field director who put in the long hours and unglamorous behind-the-scenes work of electioneering. The experience gleaned from that work — organizing precincts, door knocking and identifying localized political power sources — informed the basis of his campaign strategy.

O’Malley’s 2006 team heavily invested in field operations, rallying elected Democrats to his cause and capitalizing on their local political networks to create a unified effort. . .

And, of course, no politician ever lives up to the campaign’s loftiest hopes and full promise. O’Malley is no different. He won several progressive victories as governor: passing strict gun control laws, legalizing same-sex marriage rights, abolishing the death penalty and making in-state college tuition available to undocumented immigrants. At the same time, his policies on criminal justice continue to receive harsh criticism, and Hogan’s own effective messaging has rebranded much of the Democrat’s economic record as excessive taxation.

Regardless, it is undeniable that O’Malley and his team knew how to win statewide elections. Over the next few months, we’ll find out if Democrats have learned from loss and O’Malley’s electoral success — and whether Republicans have done the same.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/24/lessons-martin-omalley-maryland-democrats/?