MARYLAND (WBFF) — As many voters head to the polls, many have already shown support through campaign donations. In certain local races, such as County Executive, Democrats in several counties have raised significantly more money than Republicans.
For instance, in Anne Arundel County, state records show $2,086,171 has been raised in the County Executive race. Of that, Pete Smith has about $768,315. Allison Pickard has about $755,936. James Kitchin is trailing them with $544,705. While those candidates are Democrats, the lone Republican in the race, Dave Crawford, has raised just $16,114.
“That’s really sad,” said political expert John Dedie. “You should be able to raise $16,000 in a week if you’re running for a major office like that. But it shows the weakness of the Maryland Republican Party not being able to get something together to help these candidates.”
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“You look at Anne Arundel County, that is used to be considered a really competitive county, one that maybe even Democrats are more of an underdog in, and this year the Democrats are fielding three strong candidates, Republicans are fielding one average candidate, and I think that that’s a major problem for the party, because when the party has that type of reputation, what happens is people don’t donate to the party as much, people get more selective about the candidates they give to, and I think that that’s hurting the Republican party statewide,” Dedie added.
In other counties, it is a similar story. Top Democratic candidates running for County Executive in Baltimore County have raised significantly more than the Republican candidates, and in Howard County there isn’t even a Republican running for the County Executive position.
In Harford County, Republicans running for County Executive Bob Cassilly and Patrick Vincenti have raised a significant amount of money, raising $972,709 and $607,319, respectively. Cassilly is the current County Executive in Harford County.
In races across the State, Dedie said Republicans can gain a foothold in Maryland if the right candidates are running.
“I think because of the fact that Maryland is more moderate, that these Trump-type candidates are hurting the Republican Party statewide in these local elections,” Dedie said.
“Democrats are doing well statewide, not because of any brilliant things Democrats are doing, it’s because of the state of the Republican party in the state of Maryland, and that’s kind of sad in a lot of ways, because you lose that two-party competition, and the legislature Democrats can do whatever they want, and that becomes a, that becomes a major problem for democracy,” he added.
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