Despite GOP’s latest troubles, Steele is determined to prevail

Friday, Oct. 6, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Greg Dohler⁄The Gazette Michael S. Steele is confident he will become the first Republican senator from Maryland in 20 years, but a recent poll shows him lagging Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin by 11 points. Steele said his views, his life and his experiences will convince Marylanders that he understands the problems they face.

Many of Steele’s challenges are well-documented and reflect the obstacles that Republicans face around the country and, particularly, in heavily Democratic Maryland.

Steele said he entered the race ‘‘knowing that the political climate in the country was not good and has not gotten better since,” he told The Gazette editorial board on Thursday. ‘‘This is an uphill climb,” he said. ‘‘I’m a black Republican running for the United States Senate in the bluest state in the country.”

This week, the GOP has been rocked by internal finger-pointing following the abrupt resignation of U.S. Rep. Mark A. Foley (R-Fla.) over sexually suggestive e-mails and text messages he exchanged with congressional pages. The possibility that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other House leaders covered up Foley’s conduct is creating an unhelpful wave of anti-GOP sentiment that causes only headaches for candidates like Steele.

‘‘Certainly, the events of the last few days didn’t help,” Steele said. ‘‘We thought we had turned a small corner, and ‘bam!’”

Neither the Foley scandal nor President Bush’s unpopularity seem to be dampening Steele’s enthusiasm. He recognized early on that 2006 might not be the best year to run as a card-carrying Republican. The Steele campaign has crafted a message designed to de-emphasize his party affiliation and play to his not-inconsiderable charm.

Still, the strategy is not without its risks. Some Republicans may recoil at the notion of Steele, a former state party chairman, trying to distance himself from the Republican banner and the GOP’s core principles. Others may see Steele’s message and tone as simply opportunistic.

Nevertheless, Steele proclaimed at Tuesday night’s debate in Baltimore that he will be Maryland’s next senator. He is confident that his own life story and experiences will convince voters that he understands them and the challenges they face.

His Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (Dist. 3) of Pikesville, is trying to make the race a referendum on the Bush administration. Cardin, who lacks Steele’s star appeal but makes up the difference with his 40 years of legislative expertise in Annapolis and Washington, is also trying to paint Steele as a traditional conservative Republican who stands with Bush on abortion, the war in Iraq, tax cuts and stem cell research — positions that Cardin says do not reflect the thinking of most Marylanders.

Steele disagreed that he is outside the mainstream of Maryland voters: He is a Roman Catholic who opposes abortion. He opposes stem cell research that destroys a human embryo, but supports using umbilical blood and adult stem cells. He accuses Democrats of ‘‘demagoguing” the war in Iraq and of not having a comprehensive plan to win the peace.

Steele acknowledged that voters ‘‘should be concerned because what is missing right now is a strategy to win the war. ... Staying the course is not a strategy to win, and it’s not giving the American people comfort.”

Steele also outlined an ambitious transportation agenda in his remarks to Gazette editors on Thursday: The three regional airports — BWI Thurgood Marshall, Reagan National and Dulles International — should be linked by mass transit. Metro should be extended to the National Harbor complex in southern Prince George’s County.

He admitted the projects carry hefty price tags, but he said the federal government could pay for them by rearranging its priorities.

Steele decried the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley law as ineffective and an example of ‘‘government overreacting to a problem,” the Enron accounting scandal. He equated the law to a teacher punishing the whole class because of the behavior of one bad student. ‘‘CPAs and lawyers benefited the most,” he said.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., a Cardin supporter, said Steele’s positions do run contrary to most Marylanders’, but he is not overly confident. The race factor is the major unknown in the Senate race, said Miller (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach.

African-American turnout is pivotal for Cardin, who was hammered in the black community in the Democratic primary by former congressman Kweisi Mfume.

African-American leaders have complained that the Democratic Party’s ticket is made up of four white men, with the exception of Del. Anthony G. Brown, running mate of Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley (D). African-American senators have met with Cardin and O’Malley to air their concerns, The (Baltimore) Sun reported Thursday.

‘‘Nobody knows how the race issue is going to play out,” Miller said. ‘‘It’s the great unknown.”