Matt Stoller made
a great point the other day describing blue state progressive movements. The title of his post was "Machines to my left, Republicans to my right." Stoller's point was that in many blue states, progressive policies are blunted by old style Democratic machines. These sometimes corrupt machines seek to further the status quo and maintain their power as opposed to promote bold, new progressive policies. Today, machines are most powerful in Northeastern states (plus the Daley machine Illinois - and others that I'm sure will be pointed out in the comments).
This brings me to Maryland. Maryland's political machine is operated by old school Democratic bosses U.S. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and MD State Senate President Mike Miller. Like most machine politicians, they cut political deals that empower themselves and their "in crowd" and leave reformers out in the cold. Well, fortunately for Maryland, the machine isn't as powerful as it used to be.
You can see it in the Senate race where the machine crowned Ben Cardin and yet he's locked in a tight primary battle with Kweisi Mfume. But, perhaps the best example of the machine vs. the people is in the Attorney General primary.
After Doug Duncan dropped his gubernatorial bid, his former running mate Stu Simms declared for Attorney General joining monied showboat Doug Gansler and progressive reformer Tom Perez. As soon as Simms announced, Mike Miller and a number of other machine Democrats in Maryland moved to coronate Simms. But, once again, the machine's power ain't what it used to be.
It looks like the Simms campaign is in trouble. They don't have the money to compete - it's gotten so bad that the campaign manager and the communications director have quit. I guess the power of the Maryland machine just ain't what it used to be.