Flop Sweat Hits the Gilchrest Campaign
I’ve never been a big believer that political endorsements, sans hard cash and get-out-the-vote effort, mean a whole lot but an endorsement has a specific meaning.
We all know that. Even bloggers know that. Last week when we posted on Governor Ehrlich holding a fund raiser for Senator Harris we didn’t say there was an endorsement.
It says a lot about the state of a campaign when an effort is apparently made to give the impression of an endorsement when none exists. State Senator Nancy Jacobs is crying foul.
Wayne Gilchrest’s campaign website lists its campaign team members. There is the usual string of elected notables and then:
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Jeff Griffin, former chief of staff to State Senator Nancy Jacobs , is serving as the campaign’s regional coordinator while County Executive David
Craig ’s chief of staff Aaron Tomarchio and former central committee member Jim Close are serving on the campaign’s advisory team.
You’ll note, for instance that David Craig has endorsed Wayne Gilchrest. I think Senator Jacobs is right that this construction leads one to believe that she is in some way supportive of Mr. Gilchrest when she has, in fact, endorsed, her words, Senator Andy Harris. Her campaign says “[a]t no time has Senator Jacobs given permission to associate or use her name in conjunction with the Gilchrest campaign” and Senator Jacobs sums in up:
“I have always considered Mr. Gilchrest a friend, and it saddens me to see my trust in him and the trust of voters betrayed for political purposes.
I resolutely stand beside and endorse my conservative colleague Andy Harris for Congress. Andy is a committed to our Republican values and will work hard for voters of the 1st Congressional District.”
Watching Mr. Gilchrest in action, with his pork-barrelling of a new dock in his district, his demand that a recreational boat channel be dredged after a decade of negligence, his walking back from his votes in favor of surrender in Iraq, and his sudden movement away from the anti-war movement, gives one the impression of a politician belatedly recognizing that he is sorely out of step with his district. This is just the latest instance of the flop sweat setting in.
