Just got this news from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Mfume is now LEADING Cardin 31% to 25%, with 32% undecided.
Personally, I support Cardin, as he leads Steele by much wider margains than Mfume (Mfume has even trailed Steele a few times) and has a decent war-chest. Mfume also has problems regarding his tenure at the NAACP and his personal life that may come back to haunt him. HOWEVER, I will support Mfume if he's nominated, as he is still a Democrat, and we need someone with a D next to his name to vote for Harry Reid.
What concerns me about this poll is that it exposes the racial problems of this primary: racial polarization. Mfume is getting 72% support from black voters, while Cardin is getting 82% support from white voters.
In the general election, if there is a bloody primary especially, certain segments of each candidates supporters may support STEELE if their guy is not the nominee. FOr example, if Cardin's the nominee, Steele get support from a QUARTER of all black voters, and if Mfume's the nominee, Steele gets a 9% jump in white voter support. So, our problem is essentially this: if Cardin get nominated in a bloody primary, blacks in places like Prince George's County will vote for Steele in larger numbers because they may see the MD Dems as indifferent to them. If Mfume gets nominated, white voters in places like Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County may vote for Steele, because they might see Steele as "more like them" in persona (people who already know about Mfume's problems will understand what I mean by that, but I don't want to start a Cardin-Mfume flame war, so I'll avoid going into detail.)
THe ONLY way to avoid this is: DO NOT HAVE A BLOODY primary. I'm afraid that Cardin-Steele will become a Maryland version of Angelides-Westly, instead of a repeat Tester-Morrison.