• MD-Sen: With just a month to go before Maryland's primaries, the extremely expensive battle for the Democratic nomination for the state's open Senate seat is experiencing some upheaval, following the first negative advertising of the race and a major endorsement.
That ad campaign comes courtesy of a group called Fight Corporate Monopolies, which HuffPost's Daniel Marans says is spending "in the high five digits" to air its message on streaming platforms.
The spot slams Rep. David Trone both for his business practices and his alleged abusive behavior toward a delivery worker at an Arizona outlet of Total Wine, the giant alcohol retail chain he founded.
A narrator first attacks Trone as an unethical monopolist, claiming his company was "sued by President Joe Biden's Administration for illegally crushing competition from small businesses." Last year, the Federal Trade Commission filed a petition in federal court demanding that Total Wine comply with subpoenas regarding an antitrust investigation.
The ad then references a 2021 incident first reported last year by the conservative British magazine The Spectator in which Trone, according to a police report, allegedly told the worker, "I will fucking end you" and "I will execute you," purportedly because the worker had stacked his deliveries on the store's floor.
Trone does not appear to have been charged in the incident, and in a statement to Marans, his campaign says he "never made the statement" the ad describes. Marans adds, though, that the candidate's staff "did not respond to questions about Trone’s views on antitrust policy."
Trone's main opponent, Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, has reason to welcome the new support, given that she's trailed in the polls. But Fight Corporate Monopolies' outlay is dwarfed by Trone's massive spending.
As analyst Rob Pyers points out, Trone has now spent almost $42 million of his own money on his campaign, which Inside Elections' Jacob Rubashkin observes smashes the previous record for self-funding in a Senate primary, the $30 million spent by Democrat Blair Hull in Illinois in 2004. (Hull lost that primary to none other than Barack Obama, who spent just a seventh as much, though adjusted for inflation, Hull is still ahead of Trone.)
It's possible, however, that Alsobrooks might benefit more from a new endorsement from the Washington Post, which on Thursday praised her record in office and noted she "would bring valuable diversity to the Senate" as "the first Black woman elected statewide in Maryland."
While it's rare for newspaper endorsements to have an impact at the ballot box, the Post's editorial could be the exception. As Rubashkin alludes, the paper remains influential in Montgomery County, which is the state's largest and borders Washington, D.C., just opposite Prince George's.
Notably, Trone's House district includes part of Montgomery, so the Post's backing could help Alsobrooks make inroads in the county, where she's likely less well-known. It's also worth pointing out that when there's been a credible Montgomery-based candidate in competitive Democratic primaries in statewide races, the Post has typically gone with just a such choice.
That includes Tom Perez, who finished a close second in the 2022 primary for governor, and Chris Van Hollen, who won the 2016 race for Maryland's other Senate seat. (In the 2018 governor's race, the top Montgomery candidate, state Sen. Richard Madaleno, took just 6% in the primary; the Post that year went for Alsobrooks' predecessor, Rushern Baker, who finished second.)
Analyst James Newton further highlights an older primary where the Post's endorsement might have been the difference-maker: the 2006 Democratic showdown for the very same seat that Alsobrooks and Trone are now seeking. That race featured a matchup between Rep. Ben Cardin and former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, whose districts were both based in the Baltimore area rather than the populous D.C. suburbs.
But with the Post in his corner, Cardin carried Montgomery County and narrowly beat Mfume for the nod by a 44-41 margin before winning in November. Alsobrooks may not have designs on winning Montgomery, but her goal will at least be to prevent Trone from running up the score there, and the Post's endorsement could help.