Maryland Democrats brought in one of their biggest guns, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to raise money for the party and its statewide standard-bearers, gubernatorial candidate Martin O?Malley and U.S. Senate candidate Ben Cardin.
Monday night at the University of Maryland College Park, the former first lady told a crowd of several hundred cheering Democrats: “I want you to do everything you possibly can so that these people will be serving, too.”
Someone called out: “Then we?ll have a new president, too,” referring to Clinton?s possible presidential ambitions. She smiled broadly, but said, “We have to remain focused” on this election, and getting back control of the House and Senate.
“It is so important that Ben Cardin be elected,” Clinton said. “We don?t need another voice that echoes whatever the president and the vice president says.”
As for Cardin?s Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, Clinton said, “You have no idea what he stands for. ? He does whatever they tell him to do.”
As Cardin listed the people who had helped raise money for Steele ? President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove ? the crowd responded with a series of boos.
Before Clinton even took the podium Monday evening, Steele, the Republican Senate nominee, was already trying to make political hay of her visit. Steele told financial supporters ? in an e-mail headlined “Democratic Party Bosses Unleash Hillary Clinton” ? “Now they are going to release one of the most partisan, controversial and divisive members of their party to campaign against me.”
“Hillary Clinton presents a stark contrast to the change-oriented vision of my campaign,” Steele said. “She represents the status-quo in Washington: partisan, angry, divisive political gamesmanship more interested in passing blame than getting the job done.”
