Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings is urging Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele not to do negative campaigning in the race for U.S. Senate, and Steele promised he would if Democrats would stop their “racist, partisan attacks” on him.
At a Washington fundraiser for ex-NAACP President Kweisi Mfume on Tuesday, Cummings was asked about the good words Steele has for Mfume, whom Cummings succeeded in Congress.
“I would love to hear Michael Steele say this while he says all those wonderful things about Kweisi Mfume. I promise not to do negative campaigning nor will I allow others to do so,” Cummings told The Examiner.
Steele responded Thursday that Cummings “needs to get that commitment from his own party.”
“I hate negative campaigning,” Steele said. “I?m prepared to make that commitment.”
He said it was Democrats like Rep. Steny Hoyer, of southern Maryland, the House minority whip, and Senate President Thomas Mike Miller who made “racist, partisan attacks,” calling him a “token,” an “Uncle Tom” or “disparaging my qualifications” as part of “the politics of personal destruction.”
“I genuinely like Mfume,” Steele said.
As state GOP chairman, Steele said he reached out to Mfume and the NAACP.
“It doesn?t matter who the [Democratic] nominee is. I don?t think I win by tearing down the other side,” he said.
Steele was encouraged by a new Rasmussen Reports poll showing him barely beating Mfume, 45 percent to 44 percent, and inching up on the other leading Democrat, Rep. Ben Cardin, with Cardin leading Steele 47 percent to 41 percent.
“They?re encouraging numbers, but it?s still an uphill climb to win this race as aRepublican,” Steele said. “There?s still a lot of work to do before you start popping the champagne corks.”
In one of the Maryland Democratic Party?s frequent e-mails attacking Steele, Chairman Terry Lierman said Thursday that Gov. Robert Ehrlich and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani obviously didn?t want to be seen with Steele at a “social moderate” fundraiser Wednesday because of his right-wing extremist views. But Steele, who was attending events on the Eastern Shore, was praised several times by both Ehrlich and Giuliani, and both men urged the crowd to help Steele get elected to the Senate.
The party has also attacked Steele for not showing up at a fundraiser with President Bush, and when Steele appeared with Sen. John McCain, Lierman said McCain was “trying to burnish his right-wing conservative credentials.”
