Candidate Analysis

Maryland Gubernatorial Race Analysis

Assignment/Activity Title—Maryland Gubernatorial Candidate Analysis            Year—2014

Skill—            Writing, Researching                                                                                    Portfolio Category—Social Awareness

            This assignment solidified by researching skills, allowed me gain knowledge in a field I find interesting, and prompted political activism outside of the classroom.  The Maryland Gubernatorial Race Candidate Analysis asked me to conduct research on three candidates running for Governor of Maryland and analyze their policy positions and chances of victory.  I researched Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler and District 20 Delegate Heather Mizeur.  I could have written a surface level essay on this topic with relative ease.  However, I chose instead to get deep into the political strategies of each of the candidates and especially go in depth in analyzing the policies of the candidates.  I want to work in a Political Science/Public Policy related field after college so I thought that working hard on this assignment would give me a chance to get updated on the most important issues facing Maryland, as well as the operation of a modern political campaign.  The information I learned about the political strategy wasn’t very surprising or interesting to me.  It seemed clear that Anthony Brown, as the front-runner, would refrain from making any controversial policy stands and would rely on his extraordinary support among the democratic elite and African Americans to prevail in the June primary.  It also wasn’t surprising that Doug Gansler would do anything possible to delegitimize Anthony Brown and shift attention away from his own scandals.  I, however, became fascinated by the policies of Heather Mizeur and Doug Gansler.  Doug Gansler, at least economically, represented the more Bill Clinton-like, pro-business side of the Democratic Party.  While I disagreed with many of his policies, I admire him for being a unique candidate in a Maryland Democratic primary dominated by liberals.  Heather Mizeur, on the hand, was running a flamingly liberal candidacy.  She, mainly due to her low name recognition and lack of money, was making a name for herself my taking controversial policy stands.  In addition, she came to visit the Blair Young Democrats, of which I am vice-president, and spoke about policy and youth engagement in the political process.  She was clearly a nerd; quite like myself and I connected with her passion for crafting good policy. I decided that I wanted to be a part of her campaign.

 I now work for the policy team on Mizeur’s campaign and help craft the policies that I originally admired so much in researching for the project.  I am able to use some of the information about the candidates and Maryland politics in general to help Heather put issues and policy in context.  This assignment spurred my interest in the Maryland political process and definitely gave me the opportunity to become engaged and involved in the campaign I found most compelling while working on this project.