(December 1, 2000) Well, we held off finalizing this issue of Tripwire until the national election was wrapped up. Who'd have thought the mess in Florida would go this far? Our first draft had comments about the Clinton administration holding on to power at all costs, needing a SWAT team to evict Bill from the White House. These jokes weren't intended to be prophetic! Where did these vote-mining Florida Democrats think they were, Baltimore? Now five weeks after the election it seems at an end, but no pundit will risk saying so with finality.

Let's review: Everyone's 401(k) plan was perking along, we're not in a world war and, in effect, Clinton was still at the top of the ticket. Gore should have been declared the loser simply for not having taken 60% of the vote off the top. But the Bush team needs comment too. They followed a 'wave theory' (campaigning in long-shot states to build up an image of the rising tide going into election day.) This was interesting but as events unfolded, it wasn't a substitute for pure, unadulterated 'get out the vote' efforts to activate one's core.

Activating the core - for right, wrong or in between - is what Gore's Democrats did best. There are none finer at this game, and our hat is off to them for their skill. They get out the vote no matter what their candidates will do to constituents once in office. The sight of UAW members giving their all for Gore, who favors a ban on the internal combustion engine, makes this point. Even since the election, the Democrat's core African American block stayed true, demonstrating on behalf of Gore even though one of his teams' arguments for discarding Florida ballots was paternalistic claptrap. According to the argument embraced by Gore, blacks were more likely to be confused by a complex ballot, resulting in many of them accidentally miscasting their vote. Since most are registered Democrats, the lawyers argued, this confusion resulted in a net disadvantage for Gore, who should be awarded a ballot subsidy to make up for votes he lost when confused minorities didn't give him what he needed.

In contrast, the Republican core only shows up for candidates who haven't dumped on it. This has been true here in Maryland in the past, but to see it in the current results, look at the outcome of Congressional races involving key players in the Clinton affair. (Sorry. There are many of those, so let's be clear: in the impeachment matter.) House 'extremists' who fought a good fight to impeach Clinton largely won reelection races. But in Trent Lott's Senate, that refused to fight much less convict, the GOP took losses. It's now evenly split (and likely to flip soon.)

Democrat 'get out the vote' measures are the tie to Maryland: tactics just used nationally were in part test driven here in Maryland, back in 1998 and to a limited extent 1994. Those years correspond to major state gubernatorial fights. Parris Glendening learned how to activate the African American community, in effect telling its members that a victorious Ellen Sauerbrey would likely burn a cross on their lawns. Parris' race baiting tactics, ramrodded in 1994 by Larry Gibson and refined in 1998 by Al Wynn and Elijah Cummings, helped Gore nationally.

There's no news in the outcome of Maryland races. As predicted, there is no change in the delegation. The only real fight ended up happening in Congressional Eight, where rabid anti-gun Republican Connie Morella had more of a scrap than originally anticipated keeping her seat. Her Democratic challenger, a professional lobbyist, ran the tab for this race to record levels, but in the end found it impossible to outflank Morella on the left. Morella's win helped keep the likes of Sten Hoyer out of House majority leadership, while barring the seat to an extremist who would probably support the shipping of gunowners to re-education camps, much less confiscate all firearms. A very small number of gunowners backed the third party candidate in this race; their effect was marginal, but these were votes for Sten Hoyer as majority leader nevertheless, and they boost the likelihood of a 2002 Congressional flip, since it makes Morella's base look weaker. She will have another hard challenge in two years.

A larger number of our troops made an election day trek either to precincts in other states where we could make a difference (chiefly over to Northern Virginia, but a few across to suburbs in PA) or to precincts in Prince George's County to oppose leadership's attempt to repeal term limits. No doubt about it: this was one long day of hard work for all involved! But most felt satisfied to have gotten a piece of some victories, even if not in our own back yard. My personal thanks go out to everyone who pitched in on these efforts.

'No change' is of course the welcome message in Congressional Two and Six, where incumbents Bob Ehrlich and Roscoe Bartlett racked up wins in their respective Districts. Hearty congratulations to both, with our thanks to the gun owners who pitched in. And finally our regards go out to Delegates Bennett Bozman and Tim Hutchins, who challenged the anti-gun duo of Gilchrest and Hoyer. Both friendlies fought up-hill battles against an entrenched incumbent. We applaud their effort and look forward to the day when the anti's they challenged will finally fall.