I’d pretty much put the thought out of my mind for good, but like Lucy with the football, Elijah Cummings really, really wants to tempt me back into the conversation. So here you go, but as for me, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) insisted Wednesday that he could still run for the U.S. Senate, with the filing deadline less than a month away.
“I have it circled — believe me,” Cummings said in an interview with Baltimore’s WYPR, referring to the Feb. 3 deadline to file nomination papers in the Democratic primary. Laughing, he added, “My wife reminds me every day.”
Even a very late-moving Cummings candidacy would shake up a race that at the moment features two candidates from the D.C. suburbs.
Polls have consistently shown that Cummings would lead in a race against Reps. Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen, both of whom have been campaigning for months to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D). A Baltimore Sun poll conducted after Van Hollen began a major ad blitz in Baltimore found that 40 percent of Democratic primary voters still would choose Cummings. Van Hollen’s congressional district is based in Montgomery County, while Edwards represents Prince George’s County and part of Anne Arundel County.
He’s got 27 days to file, and 98 days - 14 weeks - until early voting starts. How he builds a statewide campaign organization from scratch, pays for it and engages in serious GOTV in that short time is not explained.