A Tale of Two Delegates

For a state with just 10 electoral votes, solidly Democratic Maryland packs a serious punch.

It’s not just the five speakers that Maryland will put forth on the convention stage. The delegation features two top former labor leaders — former AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and former American Federation of Government Employees president John Gage (J. David Cox, the new AFGE president, is a delegation guest) — and several top congressional Democrats.

Then there’s Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the dean of Senate women, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman and the ranking member of the Budget Committee. Van Hollen has served a lead Democratic surrogate against House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and is even playing the role of Ryan in vice presidential debate preparations for Joe Biden.

The Democrat cutting the highest profile in the delegation, however, is Gov. Martin O’Malley, the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. O’Malley, who’s become a frequent presence on the Sunday news shows, has emerged as one of President Obama’s sharpest-elbowed defenders. And as a 2016 prospect, O’Malley is keeping an aggressive speaking schedule to other states’ breakfast meetings.