WHERE HAVE ALL THE DEMS GONE? long time passing … where have all the Democrats gone? long time ago.

That was certainly the question for the "SPEAK UP" Gubernatorial Forum today at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville.  What began in 2000 as a part time evening instruction curriculum, the Universities at Shady Grove, as a part of The University System of Maryland (USM), is made up of students who are professionally focused and want to fast track their degree. It was these students, primarily out of the Political Science department, who pulled the Forum together to provide an opportunity to gubernatorial candidates of both parties participating in Maryland's June 24th primary.  Sadly only 3 campaigns provided information, 2 of which also provided the candidates who will be on the ballot in the upcoming election; the Doug Gansler Democrat campaign provided staff with flyers only, while the GOP campaigns of David Craig and Charles Lollar provided the actual candidates to speak to the students and interested community residents in attendance. The school was given short notice of cancellation by the Democrats to the invitation to appear, allegedly based on an internal promise amongst the 3 Democrats not to have more than 3 debates (but as reported by the Baltimore Sun March 3, this applied to televised debates, which this Forum was not). The request to the school by the Democrats, was to change the format so that each candidate appeared on the stage alone, not in debate mode, but the short notice made this impossible. There was no reason given why the other two GOP candidates did not appear.
The candidates introduced themselves. David Craig, the current County Executive for Harford County, introduced himself as the Governor-candidate on his ticket (with running mate, for Lt. Governor, Jeannie Haddaway) and Ken Timmerman, the Lt. Governor running mate (on the ticket with Governor-candidate, Charles Lollar).  Students then lined up at the mic to question the candidates for nearly 2 hours. Outside the Auditorium, tables were laden with pamphlets and flyers from only these campaigns.
One Democrat candidate did send later apologies on Twitter after the glaring absence was pointed out: @heathermizeur "I'm so incredibly sorry it didn't work for the Democrats to join today's forum".

There are two more Gubernatorial Forums at and on university campuses, April 10th at Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, and April 23rd at Montgomery College Takoma Park. It will be interesting to see which candidates find it necessary to attend (or, at the very least, send in subs), which university settings have more appeal to them, … and, why.