By Ovetta Wiggins – A top Maryland Democratic Party official who questioned whether voters would elect a Black candidate for governor stepped down on Monday as calls for her departure escalated.
Barbara Goldberg Goldman, a prolific donor who was the party’s deputy treasurer, resigned on Monday. She also publicly apologized for the comments.
“We do not condone or support the comments in her email,” Democratic Party Chair Yvette Lewis said in a statement announcing Goldberg Goldman’s departure. “They do not represent the values of the Maryland Democratic Party.”
The resignation came shortly after John B. King Jr., a former U.S. education secretary, and Rushern L. Baker III, a former county executive in Prince George’s, called for her to step down.
Her remarks, which surfaced Sunday in a report from Axios, were made in a December email to party insiders about endorsing former Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez in the state’s gubernatorial primary. Goldberg Goldman wrote: “Consider this: Three African American males have run statewide for Governor and have lost. Maryland is not a Blue state. It’s a purple one. This is a fact we must not ignore.”
The state, which according to 2020 U.S. Census data is home to the most diverse population on the East Coast, has yet to elect a Black governor. That could change this year, with three Black candidates vying to replace Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who is term-limited.
Baker, who is making his second straight bid for governor, initially said that he didn’t agree but that Democratic leaders’ skepticism of Black Democratic candidates’ ability to be elected statewide was “fair criticism, understanding we haven’t seen it happen yet.” But on Monday, after he became aware of the email, he lambasted Goldberg Goldman’s comments, saying “such comments merely serve to excuse and legitimize acts of institutional racism, whether at the voting booth, in our corridors of government or our institutions of business and civic life.”
Former gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous late Sunday described her comments as racist in a tweet comparing her words to those of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the author of the 1857 Supreme Court decision stating that Black people were “regarded as beings of an inferior order” with “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
Read more >>> Top Maryland Democratic Party official resigns after questioning electability of Black candidates
OPINION
The Democratic Party is farther gone tarnished and selective in many ways than we thought. If a private email to 20 politicos can’t ask an uncomfortable question. Evidently no recipient made a fuss when they received the email in December. It became a problem only when it became public. Just more hypocrisy and virtue-signaling. Baker in particular is racist and discriminatory after he interfered with court order and discriminatory practices within the Prince George’s county circuit court in 2012-2013 years. He should resign as a candidate for Maryland governor.
Marylanders overwhelmingly voted for Obama, so the idea that they wouldn’t vote for a black person for governor doesn’t really make sense. Baker, Brown and Jealous just weren’t good candidates. It’s coincidental that they were all black. Baker engaged in public corruption and interfered with the court system and lawyers hired by employees which continues to this day. He cannot win governorship this way. Funny thing about skin color, is that when it is cut, all skin colors bleed the same color.
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PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY PARENTS, MARYLAND BLOG 