The news that Lt Gov Michael Steele is preparing for a run for the Senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes is going to start sending shock waves through the democrat circles. Steele is the perfect candidat to snatch a democrat seat for the GOP. The local MD papers are trying to find reasons he cannot win, but for each one they find there is a counter reason:

If Steele were to take 20 percent of the black vote – compared with Ehrlich’s 13 percent – he would still have to gain the support of six in 10 white voters, a tall order, Schaller said.

“The real problem for him is he is very conservative, and he is running in a very liberal state. Mr. Ehrlich is more center-right than he is,” Schaller said. “He has a harder coalition to build for two reasons. One, he has less political standing and connections to a constituency than Ehrlich did, and two, he is more ideologically conservative than Ehrlich is.”

This is a bit of a reach. The conservatives will follow the conservative candidate. The moderates will follow the candidate which is less radical, and right now the dem opposition could be Kweisi Mfume. In fact, the liberal establishment is guaranteed to go over the top against Steele, which would rebound in his favor with the moderate voters:

But Del. Anthony J. O’Donnell, the House minority whip from Calvert County, said Steele has been embraced by state residents.

“In the past, the Senate president has called him an Uncle Tom; The Baltimore Sun editorialists said he brings nothing to the office other than the color of his skin, and now this vitriolic attack by the state party,” O’Donnell said.

Definitely one to watch.