When former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) meet to tape the lone televised debate of the Maryland Senate election on Thursday afternoon, Mike Scott will be campaigning in Easton.
He isn’t happy about it.
Scott, 52, is the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate. He says he was never contacted by the debate organizers and has never been offered an explanation for why he is being excluded.
“I’m studiously ignored, and I’m pissed,” Scott said in an interview.
It’s the common lament of third-party candidates in many high-profile elections.
Scott does not appear to meet the criteria to qualify for the candidate debate being sponsored by Maryland Public Television, according to the network’s guidelines. MPT is hosting the debate, which will be recorded Thursday afternoon at its studios in Owings Mills and broadcast on several networks that evening.
So who is Mike Scott, the only Senate candidate besides Alsobrooks and Hogan who appears on the general election ballot?
“I’m one of the few Libertarians who’s not crazy,” he says, by way of introduction.
He’s an Air Force veteran and management consultant who lives in Bowie. He never saw combat, but mainly worked at the Pentagon and in Korea, programming computer systems, analyzing data, working on strategic planning, and studying what makes effective military officers.
“We got to play video games, basically,” he jokes.
Although he enlisted at age 18, he eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Nebraska.
Scott sees very little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans these days.
“The only question for voters is which party is going to take them to war first,” he said.
Scott said that as a young Black man, he was naturally drawn to the Democrats, but became disillusioned because he felt they were hooking Americans on ineffective government programs. He went to Republican rallies but also felt something was missing from their message.
“None of them are small government,” he said of Republicans. “None of them want to be out of your business.”
Like many Libertarians, Scott’s platform is a mixture of priorities that in some ways would please progressive Democrats and in other ways would thrill MAGA Republicans. It is predicated on the argument that “we spend too much and we don’t have a voice on where it goes,” he said.
Scott calls Hogan “Lockdown Larry,” for placing restrictions on business and social activities during the early days of COVID-19 and for vaccine mandates. He accuses Democrats of making government bloated and ineffective, but also faults them for sounding increasingly like traditional Republicans on foreign policy.
“There’s no such thing as an anti-war Democrat anymore,” he said.
Scott’s top priorities are health care, education, equity and equality, the economy, and the environment — though there are nuances and unexpected twists in the way he addresses each.
“Understanding how these interact is vital to healing America,” he said.
Scott said he would expect to serve only one term if elected. He has spent less than the $5,000 required to submit campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission.
So how is he getting the word out?
Scott said he is campaigning at parades, fairs, festivals, gun shows and other public events.
“I go to every place I can, every place that invites me, and some places that don’t,” he said.
Scott hasn’t garnered much media attention, though he was on WYPR’s “Midday” with Tom Hall on Tuesday. He has been included in some public polls and left out of others.
A Washington Post/University of Maryland poll conducted from Sept. 19-23 showed Scott with 3%. The most recent poll released on the race, taken Sept. 23-28 by the Institute of Politics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, found 6% of voters preferring “some other candidate,” but it did not specifically offer Scott’s name to survey respondents.
When asked why Scott was left out of Thursday’s Maryland Public Television debate, a spokesperson pointed to MPT’s posted criteria for candidates to appear in network-sponsored debates. Those guidelines read, in part:
“Viewpoint-neutral criteria (that is, objective criteria not based on the candidate’s viewpoint or political beliefs) will be used for determining the inclusion of candidates in the debate. These criteria will be applied by MPT’s editorial staff in its good faith judgment in consultation with any co-sponsors of the debate and will be made in accordance with all applicable federal and state laws. Criteria include:
Eligibility – The candidate must have met all legal qualifications required by federal and state laws to appear on the ballot and be eligible for office.
Active campaign – A candidate must be actively campaigning for election in the jurisdiction that is at issue. For example, if the office is a statewide position, the candidate must be campaigning statewide. To meet the definition of an active campaigner, a candidate would need to establish a campaign headquarters with a paid and/or volunteer staff; generate public interest, such as being invited to speak at public gatherings and obtaining monetary contributions; and have a campaign that would be sufficiently newsworthy to warrant coverage by the media.
Significant candidacy – The candidate must demonstrate significant voter interest and support. Polls are one measure of voter interest. A candidate who receives at least 3% in a primary election and 10% in a general election in an established, reliable, nonpartisan poll will be considered a significant candidate. Voter interest may also be measured by votes cast for a candidate in a previous statewide or countywide elected office. Substantial media coverage, financial resources beyond the candidate’s own personal resources, sizable volunteer efforts, or large turnouts at campaign stops may be evidence of significant voter interest.”
The debate will air on MPT from 7-8 p.m. Thursday, and simultaneously on WBAL-TV and WBAL-AM in Baltimore and WRC-TV in the Washington, D.C., area.
It will air nationally on C-SPAN at 8 p.m. and repeat on MPT at 11 p.m. The debate will also livestream at 7 p.m. on mpt.org/vote2024/ and be available on the MPT website later.