Sobhani announced only in September that he would challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Benjamin Cardin, who is seeking a second six-year term.
No one paid much attention at the time, including Republican Dan Bongino, a political novice who left a career with the Secret Service to take on Cardin.
But then a Gonzales poll released September 26 showed Sobhani with 21 percent and Bongino with 22 percent. That raised eyebrows since no independent running for the Senate in Maryland had ever topped 13 percent of the vote. Perhaps the poll was a fluke. But now politicians in Maryland are paying attention.
It must be noted that Senator Cardin polled 50 percent, more than twice what either Sobhani or Bongino drew. He is no trouble in Maryland, a Democratic bastion. The battle is only for the distinction of coming in second. But how can Sobhani be doing so well?
Money is likely a factor. The candidates’ financial reports filed early this month and showing how much they have spent revealed that Sobhani had already expended $4.6 million, more than his Democratic and Republican opponents combined.
It may also be ideology. Sobhani is coming at the campaign from the hardline right, and seems to be appealing to the Republican base in ways that the more moderate Bongino can’t.
It may also be timing. Sobhani began running television ads in September, before either of his opponents went onto TV. Thus, when the Gonzales poll was taken, many of those polled had only heard about Sobhani.
Sobhani has run for the US Senate twice before, in 1992 and 2000, both times as a Republican. And both times he lost in the GOP primary. It appears, however, that he learned something about campaigning from those defeats.
Sobhani is campaigning partly on the theme that the two-party system is corrupt and an independent is needed to clean the muck out of the two-party stable. “I believe both political parties are bereft of ideas,” he says. “We have a moral deficit, but we also have a political deficit. [I’m] filling the void.”
Sobhani, 52, holds a doctorate in political economy from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and has taught there. He was born in Kansas, but reared in Iran and Turkey. His family left Iran for the United States a second time after the revolution
His wealth comes from the consultancy he organized and runs, Caspian Energy Consulting, which advises governments in the Middle East and former Soviet Union. It is believed especially close to the Republic of Azerbaijan. His critics say he is in bed with a bunch of autocrats.
“I’m proud of my connections,” Sobhani responds. “I’m proud to know the president of Azerbaijan. I’m proud to know the king of Bahrain,… to know King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,… the emir of Qatar.”
Based on those connections, Sobhani argues that he can do the thing people most want office holders to do in these straightened times. “I can create jobs the moment I get elected,” he said, explaining that he can help get entry to Middle Eastern markets and capital for Maryland business firms. “There are opportunities in the global economy that Sen. Cardin never in a million years could understand or act on.”
Perhaps the strangest plank is his platform is opposition to much of the country’s legal immigration. It is the subject of a book he wrote last year entitled, “Press 2 for English,” a title that plays to a popular conservative fear that immigrants threaten to make English a second-level language in the United States.
He says, “There’s a direct correlation between immigration and [federal] debt.” He focuses most on what is called “chain migration,” in which an immigrant, perhaps with scientific or engineering credentials, is brought to the United States, and he then becomes a citizen and sponsors in a long chain of relatives, whom Sobhani believes drain US resources.
His book proposes a total ban on any immigration for five years followed by much more restrictive rules than now, especially on the ability of newly naturalized citizens to bring their relatives into the United States. n
