Democrats Sweep Md. Statewide Races

Democrats swept Maryland's four statewide seats in Tuesday's general election, according to unofficial tallies provided by the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Democrat Martin O'Malley, Baltimore's mayor, led Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr., 53.2 percent to 45.6 percent, unofficial election results showed late Wednesday. The tallies did not yet include provisional and absentee ballots.

Democratic Rep. Benjamin Cardin declared victory late Tuesday night in his U.S. Senate contest against Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes.

Unofficial tallies from the state showed Cardin with 54.7 percent of the vote to Steele's 43.7 percent, with Green Party contender Kevin Zeese trailing far behind with 1.5 percent of the vote.

Democrats also beat Republican opponents for attorney general and state comptroller. Democrat Doug Gansler, Montgomery County state's attorney, beat Republican Scott Rolle, Frederick County state's attorney, 61.6 percent to 38.3 percent, according to unofficial tallies.

And Democratic state State Del. Peter Franchot beat Anne McCarthy for comptroller, 59.6 percent to 40.2 percent, unofficial tallies showed. McCarthy was one of the few women candidates to appear in the top races, along with lieutenant governor candidate Kristen Cox, who ran on the Republican ticket.

Meanwhile, all of the incumbents in Maryland's congressional races who sought re-election retained their seats.

In the open 3rd District congressional seat, being vacated by Cardin, lawyer John Sarbanes, a Democrat and son of retiring U.S. Sen. Sarbanes, beat Republican John White.

Absentee ballots could prove crucial in extremely tight contests. Three times the normal number of absentee ballots were requested for this midterm election, following problems with electronic voting during the primaries, said Ross Goldstein, deputy administrator for the Maryland State Board of Elections.

By election day, 193,486 Marylanders had applied for absentee ballots, according to the state's numbers. Of those, 95,476 applicants were registered as Democrats and 78,666 were registered as Republicans, Goldstein said. All had to be postmarked by Nov. 6 to be counted; about three-quarters of the absentee ballots had been returned by Nov. 8, Goldstein said.

One extremely close contest in Maryland is the race for Anne Arundel county executive. Only 334 votes separate Republican John R. Leopold and George F. Johnson, according to officials.

--By Melissa Pachikara, with edits by Chris Harvey

Steele Revealed

So, we know he cuddles with puppies, but who is the real Lt. Gov. Michael Steele?

At last night's Senate debate in Baltimore with Rep. Ben Cardin and independent Kevin Zeese, Steele spelled it out: "Now, in case everyone doesn’t know, and because Mr. Cardin insists that I tell you, I will tell you for the record -- for the record -- that I am 6' 4", I am bald, I am African American, I'm Catholic and I'm a very proud Republican."

Ah ha!

Cardin and Zeese's essences weren't so easily bottled.

"I would ask the voters of Maryland to look at my record," said Cardin.

And Zeese, darned pleased to have been invited, defined himself in the negative: He said he was not Cardin and not Steele, not a Democrat and not a Republican.

"Not the staus quo," he said.

A Farewell for a Greek Thinker

"Whenever I see The Thinker doing this, I think of Paul Sarbanes," said Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.), putting his fist under his chin as if he were Auguste Rodin's statue. And the praising of Maryland's retiring Democratic senator did not stop there.
The long-time senator depicted his colleague as an example of a classic politician, more prone to observe and think than rush into an impulsive action. "He is a Greek thinker," insisted Byrd during the minutes he emotively devoted to talk about Sarbanes at the Senate Floor on Friday, in one of the last meetings before the election recess. Sarbanes is retiring when his term expires in January.
Byrd said Sarbanes was well-known for how he listened carefully, and when the time came to speak, he would do so softly and not that often. Yet, Byrd said, the Maryland senator was the man to ask for advice.
"What a mind, what a brain, what a thinker!" he said.
After remembering his days as the majority leader in the Congress and the support that Sarbanes gave him, Byrd said: "Every leader would be fortunate to have Paul Sarbanes."

Obama and Cardin Rally

Democratic candidates were trying to fit on the narrow white stage placed in the amphitheater in the University of Maryland, College Park. No one wanted to miss the occasion: Sen. Barack Obama was coming to support U.S. Senate candidate Ben Cardin, and they were going to show up with former primary candidate Kweisi Mfume for the first time. Excitement was growing when Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger couldn't restrain himself and took the microphone. "Who says Ben Cardin is not flashy?!" he said to the crowd, which celebrated his reference to Cardin's new ad. The congressman added another comment that seemed to be burning his lips: "And Ben Cardin likes puppies, too!"

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Sen. Barbara Mikulski is pure energy, and she proved so when she shared the stage with Barack Obama and Maryland Democratic candidates at the University of Maryland, College Park, Wednesday morning.
She was not only the organizer behind the first public rally that rivals Ben Cardin and Kweisi Mfume were going to share after the primary, but also the most enthusiastic of the bunch.
She did not hesitate to step up on a small bench to reach the podium and talk to the audience, and later was praised and teased by Obama.
"Barbara said, 'You'd better be there,' and when she speaks in the Senate you just say, 'OK.' She says 'jump,' you say 'how high'?" he joked. "She is a giant in the Senate!"

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There are names that are difficult to forget, and others are just too difficult to pronounce, which is the case of Sen. Barack Obama or former congressman Kweisi Mfume.
At a rally Wednesday, Obama said he remembered when Mfume first came to the political scene. "Look at that man, he talks so good, he is smart," Obama said he thought then." And his name is as hard to pronounce as mine. And I said, I've got some hope!"
The senator from Illinois also recalled when he first ran for state senator and did what every wise man does when he has to decide that kind of things: "I prayed on it, and I asked my wife," he said. "And after consulting those higher powers … I announced my candidacy."
And yes, he said, in those first meetings, conversations or simple chats that he had with everyone who was interested in listening to him, he always got the same question: "Where did you get that funny name, Barack Obama?... They called me Alabama, Yourmama … and I have to explain."

Welcome to our notebook!

Where you'll find anecodotes from the Maryland campaign trail, reported by advanced students in the print, TV and Web news bureaus run by the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. We're keeping the blog as a closed discussion within our group, but posting it here so that anyone can read it. Our aim is to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at the goings-on in some of the top-of-the-ticket races in Maryland, and perhaps a few of the others. We won't be reporting rumor; only fact, factual analysis and first-hand observations. But we hope to write in a breezier style than you might see in some of our stories on Capital News Service and Maryland Newsline, and perhaps provide a few thoughtful insights that you won't find elsewhere. Enjoy!