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!