State Roundup, October 27, 2010

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: Republican challenger Bob Ehrlich continues to pound incumbent Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, on his “new Americans” remark as an embrace of illegal immigration, reports Len Lazarick of MarylandReporter.com.

John Wagner reports on the tactic for the Washington Post, where an O’Malley spokesman called it “a desperate attempt.”

BUCKS BY ZIP: The Sun put together two nifty photo galleries that show the top ZIP codes in the state for donations to O’Malley and Ehrlich. The dollar figures, which came from the state Board of Elections, runs through Oct. 17, and can be found below each photo.

VIDEO INTERVIEWS: View excerpts of the Sun’s endorsement interviews with O’Malley and Ehrlich. O’Malley and Ehrlich also had agreed to sit down with Patch.com to answer reader questions. However, Ehrlich had to cancel. Here’s Part 1 with O’Malley. You can also scroll down to read the interview. Ehrlich speaks with Patch.com here in a different venue.

HOME STRETCH: Liam Farrell of the Annapolis Capital offers a quick wrap of recent events in the governor’s race.

DON’T JUST TAKE THE CAKE: Ehrlich primary challenger Brian Murphy, who owns the Smith Island Baking Co., has an invoice addressed O’Malley at State Circle in Annapolis. The way Murphy tells it, O’Malley owes his company $56.02 for one of his layer cakes, blogs Ann Marimow of the Post.

LG BROWN: Through the ups and downs of the last four years, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown has carved out a role for himself in Maryland, writes Aaron Davis in this profile in The Washington Post.

HO-HUM STUDENTS: With elections less than a week away, the gubernatorial candidates are gearing up for the last leg of the race – but many students seem to have lost interest before the polls even opened, reports the University of Maryland Diamondback.

EARLY VOTE SUCCESS: Early voting numbers continue to climb, especially for Democrats, blogs Julie Bykowicz for the Sun. As of Tuesday morning, more than 95,200 statewide had cast early votes for the general election.

DEM TREND? It is tempting to see evidence of a Democratic leaning enthusiasm gap when examining trends in the early voting data released by the state’s election board, but national political observers say: Resist that urge, blogs Annie Linskey for the Sun.

BLUE MARYLAND? Kevin Robillard of TBD.com looks into Ehrlich’s contention that Maryland is the bluest state. What about “the Hippie-Farmer paradise of Vermont?” he asks.

LIBERAL INTOLERANCE: Marta Mossburg opines for the Frederick News Post on the death of bleeding heart liberals and the rise of liberal intolerance. In her piece she draws attention to some actions by the O’Malley administration and campaign.

CHAT WITH POLLSTER: You can read yesterday’s Live Chat with Sun pollster Steve Raabe and learn about the polling methodology, including how his company dealt with the problem of polling people who only have cell-phones.

COMPTROLLER: In the mild-mannered race for state comptroller, Republican Bill Campbell says he’d be a better financial watchdog than incumbent Democrat Peter Franchot, writes Len Lazarick of MarylandReporter.com.

MINI-DEBATE VIDEO: Here’s the Maryland Public Television video from Monday’s half-hour mini-debate between U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski and challenger Dr. Eric Wargotz. Jeff Salkin moderates.

MIKULSKI FAR AHEAD: Mikulski remains ahead of Republican challenger Wargotz by a wide margin, according to a new Washington Post poll, as she enjoys reelection support from a broad cross-section of Marylanders, Ben Pershing blogs for the Post.

SCHUSTER POURS MORE: Concrete magnate Danny Schuster, who is on his way to becoming Maryland’s biggest political donor of this midterm election, just dropped another $47,200 to get Andy Harris elected to U.S. Rep. Frank Kratovil’s seat, blogs Paul West of the Sun.

FISHING FOR VOTES: On the other hand, Kratovil and his supporters are battling for support from environmental voters — including those “Rockfish Republicans” — in his race against Harris, blogs Paul West of the Sun.

ENDORSEMENTS: The Sun’s editorial board highlights five Republicans and five Democrats to endorse in state legislative races.

DELEGATE 2A: Republican Del. Andrew Serafini and Democratic challenger Neil Becker are talking about similar issues, much surrounding spending, in Subdistrict 2A, writes Andy Schotz of the Hagerstown Herald Mail.

SENATE DISTRICT 37: Agriculture and business take priority in District 37 race for state Senate, writes Sarah Lake of the Salisbury Daily Times.

POST SNUB: Doug Rosenfield, the Republican candidate for Montgomery County executive, is speaking out after it appears he was snubbed by The Washington Post in an editorial that said that incumbent Ike Leggett was running unopposed. Rosenfield spoke to ABC 7’s Caroline Lyders about why he’s upset, and TBD.com links to the video interview.

Here’s the Post’s mea culpa.

STOLTZFUS’ SEAT: Republicans are fighting to hold onto the retired Lowell Stoltzfus’ state Senate seat in District 38 on the lower Eastern Shore, as Republican hotel exec Michael James and Democratic Del. Jim Mathias fight for this crucial seat. For MarylandReporter.com, Tony Russo looks into why holding onto some seats is as important as gaining new ones.

LEGGETT ASKED TO STOP: Montgomery County’s volunteer firefighters want County Executive Ike Leggett to stop spending taxpayers’ money to fight a ballot question on ambulance fees, Erin Cunningham reports in the Gazette.

KAMENETZ SPEAKS: Here’s Patch.com’s interview with Baltimore County exec candidate Kevin Kamenetz. Yesterday’s roundup included Patch’s interview with opponent Ken Holt.

IN THEIR COFFERS: The latest campaign finance reports in the Baltimore County exec race show Kamenetz entering the final stretch before the general with about a third more money in the bank than Holt, Arthur Hirsch of the Sun reports.

BAKER PREPARES: Presumptive Prince George’s County Exec Rushern Baker has tapped Wayne Curry, the county’s first African American executive, to lead his transition team as he prepares to take office in early December, Miranda Spivack reports for the Post.

YES TO SLOTS: The Sun opinionators urge Anne Arundel voters to vote yes on Question A, giving the county a chance to boost economy, racing and spare themselves a tax increase by approving slots at Arundel Mills.

CON-CON DISCUSSED: J. H. Snider, a political scientist, and Jamie Raskin,  a state senator from the 20th district and a constitutional law professor at American University, join Marc Steiner on his show on WEAA-Radio to discuss whether Maryland should convene a constitutional convention. Listen to the program here.

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