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After years of favoring Democrats, Maryland voters have the option
this fall of re-electing Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich and putting
a Republican in the Senate for the first time in 20 years.
 With
Lt. Gov. Michael Steele running for the Senate seat vacated by
Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes, both races appear to hinge on Maryland
voters' opinion of the Ehrlich administration's record over the
past four years.
In 2002, Ehrlich was the first Republican governor elected since
1966 when he defeated then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
with 52 percent of the vote. This year, he is running against
Martin O'Malley, the mayor of Baltimore.
In Washington, both U.S. Senate seats have been held by Democrats
-- Sarbanes and Sen. Barbara Mikulski -- since 1976 and 1986,
respectively. In the House of Representatives, Maryland is represented
by six Democrats and two Republicans, and thanks to creative gerrymandering
after the 2000 census, none of the seats is expected to change
parties.
Back in Annapolis, the Maryland State Assembly closely mirrors
the dominance of registered Democrats over Republicans who outweigh
the GOP 55 percent to 30 percent. There are 33 Democrats and 14
Republicans in the state senate and 98 Democrats and 43 Republicans
in the House of Delegates.
Much like the rest of the country, Maryland is clearly delineated
between "red" and "blue" sections. The counties bordering the
Interstate-95 corridor between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore
lean Democratic while the counties in western Maryland and on
the state's Eastern Shore skew Republican.
In the 2004 presidential election, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.,
won Maryland by dominating the vote count in Baltimore City and
County, as well as the D.C. suburbs of Montgomery and Prince George's
counties. By winning those four counties, in addition to eking
out victories in the exurbs of Howard and Charles counties, Kerry
took the state with 56 percent of the vote.
Black voters make up a significant portion of the Maryland electorate
and are a force in the state's politics: 24 percent of the votes
cast in the 2004 election were from black residents. In Prince
George's County, which borders the eastern and southern portions
of Washington, D.C., two-thirds of the county's residents are
black, according to the Census Bureau. Kerry won the county with
82 percent of the vote.
Race will undoubtedly play a major factor in the U.S. Senate
campaign. In Democratic primary on Sept. 12, Rep. Benjamin Cardin,
a white, Jewish native of Baltimore, defeated Kweisi Mfume, the
former president and CEO of the NAACP.
Cardin's Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Steele, is also black
but has faced criticism from the black community for his allegiance
to the Republican Party.
One possible indicator that Maryland may continue to trend Democratic
is the expected increase in its minority populations, which tend
to vote for Democrats. In August 2005, the Census Bureau reported
that Maryland is among the states that are next in line to become
a "majority-minority."
Prince George's County also is known as one of America's wealthiest
black communities. Overall, Maryland has the third-highest median
income in the country, according to the 2004 Census. Marylanders
also are well-educated, with the fifth-highest percentage of college
graduates in the country.
Some of these characteristics may be due to the fact that many
Maryland residents work for the federal government. Over 130,000
federal employees work in Maryland, ranking it fourth in the country,
and thousands more residents commute to Washington for federal
government jobs.
The state is home to numerous government agencies, including
the National Institute of Health, the National Institute of Standards
and Technology, the Department of Health and Human Services, and
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The large number of government agencies in Maryland, especially
in the science fields, has spurred a growth of private sector
businesses in the Washington suburbs. Aerospace giant Lockheed
Martin has its headquarters in Maryland, and rival Northrop Grumman
has a presence in the state as well.
In Montgomery County, home of NIH and the Naval Medical Center,
local leaders have developed a biomedical corridor which includes
the headquarters for the Human Genome Project.
 Maryland
also is home to numerous military facilities, including Andrews
Air Force Base, Fort Meade and the U.S. Naval Academy. Under the
guidelines submitted by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission,
or BRAC, the number of military servicemen and federal employees
in Maryland is expected to grow by 28,000 over the next 10 years.
This massive growth in both the public and private sectors is
an integral part of the campaign strategy for both Ehrlich and
Steele. Among the accomplishments posted on his campaign site,
Ehrlich lists the "nearly 100,000 new private sector jobs" and
turning the state's deficit into a surplus. Steele's Web site
includes similar language and emphasizes the state's low unemployment
rate.
Democrats are campaigning on issues including health insurance
and high energy costs, two issues that have put Maryland on the
national news radar in the past year.
In January, the Maryland Senate overrode Ehrlich's veto on a
"fair share" health care bill to require companies in the state
with more than 10,000 workers to spend at least 8 percent of their
payroll up to a certain level on health benefits. As it stands
now, the bill only affects Wal-Mart and its employees, but Cardin,
Mfume and O'Malley are calling for wider health care benefits
on the campaign trail.
O'Malley also is running on a platform of lower energy prices
after the State Assembly overturned another Ehrlich veto of a
bill concerning Baltimore Gas and Electric. That bill stopped
a 72 percent rate increase for BGE customers put in place by a
governor-appointed commission. Instead, customers will have to
pay a phased-in 15 percent rate increase.
-- Compiled by Brian Wolly for the Online NewsHour
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