Like pilgrims coming to a shrine, politicians and their supporters from across Maryland trekked to tiny Crisfield on the lower Eastern Shore on Wednesday for crabs and hand-shaking ? and to feed and be fed by the rumor mill.

Baltimore County Council Member Ken Oliver has been making the jaunt to the annual J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake ? which sold 6,000 tickets this year ? for several years.