The Democratic race for U.S. Senate remained too close to call at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, as election day snafus held up returns in Montgomery County, Baltimore City and elsewhere.
Rep. Ben Cardin was at 41 percent and ex-Rep. Kweisi Mfume was at 40 percent with 11 percent of the precincts reporting. All the other candidates were in single digits.
Cardin was attempting to fulfill the predictions, polls and preference of much of the Democratic political establishment by defeating his old congressional ally.
Come-from-behind, underdog campaigns are nothing new to Mfume who won his first election to the Baltimore City Council by three votes. Mfume served nine years inCongress, becoming head of the Congressional Black Caucus, and a leader on social and economic issues. He left to become president of the NAACP after Republicans won control of the House.
Cardin or Mfume will face Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in the Nov. 7 election, a contest expected to be hard fought and expensive as the GOP sees it as its best shot in three decades to pick up a Senate seat here. Both Cardin and Steele have already raised more than $5 million, but Mfume has raised only $1.1 million and has little left in the bank.
Cardin was first elected to the legislature 40 years ago, rising through the ranks to become speaker of the House of Delegates in 1978. In 1986, he went to the House of Representatives from the 3rd congressional district.
Sen. Paul Sarbanes announced his retirement last year after five terms, setting off a scramble for the first open seat in 20 years. Mfume was the first to announce, but always trailed Cardin in fundraising and endorsements from the major elected Democrats. Mfume resented the lack of support from the party establishment in a state where a third of registered Democrats are African American.
Known as a hard-working but cautious legislator, Cardin ran a textbook campaign founded on strong fundraising that allowed him to blanket the airwaves with TV ads. Mfume couldn?t afford much TV, but relied on grass-roots organization to get out the vote in the black community.
Cardin and Mfume are both from the liberal wing of the party and had few strong differences on key issues facing the nation.
