Gov. Martin O’Malley leads potential challenger Robert Ehrlich by a 6-point margin in a rematch between the current and former Maryland governors for the state’s top office, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll.
O’Malley, a Democrat heading into the toughest election season in years for his party, leads his predecessor Ehrlich 49 percent to 43 percent.
Republican Ehrlich, however, boasts a slightly higher favorability rating of 55 percent to O’Malley’s 54 percent, and leads among voters not affiliated with either party 52 to 36 percent.
The poll — roughly consistent with prior surveys — offers mixed results for the former Republican governor, who is widely seen as ramping up a bid to reclaim his old job.
Part of the survey “will encourage O’Malley, part of it will encourage Ehrlich,” said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato. Although “this is a Republican season,” the former Republican governor is no longer as well-known as he was four years ago, Sabato said.
“I’ll be interested to see whether it encourages or discourages Ehrlich,” he said.
O’Malley, a former mayor of Baltimore, unseated Ehrlich in 2006 by a 7-point margin.
While Maryland is a heavily Democratic state, Republicans are looking to make major gains in November by capitalizing on voter unrest over the economy and federal spending.
Ehrlich has been using a weekly radio show on Baltimore’s WBAL radio station to launch attacks on the sitting governor. On Saturday, Ehrlich criticized O’Malley for traveling to Baghdad in the middle of the legislative session.
The survey of 500 likely voters was conducted Feb. 23 and released Friday, with a margin of error of 4.5 percent.
It showed the Republican and Democrat polling even among male voters, with women backing O’Malley by a margin of 12 points. Of the voters surveyed, 2 percent backed another candidate and 5 percent were undecided.
President Obama, who swept Maryland in 2008, holds a 59 percent job approval rating in the state, according to the poll, which is substantially above his national job approval ratings.
