The broadcast TV ads that so dominate the races for governor and U.S. Senate are now showing up in two of the most hard-fought races for state Senate. District 42 Democrat Jim Brochin is battling to keep his Towson area seat, and District 14 Republican Sandy Schrader is doing the same in southeast Howard County. Both incumbents face formidable opponents. Former County Council Member Douglas Riley is challenging Brochin, and Howard County Executive Jim Robey is up against Schrader.
Brochin has a particularly effective TV spot in which a Republican sufferer from Parkinson?s disease ? a lot less shaky than Michael J. Fox in Ben Cardin?s ads ? backs Brochin because he “led the fight” for stem cell research.
Brochin is renowned for his charm as a door-to-door campaigner, but he?s also got a knack for fundraising, gathering $435,000 in the last four years ? twice as much as Riley and one of the highest totals for an Assembly member not in a leadership post.
Schrader is no slacker, raising $293,000 this term, but she was almost forced onto TV by very damaging ? and deceptive ? series of direct mail pieces implying she opposed most forms of birth control, when she actually voted against the morning-after pill for teenagers. The mailers were produced not by Robey, but the Democratic Party, and her TV ad zings him for saying he had no connection to them.
Scare tactics
Ehrlich fundraiser-in-chief Dick Hug sent out Happy Halloween greetings, trying to scare up some more support tied to the holiday. The election “may be just plain scary,” Hug said.
“If Martin O?Malley is elected governor, our state will turn backwards and the State House in Annapolis will again be led by a monopoly party liberal.”
Not to be outdone in the scare tactics, the Democratic Party said that “Bob Ehrlich and his sordid cast of close advisors, friends and contributors have been frightening voters for years.”
The party unveiled a new Web site that “brings all of these frightening characters together.”
At WhoIsBobEhrlich.com, Ehrlich is surrounded by almost three dozen mug shots connecting the governor to every conceivable Republican or Democrat who might have some negatives ? the president, vice president, convicted lobbyists, congressmen and other Ehrlich supporters.
Click on the photos, and the person?s “misdeeds” are described in the most unfavorable way. The connection to Ehrlich is sometimes flimsy.
Gospel mission
The Democratic Party organized a gospel concert in Baltimore Sunday night to rally African-Americans to vote.
It produced a surprising admission from party chairman Terry Lierman. Turns out the liberal from Montgomery County is actually a Southern Baptist with working-class roots.
“I grew up in a house trailer. I?m white trash,” he told the assembled voters. He urged them to turn out on Election Day, “the only day when the janitor has the same power as the president of the company.”
The pews at the gospel rally were at best two-thirds full, and the congregants seemed more energized by the gospel groups than by the politicos.
Only a handful of the dozens of black elected officials from the Baltimore area came out to show their support.
Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage
Len Lazarick is the state house bureau chief of The Examiner, he can be reached at [email protected]
