O’Malley reports $6.7 million in campaign cash

Former Gov. Bob Ehrlich, who is running against O’Malley, has not released his fundraising totals, which were due at midnight Tuesday. But campaign analysts say they are expecting the Republican to report half the amount in O’Malley’s bank.

Ehrlich identified a $3 million goal in an e-mail he sent to supporters Monday, less than 48 hours before the reporting deadline.

“We have one goal for tomorrow’s deadline: report $3 million in contributions since March,” he wrote. Campaign spokesman Andy Barth would not say how close the campaign came to that total.

O’Malley reported $5.7 million in a January fundraising report — at which point Ehrlich, who had not announced his run for office, had $151,529 in the bank.

But O’Malley’s incumbency puts him in a better position to raise money over Ehrlich, who hasn’t held office since 2006.

The governor didn’t have that advantage when he last challenged Ehrlich in 2006. O’Malley lagged the Republican incumbent by more than $3 million during the same reporting period four years ago.

But the less prosperous Democrat won.

The O’Malley campaign was restricted from fundraising during the legislative session that ended in April. But the campaign spent the last four months making up for it — up to the last minutes of the reporting period.

In the week leading up to the deadline, the O’Malley team campaigned aggressively to raise $100,000 through Facebook, a social networking site that has played an critical role in each candidate’s race. The seven-day campaign garnered $155,000, according O’Malley campaign spokesman Tom Russell.

“Even though Bob Ehrlich has been raising money since January, he hasn’t raised even half of the resources that he had in 2006 when he was voted out of office,” Russell said.

The Maryland State Board of Elections said it will release full reports on each candidate’s fundraising totals on Aug. 17.

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