The dirty tricks and denials, the demands for apologies and round-the-clock media attention seemed more like the closing weeks of a hard-fought governor's race than a false spring some 21 months from Election Day.
But the past week in Maryland politics -- with the swift dismissal of a longtime aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) for spreading rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's personal life -- seemed certain to reverberate throughout the 2006 governor's race.
_____More From The Post_____
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Uproar Puts Ehrlich's Likability On the Line (The Washington Post, Feb 13, 2005)
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Personnel System Abuse Alleged (The Washington Post, Feb 13, 2005)
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Cloak of Internet Propels Deceit, Sneak Attacks (The Washington Post, Feb 13, 2005)
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Uproar Brings Focus on Role Of Bloggers (The Washington Post, Feb 11, 2005)
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Probe Sought Of O'Malley Affair Rumors (The Washington Post, Feb 10, 2005)
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Fired Staffer Called Ehrlich's 'Hatchet Man' (The Washington Post, Feb 10, 2005)
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Ehrlich Aide Ousted Over O'Malley Rumors (The Washington Post, Feb 9, 2005)
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The controversy's implications could be far-reaching for both politicians -- as well as for Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), a gubernatorial hopeful who remained quietly offstage as the ugly drama unfolded.
"What a way to start the governor's race," said James G. Gimpel, a political science professor at the University of Maryland.
O'Malley supporters expressed relief that rumors of alleged marital infidelity, denounced by the Democratic mayor as "despicable lies," surfaced in the mainstream media in the fashion they did: tethered to an ally of the Republican governor.
In a series of Internet postings and chat-room messages provided to The Washington Post, longtime Ehrlich aide Joseph Steffen wrote that "a few folks put in a lot of effort to ensure the [Martin O'Malley] story got some real float." O'Malley said such comments suggest an "orchestrated and sustained" campaign by the Ehrlich administration, an accusation that the governor denies.
For months, gossip about O'Malley has circulated widely in state political circles and Baltimore neighborhoods, traded among Democrats and Republicans alike.
Democrats sympathetic to O'Malley, 41, said such rumors threatened to hurt him in coming months as he courted party activists and donors, whose support will be key to his gubernatorial bid and who are among those most keenly aware of the gossip. Some acknowledged privately that they were reluctant to commit to the charismatic mayor for fear that untimely revelations would doom his candidacy.
"This assuages the fear of all those people who had heard the rumors," said Thomas Schaller, a Democratic activist with ties to O'Malley. "If this remained under the radar, it could have been really damaging, even if weren't true."
At the same time, though, for every voter familiar with the rumors before last week, thousands across Maryland were not. For those voters, including many in the Washington suburbs, the news reports could provide an awkward introduction to O'Malley, a candidate who probably will tout Baltimore's "comeback" and the vision he would bring to Annapolis, political analysts said.
"It's not good for O'Malley that the first thing many people outside the Baltimore area hear about him is that there are these rumors out there," Gimpel said.
Carol Hirschburg, a GOP political consultant, said that O'Malley runs the risk of some voters focusing more on the allegations than the mayor's spirited denials. "I think many people presume where there's smoke, there's fire," Hirschburg said. "I'm not saying it's true, but this is how people think."
Republicans and Democrats said they were struck by the absolute nature of the denial issued by O'Malley, who told reporters that he has been faithful to his wife, Catherine, "from our first date until this date."
"What happens now is, people are going to look at every relationship he's ever had with any woman," Sen. Lisa Gladden (D-Baltimore) said. "It's almost as though you put bait out there."
