Steele Running Against History

In Indiana, by contrast, the second in command oversees commerce, tourism, agriculture and homeland security. And she presides over the state Senate. In fact, unlike Steele, about half of lieutenant governors have some legislative function, including breaking ties in the state Senate.

Julia Hurst, director of the National Lieutenant Governors Association, said there has been a definite trend in recent years to expand the portfolios with such duties as homeland security or budget planning. Thicker portfolios bring greater visibility, which could account for the unusually large crop of lieutenant governors stepping up to run for higher office next year, she said.

If there is a curse on Maryland's No. 2, it traces to the Civil War and the unhappy tenure of Christopher Cox. A distinguished physician, he won the newly minted office in 1864 when abolitionists ruled in Maryland.

But three years later, Southern sympathizers seized political control and rewrote the Constitution, eliminating Cox's job. The position was not amended back into the Constitution until a century later, when Gov. Spiro T. Agnew (R) was tapped to be vice president and lawmakers recognized the need for a clear successor.

Blair Lee IV, a developer and Democratic commentator who ran his father's campaign in 1980, said that if there's a curse, it's not rooted in history. It's rooted in the personalities of those who take the job.

"Most people who run for lieutenant are by definition people who are happy playing second fiddle and being Number 2 guys," said Lee, including his father in that group.

He pointed also to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who he believes was less excited about running for higher office than many of the people around her.

Townsend, who lost a 2002 bid for governor, did not return a message left at her home.

The big question for Steele, Lee said, "is if he is one of these more retiring personalities, can he find the fire to go out there and be the alpha male?"

Steele's aides would not make him available to comment on the curse. But politics being what it is, it wasn't hard to find Maryland Democrats who hope it will persist.

"Or at least," clarified Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore) with a smile, "that any curse that might be attached to that job isn't broken by Michael Steele."