Steele Factor Looms In Md.

In July, speaking to minority media executives, Mfume complained of "a huge effort to sort of guide the process" in Cardin's favor.

"I don't believe the Democratic Party should surrender the high ground on inclusion, but you certainly can't defend the high ground if you're not doing much," Mfume said more recently. Coming on the heels of Democrats' failure to recruit a black statewide candidate in 2002, Mfume warned that the party had "created a trickle that could well be an avalanche if we ignore it."

Some Democrats seem to have recognized the problem. Not only is it widely assumed that Duncan and O'Malley will tap black running mates, but a growing number of Democrats are agitating as well for additional minority candidates.

"The Republicans raised the bar in 2002. If we don't, we won't be successful," Harris said.

That kind of talk has intensified pressure on Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. (D) to step aside rather than seek a sixth term. Younger Democrats especially have come to view Curran and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D), who is 83, as impediments to a new, more diverse generation of politicians. Schaefer, a former governor and mayor of Baltimore, has been resolute about running again. Curran, 74, who is O'Malley's father-in-law, has sent mixed signals.

In August, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman stood before a roomful of black journalists and outlined his party's plan to reach out to African Americans in a way it hadn't in more than a half-century.

The party has recruited high-profile black candidates in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania to run for governor or Senate in 2006. Efforts to persuade Steele to run included a fundraiser headlined by White House aide Karl Rove, a pledge by former GOP chairman Ed Gillespie to oversee a national fundraising drive and entreaties from President Bush and others.

Walters, who was in the audience the day Mehlman spoke, said he remains unconvinced that Republicans can overcome decades of rocky relations.

But at St. Edward's Church last Sunday, it was as though Steele had left his party affiliation at the door. "Yes, sir, I'll vote for him," said an enthusiastic Charles Banks, a Democrat who was an usher that day. "I've got no problem with him."