Steele Apologizes for Holocaust Remarks

State Sen. Sharon M. Grosfeld (D-Montgomery), the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said she was "shocked by the ignorance of the statement." Another Senate candidate, former congressman and former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, said he also was offended by Steele's comments about slavery. "Any further comparison to equate slavery to stem cell research is a reach that I and others who are the descendants of slaves don't understand," he said.

Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who has recommended $20 million in state money for stem cell research but wants to let an outside panel decide which kind of cell research should be funded, tried to deflect criticism from his former running mate.

"I think after an adult, straight-up person makes a comment and then apologizes for the comment, unless you want to make a political deal out of it, or you want to cause some sort of political damage because you dislike his candidacy, what else can the guy do?" Ehrlich told the Associated Press.

Steele's Senate candidacy has been greatly aided by national Republican leaders, who recruited him to run believing he is the party's best hope. But Steele has studiously avoided following a GOP script in a state where President Bush is a help only in fundraising.

The stem cell issue is one in which Marylanders differ greatly from Bush and other prominent Republicans. Haller said that in his latest poll for the Baltimore Sun, 60 percent of the voters supported embryonic stem cell research; the state's increasingly important independent voters favored it 3 to 1, and even a plurality of Republicans are in favor.

Steele has cited his strong Catholic faith -- he spent several years as a seminarian -- in explaining his opposition to abortion and the death penalty, even though he said yesterday he does not let his religion enter into "policy discussions."

"It is a force in my life. I tried to share a little bit of that because most politicians get up and give you the pat, 30-second sound bite," Steele said. "I will continue to do that, but unfortunately in that process, there was an inference that was not right."

Steele was elected Maryland's first statewide African American officeholder as Ehrlich's running mate and has not campaigned on his own for such a high-profile job. He has regretted off-the-cuff remarks before.

Last summer, when news reports broke that Ehrlich had held a fundraiser at an all-white country club, Steele said he didn't care because "I don't play golf. It's not an issue with me." A couple of weeks later, he changed his mind and said, "The core issue there is, the perception of discrimination is just as insidious as the reality of discrimination." He said his first answer was "flippant."

Staff writer Hamil R. Harris contributed to this report.