Ehrlich Comes Home To Launch Campaign

She went on to receive a bachelor's degree in educational psychology and a certificate in special education, then worked as a lobbyist for the National Federation for the Blind, according to the state Web site. While working on Capitol Hill, she got to know Ehrlich.

"She was never subtle. That was never one of her strengths," said the governor at an event last fall with Cox. In 2001, she was appointed by President Bush to serve at the U.S. Department of Education. She joined Ehrlich's administration in 2003.

Stephen Marriott, an executive with his family's hotel corporation, recalled meeting Cox when they were both learning life skills as blind adults. "I was learning to read Braille," said Marriott, who remembered that Cox told him she was learning, too, "so she could read bedtime stories to her son."

"I was impressed with her perseverance," he said.

Cox lives in Towson, in Baltimore County, with her husband, Randy, and her two sons. She did not return calls for comment yesterday. Sources close to Ehrlich spoke about Cox on the condition that they not be named because the governor has attempted to keep her name closely guarded until today.

In New York, Democrat Eliot L. Spitzer has selected a blind state senator as his running mate in this fall's race for governor.

Ehrlich's selection comes as a Washington Post poll shows his support lagging with female voters: He trails O'Malley by 19 percentage points among women registered to vote. He is running even among men.

Matthew A. Crenson, a Johns Hopkins University political science professor, said Cox's selection could help with the "gender gap problem" and send a signal to the disabled community that "he's caring." But he said Ehrlich is unlikely to expand his voter base with the choice.

Ehrlich's event yesterday was a homecoming in many ways. It was on the front stoop of the house that he first announced for governor March 26, 2002. His parents were there yesterday, as were his wife and two young sons.

In 2002, he was a four-term congressman from Baltimore County who had signed Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" but sought the top elected job in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1.

Ehrlich said he relished the uphill fight against then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, whose strong lead in the polls and in fundraising scared off several potential Democratic challengers.

Ehrlich has said repeatedly over the course of his career that he has no qualms entering a campaign as an underdog.

The Post poll released yesterday showed the governor trailing O'Malley by 11 points among registered voters and 16 points among those most likely to vote this fall.

O'Malley did not cede the day to Ehrlich, staging an early afternoon rally outside the State House in Annapolis that was followed by a march with supporters to the State Board of Elections headquarters, where the mayor and his running mate, Del. Anthony G. Brown (D-Prince George's), officially filed as candidates before Monday's deadline.

Then, less than two hours before Ehrlich's announcement, O'Malley made a foray into Arbutus, holding the latest in a series of "kitchen table" talks in the family home of an air-conditioning technician and part-time mental health worker.

The rally, which drew about 300 people, including many labor union supporters, and the more intimate event were attempts to frame O'Malley as the champion of working-class families in the race.

In a fiery speech at the rally, O'Malley said he was seeking to oust "an administration that has failed to defend our middle class."

Staff writers Mary Otto and Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.