O'Malley Comes A-Courtin'

During Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's visit Friday with Southern Maryland Democratic officials, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, left, O'Malley, lieutenant governor candidate Del. Anthony Brown and Del. Murray D. Levy (Charles) all turn to honor Evelyn W. Arnold, the retiring St. Mary's County Circuit Court clerk. (By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

"The governor loves to visit Charles County and most importantly bring good news with him, and he's been able to do that," spokesman Henry Fawell said, noting Ehrlich's funding of transportation, public safety and education projects in the area.

O'Malley's visit and the stop earlier in the week by Kristen Cox, Ehrlich's running mate and his Cabinet secretary of disabilities, underscore the importance both campaigns are placing on Southern Maryland in their electoral strategies.

The tri-county area's population, which includes about 6 percent of the state's 3 million voters, is dwarfed by the more densely populated city of Baltimore and the Washington suburbs of Montgomery and Prince George's counties. But Southern Maryland is the state's fastest-growing area, and both campaigns see its far-flung exurban communities as fertile territory for votes.

While St. Mary's and Calvert counties have voted solidly Republican in recent national and state campaigns, more populous Charles County is considered one of a few so-called purple counties in Maryland that political strategists say are up for grabs. Ehrlich won Charles in 2002, 56 percent to 43 percent, but Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, carried Charles by 1 percentage point.

Although registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by 49 percent to 34 percent in Charles, Democrats in Southern Maryland tend to be fiscally conservative and socially moderate, and the Ehrlich campaign aims to sway these voters.

"It's still a conservative Democratic county," said Audra Miller, a spokeswoman for the state Republican Party. "The voters of that county do not subscribe to the liberal left that Martin O'Malley is a member of."

Since voters in Southern Maryland have a tendency to cross party lines and split tickets, the old-fashioned style of hands-on politicking is a necessary ingredient for a successful candidacy, even at the state level.

"They really are picking and choosing based on the individual person, the individual candidate. They're not basing their decisions on some sort of long-held party affiliation," said Zach P. Messitte, a historian of Maryland politics and director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

"That means you do need those people out there working the county fair and pounding signs into people's front yards," Messitte said. "You need that stuff in order to make the difference."

And that's why O'Malley, on Friday in Waldorf, promised that he'd be back, again and again.