By John Wagner and Matthew Mosk
Sunday, July 23, 2006; C04

Leaders of the Maryland Democratic Party were not shy about assigning blame last week for a federal court ruling that struck down a new state law requiring Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care. They attacked the judge.

"Judge Fred Motz is clearly more worried about Wal-Mart's bottom line, than the bottom line of average working families in Maryland," party Chairman Terry Lierman said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. "This Republican judge sided with [Governor] Bob Ehrlich , [Lieutenant Governor] Michael Steele and the special interests against the working families and taxpayers of Maryland who should not be forced to subsidize Wal-Mart's bottom line."

Among those taken aback by the tone of the e-mail were some advocates of the groundbreaking law.

"I am very offended by the press release of the Democratic Party," wrote Nevett Steele Jr. , general counsel for Civil Justice Inc., a nonprofit group, in a widely circulated e-mail. "Judge Motz is not a political hack, as Terry Lierman apparently is. When the Democratic Party says stuff like that, we are imitating the style of the current governor and president."

What a difference two months make.

In May, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan were duking it out for the endorsement of the Maryland State Teachers Association in the governor's race. But when it came time to vote, representatives of the 65,000-member group deadlocked, denying both Democrats its blessing.

Tuesday, two months later, the group plans to announce that it is throwing its support behind O'Malley. There isn't much drama here. Duncan dropped out of the race last month, citing clinical depression. And Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) never sought the group's support.

Still, the prize could be worth it for O'Malley. It is expected to bring new campaign volunteers and contributors statewide. And having the backing of the state's largest teachers lobby could help blunt criticism that Ehrlich has already started heaping on the mayor about Baltimore's low-performing schools.

In both the primary and the general election, the U.S. Senate campaign could boil down to the voting preferences of Maryland's large African American population, especially with two prominent black candidates in the running -- Democrat Kweisi Mfume and Republican Michael S. Steele .

But only one of the leading Senate candidates took the opportunity last week to reach out to Maryland's delegation to the NAACP national conference in Washington.

U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) spoke briefly to the group Monday, his aides said, to convey his support for the Voting Rights Act.

Mfume, who once served as NAACP president, and Steele have expressed support for the Voting Rights Act and the NAACP in the past but said they had not been invited to speak at this year's conference, which ran from July 15 to Thursday and had the theme "Valuing Our Votes, Voting Our Values."

Mfume said he had hoped to swing by the Washington Convention Center to see old friends but had campaign events elsewhere and did not want to do anything to upstage his successor, Bruce S. Gordon . Mfume left the civil rights group two years ago. It remains unclear whether his departure had anything to do with allegations by a female employee that he had promoted colleagues with whom he had romantic relationships, a charge Mfume denied.

William Bowman , president of the St. Mary's County NAACP chapter, said he considered it a mistake for any candidate to have passed up the event.

"There's a lot of votes here," Bowman said, strolling the convention floor. "It would have been easy for them to come and speak. All you really have to do is show up."

Before wrapping up his remarks to a group of Asian American businesspeople in Montgomery County last week, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. made sure participants knew that he knew the difference between North and South Korea.

Ehrlich (R) announced that if he is elected to a second term this fall, his first foreign trade mission would include a stop in South Korea with his father, Robert Sr. , a Korean War veteran.

"That is going to be an incredible experience for me," the governor told the audience at the Asian American Business Conference in Rockville. "And for my dad, who over 50 years ago . . . helped guarantee freedom for the people of South Korea."

The distinction was significant because the Asian American community is still reeling from recent comments by Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D) during a state Board of Public Works meeting. The comptroller, often an ally of the Republican governor, seemed to suggest a link between communist North Korea's missile launch and South Korean immigrants learning English in Maryland's public schools.

Schaefer met with Korean American leaders last week in Annapolis, but they left without the apology they were hoping for.

Staff writer Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.