Md. Governor's Race Running at 2 Speeds

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, on the first leg of a six-day bus tour, had barely set foot in downtown Frederick yesterday when he encountered a group carrying signs in support of Maryland's Republican governor.

"These poor folks," said O'Malley, the Democratic challenger for governor, grinning as supporters stood at his side. "Where are your candidates? Where are your guys?"

O'Malley is not the only one asking those questions. In the closing days of the race, he and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) are offering a study in contrasts when it comes to campaign style.

As O'Malley crisscrosses the state, scheduling as many as eight campaign appearances a day, Ehrlich conducts many of his public visits in his official capacity as governor. Yesterday, his campaign schedule had two public events late in the day and a private fundraiser.

Shortly after 7 a.m. yesterday, O'Malley kissed his wife goodbye outside his northeast Baltimore home and boarded his freshly painted green campaign bus.

Besides strolling down Frederick's Market Street, his itinerary included meetings with community college students, senior citizens and union officials. The mayor was to finish the day in Maryland's westernmost county before heading overnight to the Eastern Shore, where events are set to begin early this morning in Ocean City.

Ehrlich joined his running mate, Kristen Cox, secretary of the state Department of Disabilities, in greeting riders at the Silver Spring Metro station before dropping by a rally for Asian American voters in Chevy Chase.

He laughed when asked where his campaign bus was. "We're not doing that," he said. Ehrlich campaign spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver said the governor's lighter campaign schedule is by design.

"The governor has always said that governance comes first, and the best way to show Marylanders he is the better leader is by leading," DeLeaver said.

On his official visit earlier that afternoon to Asbury Methodist Village retirement community in Gaithersburg, Ehrlich didn't invoke his opponent's name or ask the crowd of 120 senior citizens to vote for him. He did, however, hit upon a key issue in the campaign: his support of stem cell research. "It may save folks in this room sometime in the not too distant future," Ehrlich said.

A woman wearing a "Kiss me, I'm a Republican" button planted one on his lips. He also posed for photos with a woman who sported a "Steele" bumper sticker on her walker, supporting the bid of Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele for U.S. Senate.

A fundraiser at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, however, was not advertised. Ehrlich, who also had a fundraiser at the club before his 2002 election, has opposed running light rail or buses through the club's golf course as part of Metro's proposed Purple Line. He has said he opposed that route because it wouldn't be "cost-effective" and would destroy "thousands and thousands of trees" along the Capital Crescent Trail.

The mayor has launched a more traditional final-days barnstorming tour that will take him to every region of the state before Monday night, ending with a rally on Federal Hill in Baltimore.

At several stops yesterday in Republican-leaning Western Maryland, O'Malley was asked by reporters about a poll published by the Baltimore Sun showing the race with Ehrlich in a statistical dead heat -- with O'Malley leading 47 to 46 percent and 7 percent undecided or supporting a third-party candidate.

O'Malley played down the significance of the findings, noting that a Washington Post poll Sunday found him leading Ehrlich 55 to 45 percent. O'Malley said that his latest internal poll, conducted over the same days as the Sun's, showed him with a six-point lead, 50 to 44 percent, with 6 percent undecided.

The Sun and Post polls, in large part, reflect differences in the numbers of black voters included in each survey. Because that voting bloc overwhelmingly favors O'Malley in this race, a small change can affect the results.

The two polls are also at odds in gauging the leanings of moderates.

"You know what?" O'Malley said during an appearance at a union hall in Hagerstown. "None of that matters, because it's all about you getting out the vote."

O'Malley called Ehrlich one of the most "union-bashing" and "city-bashing" governors in the nation, the latter a reference to a barrage of ads Ehrlich has run highlighting Baltimore's problems with crime and education.

The rhetoric was less pointed at other appearances, including O'Malley's stroll through downtown Frederick, when he was accompanied by Democratic Senate candidate Benjamin L. Cardin and others.

One of the lighter moments came when O'Malley ducked into a music store and picked up an acoustic guitar.

"Ahh, I miss the guitar-playing days," said O'Malley, who said early in his run for governor that his Celtic rock band was on hiatus amid questions about his gravitas. He cut his strumming short to return to several dozen supporters on the street.

"Okay, I picked up the guitar," O'Malley said in a tone of mock confession. "My opponents will lash out."

Staff writers Katherine Shaver and Matthew Mosk contributed to this report.