Broken ankle doesn't keep Mikulski from outpacing Republican rivals
More than three months after shattering her ankle on the steps of a Baltimore church, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski has finally graduated from a wheelchair to a wheeled walker. She still is hampered by an oversized soft-cast shoe that makes it difficult for her to walk unaided.
But that hasn't stopped her from piling up more money for her 2010 re-election run, now well under way. In July, August and September, a period during which she spent a large portion of her time in physical therapy and away from her office, the Democrat managed to collect almost $300,000 in new donations.
That gives her more than $1.75 million in ready money for a contest that has yet to acquire much definition, barely a year before the election. That isn't much time for a successful challenge, particularly to a popular statewide official who has been re-elected by wide margins since 1986.
Three Republicans, so far, have indicated their intention to take on Mikulski next year. None of the trio has reported raising serious campaign money, an important early indicator in politics.
Jim Rutledge, a Harford County lawyer who lives in Forest Hill and has an office in Jarrettsville, has been running since April but his campaign has only $3,000 in the bank. Counting money he's loaned the campaign, his political operation is in the red.
Eric Wargotz, an Eastern Shore pathologist, has raised $85,000 since early July and had $81,120 in available cash as of Sept. 30, according to his most recent Federal Election Commission filing. Wargotz is the most experienced politician in the Republican field, currently serving on the Queen Anne's County Board of County Commissioners.
A third candidate, who won't have to report initial fund-raising figures for three months, is John F. "Jef" Curran of Carroll County. Curran says he is a distant relative of J. Joseph Curran Jr., the former state attorney general and the father of Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley's wife, Katie Curran O'Malley, but the Republican hopeful says he's never met them.
