Republican gubernatorial contender Brian Murphy recently gained and lost a running mate so quickly that some wondered whether his primary opponent forced a split in the ticket. Murphy accused former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and his supporters of pressuring Carmen Amedori to "succumb" to his campaign.

Amedori, a former delegate and Ehrlich appointee to the parole commission, had been a high-profile get for Murphy, a little-known businessman who lives Montgomery County. (Murphy is being heavily promoted on this web site and others by former Maryland Republican Party Chairman Jim Pelura, who is no fan of Ehrlich. See second-to-last comment here.)

Both Amedori and Ehrlich say that Ehrlich had nothing to do with her decision to abandon Murphy's campaign.

An Ehrlich profile by Patuxent reporter Bryan Sears gives further insight into what she was thinking:

"I just see it as a school yard fight," said Amedori (about Ehrlich vs. O'Malley), who at the time was running for lieutenant governor with Murphy.

"He's a nice guy, but he's already lost," Amedori said. "If you hire a repairman to fix something and it doesn't get fixed, you don't go out and rehire the same repairman."

Ironically, a week after that comment, Amedori withdrew from the Murphy ticket and is again backing Ehrlich. Amedori said that she came to believe in a short period that Murphy could not win and was not willing to listen to her advice about stumping in Baltimore County, which she believes will be a key battleground.

"I still feel that Bob is not as fiscally conservative as me and Brian," Amedori wrote in an e-mail May 2. "Here is the bottom line: Even if Brian and I came out of the primary, he does not have the needed name recognition to reach across the party lines to win the General."

Both Ehrlich and Murphy must choose a running mate by the July filing deadline.