Ehrlich is stuck in quicksand. He will lose.

How come you didn't link in your other post to the Rasmussen Report? http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2010/election_2010_governor_elections/maryland/election_2010_maryland_governor

James,
There was a whole piece about this other poll you want to push.

O'Malley's potential vote count is much higher than Ehrlich's.the polls are not great news for bobby.

In this state if the boy gov is not ahead by 20 points, he is not doing well with the states democrats!

I'm no fan of Ehrlich but anyone would be better than O'Malley - he is an awful governor. He gets an F in my book for public safety - for that reason alone I'm not voting for "O".

I don't want to push that poll, just pointing out it wasn't linked. There are both phone based ones. Different samples though.

So if MOM wins should we expect, again, his first order will be to increase the state sales tax by another 20%?

Democrats mean higher taxes, more government, more horribly flawed social programs, and more giveaways to people who don't work and mostly just have babies.

Democrats bring crime and red tape and if you dispute this compare Pennsylvania to Maryland!

What a joke!

Maryland survives because it is wrapped around D.C. This once never ending fount spewing other people's money will be but a drip in the coming 5-7 years as the country is utterly broke, as never before. This end of creation subsidy will result in all sorts of hardships.

When businesses experience hard times they cut back workforce or even close. When government experiences this they raise taxes and slow hiring.

Too many 'govment' jobs where prior nothing was needed.

See Depts. of Energy and Commerce.

Maybe if O'Malley hadn't rubber stamped Ehrlich's biggest boondoggle, the ICC Toll Road, more Dems could have supported him.

Had the R's run anyone besides Bobby, they might have had my (otherwise liberal) vote.

This race is no doubt a toss up.

Just need to point out though that PPP is a Democrat polling firm and their break down of respondents by party ID is a bit suspect. In the 2008 election (a highwater mark for Dems) the party ID breakdown at the polls was 51% D, 28% R and 21% Indy. This poll is 60% D, 28% R and 12% Indy.

Long story short, they seem to be shorting the indy vote and oversampling Dems. Given that polling nationwide is showing independents splitting 2 to 1 for Republicans (even in liberal bastions such as Massachusetts), the likely result is that the oversampling of Dems at the expense of independents is inflating O'Malley's support while deflating Ehrlichs.

The difference between this and other polls is that this is all voters, and everyone else has been doing likely voters. A big difference because the Republicans are much more energized this year and that would change the results.

bobby smooth tell us what programs you will cut and what other "non-tax" sources of revenue you will have to balance the budget. win our votes with transparency. ..... maybe I'm expecting too much ehh?

Debnam is a democratic pollster. This man donates exclusively to democratic candidates. Just take this poll (showing a 3-point lead for O'M) and the Magellan poll (a Republican pollster showing a 3-point lead for Ehrlich) and it's a net tie. The only difference between Debnam and the Magellan pollsters is that Debnam tries to hide his political leanings. Good reading: http://www.uslaw.com/library/Federal_Judiciary/Public_Policy_Polling_Controlling_Jim_Geraghty.php?item=841831

The furloughs for State Employees are in place for FY 2011 (July 1, 2010 –June 30, 2011) and are virtually identical to last year's.

Right off the bat, 5 Service Reduction Days (state workers get 'paid' but give the money right back to the state) + 3 - 5 additional days with out any pay. The net result: a 3 - 4% pay reduction for all State workers. It is being sold to workers as a 1.3-1.7% salary reduction (the 5 service reduction days are left out of the calculation). Talk about fuzzy math.

This is on top of the additional funds we are now pumping into the pension plan (our contribution was raised 3 years ago).

State Worker is correct that Maryland's furlough plan equals a three percent to four percent pay cut, depending on a state employee's income.

Bob Ehrlich repeatedly attacks Gov. O'Malley for the three to four percent temporary pay cut, but he was silent when his own firm permanently cut workers' pay ten percent due to the same recession forcing Gov. O'Malley to cut.

So Bob Ehrlich's employees took a cut twice as deep as state employees under Gov. O'Malley, and they did not receive days off as state employees did.

Mr. Ehrlich's furlough hypocrisy was on display when he endorsed Republican Anne Arundel county executive John Leopold, who enacted a furlough plan identical to Gov. O'Malley's the same week he attacked Gov. O'Malley.

Then Mr. Ehrlich attended a rityz fundraiser in Virginia hosted by Republican Gov. Bob McDonald, who furloughed workers in his state, as did Gov. O'Malley and at least 30 other governors coping with the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis