Race For Governor

It is official now. Virginia will have a four-way race for the Senate. Sen. Charles Robb won the Democratic primary last Tuesday. Former Gov. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat, filed petitions to get on the ballot as an independent, joining Marshall Coleman, a Republican turned independent, and Oliver North, choice of the Republican convention.Anyone could win. A recent Mason-Dixon poll showed this: Senator Robb, 28 percent; Mr. Coleman, 25; Governor Wilder, 22; Mr. North, 21. Statistically speaking, that's a dead heat.

Larry S. Gibson, the premier political organizer in Maryland and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's closest adviser, said yesterday that he will back Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann in the 1998 race for governor.Schmoke said Gibson was acting on his own, but the high-level defection will be seen as a blow to the re-election prospects of Gov. Parris N. Glendening."I think Glendening has almost no chance of winning the general election," Gibson said in an interview in which he was highly critical of the Democratic governor's performance and integrity.

Even as Marylanders were mourning the death Friday of Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein, the state's major political parties turned quickly yesterday to look for candidates who might compete for his mantle in the November election.With the stakes high for Democrats and Republicans -- and the state filing deadline fast approaching tomorrow at 9 p.m. -- efforts to recruit well-known candidates were unsuccessful for both parties as of last night.Influential Democrats urged Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann to abandon her primary challenge to Gov. Parris N. Glendening and run instead for the post Goldstein held for almost 40 years.

Minutes after Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley announced last week that he would not run for governor, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s spin machine lurched into motion, moving from the idea that a Democratic primary would help him to confidence that the decision would generate big money for the congressman's campaign. Ehrlich, the 2nd District representative, faces a huge challenge in trying to become the first Republican elected governor since 1966. His best chance at victory, observers agreed, would have come from a bitter and divisive Democratic primary that left Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend barely standing after a fight with O'Malley.

The 1994 race for governor of Maryland suddenly got more interesting yesterday as Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke went to Annapolis and said he is considering a bid for the State House."

HE WALKED AWAY from the governor's race in 1986 -- and again in 1998, though many in his party thought he was the best qualified. Benjamin L. Cardin knew it. As speaker of the House of Delegates, he had been one of the state's top political leaders for a decade. But he wouldn't go after the top job. Critics said he didn't have the stomach. "Risk averse," they called him and not in a nice way. Wise and prudent were better descriptions. Smart politician fits as well. Survivor, too. In truth, he may have always been a legislator at heart.

If clear choices were a cure for the voter malaise of 1994, Marylanders might be on the road to recovery.Throughout the United States, voters are said to be on the verge of electoral paralysis, so vexed are they by a political system that seems to shut them out.Marylanders, though, could enjoy a virtual hands-on adventure in statecraft this year. Not in a quarter-century have they been treated to such a competitive and defining race for governor."What you've got in Maryland is what we should all have," says Becky Cain, national president of the League of Women Voters.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke yesterday dramatically altered the shape of next year's governor's race by abandoning his plans to run. The mayor explained that he has unfinished business in Baltimore.Mr. Schmoke said he thought he could win the race for governor, but in a stunning announcement, he said he wanted to remain mayor, mainly to protect programs initiated during his administration.Mr. Schmoke's decision not to run for governor profoundly alters the race, because he was the front-runner in early polls.

We are still a year away from election day in Maryland but already the fur is flying and the backstabbing is fast and furious. Forget about conventional theories on who's ahead and who's behind. The race for governor could rewrite the rule books.First, the Republican Party's leading candidate, Anne Arundel County Executive Robert Neall, drops out, concerned about raising $3 million, conducting a long campaign and resolving his personal problems. Next, the party's second-best hope, Rep. Helen Bentley, continues her hesitation three-step dance by saying she'll decide when she's good and ready whether to run for senator, governor or the House.

In what one candidate calls "a struggle for the soul of Maryland," voters today will decide a too-close-to-call governor's race that could spin the state into a political U- turn.And it doesn't stop there. A reputedly restive electorate must also choose between continuity and change in numerous other contests, including those for state attorney general, comptroller, eight congressional seats and U.S. senator.Political professionals say that a modest turnout will favor the Republican candidate in the governor's race, Ellen R. Sauerbrey.