Tom LoBianco, Maryland politics reporter

The coulda- shoulda- woulda-been Republican candidates sure are falling fast. Larry Hogan announced a few minutes ago he’s ending his gubernatorial exploratory bid and urging former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich to jump in the race.

From Hogan’s e-mail:

Today I am officially concluding my exploratory committee and calling on my friend Bob Ehrlich to enter this race for governor. Not only do I believe that Bob Ehrlich should run, but I am convinced he will run and that we should all push in the same direction to elect him as Maryland’s next governor.

Of course, Baltimore County Republican Del. Pat McDonough dropped out of his kinda-race for governor a few months ago to throw his support behind Ehrlich. And Baltimore County lawyer Mike Pappas, the only Republican who had actually declared his candidacy for governor, dropped out to endorse Hogan.

So what lessons can we draw from this? Apparently it is better to have never run and lost, than to ever have run at all.

Just got word from Trent Kittleman’s campaign that she’ll be launching her run against Howard County Executive Ken Ulman on February 15.

Trent, a Republican, is Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman’s stepmother and a former Ehrlich administration official. Howard County has always been something of a swing county in Maryland, but Republican’s took a drubbing there in the 2006 elections.

This formalizes a fairly interesting proxy battle between the Ehrlich and O’Malley camps. Ulman, one of the state’s youngest Democratic leaders, picked Kevin Enright to run his communications team in 2007. Kevin was brought over to the Ulman team after working for former Attorney General Joseph J. Curran (who is also O’Malley’s father-in-law) and his brother Michael Enright is perhaps O’Malley’s closest confidant.

(Crossposted from Wild Maryland blog at, Corridor Inc. – TL)

Wild Maryland Blog: January 27, 2010

Leave it to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to open the doors to all comers, including die-hard Democrats.

A somewhat incredulous Joe Shapiro, a Democrat and spokesman for Comptroller Peter Franchot, recently got Steele’s request to donate upward of $25 to the national GOP, upon which he took it straight to your faithful blogger.

“If only I lived or worked in the First District, or was a Republican, I’d be honored,” Shapiro said Wednesday.

The RNC reached out to him “because of the high level and steadfast commitment to the Republican Party,” read the appeal.

An RNC spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.

This is not the first time Shapiro, a hardcore Montgomery County Dem, has been propositioned by the GOPers. The Gazette of Business and Politics reported on Republican Congressional candidate Andy Harris errant attempts to draw cash from Shapiro back in 2008.

At least they’re trying.

(This is crossposted from my blog at Corridor Inc. – TL)

Maryland Politics Blog: January 27, 2010

Gov. Martin O’Malley has been having some trouble picking a date for his fourth State of the State Address. The speech was originally scheduled for today but rescheduled so as not to conflict with a little something known as the State of the Union Address that President Barack Obama will be delivering tonight.

So the governor’s office pushed the speech back a week to February 4. They then canned that date when they remembered that Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon is set to resign her seat that day.

So O’Malley had to reschedule to February 2. No word yet whose toes he’ll be stepping on for that date.

The ripples were felt far and wide in Annapolis, as Senate committee chairman announced they would be re-rescheduling their hearings for today, replete with apologies for not announcing the changes sooner.

Senate President Mike Miller had a little fun with the scheduling debacle, saying “I think it was the governor who made a mistake.”

Here’s The Sun‘s take from today’s paper.

- Tom LoBianco