Democrats Seek to Drive Tea Party Wedges Into the RNC

from The Baltimore Sun

Maryland’s Democrats are trying to pick at what they perceive to be a wound among Maryland Republicans: Hard feelings after the primary victory this week of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. over Sarah Palin-endorsed and tea party-backed challenger Brian Murphy.

This morning the Dems emailed a transcript from a radio appearance during which conservative commentator Blair Lee urged Ehrlich to reach out to Brian Murphy.

"You need to publicly embrace this guy, you need to call him a rising star in the party, you need to borrow his rolodex, and you need to get all of his voters to vote for you," Lee advised.

Ehrlich reponded with a backhanded slight. "Well, Blair, I respect him, but quite frankly we have a lot of rising stars in our party, including people who have won races."

Four years ago Ehrlich had no primary opponent; four years before that, he had a far better showing in the primary -- taking 93 percent of the vote against two unknown candidates.

On Wednesday at a GOP rally in Annapolis, Murphy showed up, but was on the far right of a sea of Republicans – standing nowhere close to Ehrlich and looking mighty uncomfortable. Ehrlich did not mention his foe by name. Instead he made broad comments about the difficulty all candidate face when they put their egos “on the line” an run for office.

Murphy did get a handshake from GOP Party chairwoman Audrey Scott and, when asked what he plans to do for Ehrlich’s campaign, he repeatedly mentioned that he has a “young family.”

Ehrlich was asked why he didn’t give a shout-out to his former opponent. “If I started mentioning one, I’d get in trouble,” he said.

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State GOP Gubernatorial Race Results -

Ehrlich/Kane Republican 201680 75.65%

Murphy/Ryman Republican 64908 24.35%