Democrats’ margins on upswing in Prince George’s

Late push to shore up GOP support in the county had little impact

Friday, Nov. 17, 2006

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Some disgruntled party leaders flirted with the GOP days before the election, but the vote count suggests the move had little impact.

‘‘I see a tremendous increase,” said Terry Speigner, chairman of the county’s Democratic Central Committee. ‘‘They’re [margins] the biggest in the state. That’s why we’re the bedrock of the Democratic Party.”

Preliminary numbers show that 210,957 residents, or 47.9 percent of registered voters, cast ballots on Nov. 7. About 198,000 voters cast ballots in 2002. Absentee ballots haven’t been fully counted.

County voters soundly rejected Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. by more than 116,175 votes in his race against Democrat Martin O’Malley. That’s up from a 105,700-vote, pro-Democratic margin in the governor’s race in 2002, when Kathleen Kennedy Townsend faced Ehrlich. In 1998, the Democratic advantage was 94,800 votes when Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening ran for re-election against Ellen Sauerbrey.

County Democrats weren’t charmed this year by Ehrlich’s regular visits to Prince George’s. The governor talked up his relationship with county leaders and conveyed word frequently of grants and other kinds of aid headed to Prince George’s. He also promoted Prince George’s as a good place to do business, for example, urging the NAACP to move its headquarters there and promoting the county as a suitable home for the Department of Planning.

They weren’t moved either by Republican Senate candidate Michael S. Steele, a black Prince George’s native who tried to convince voters to set aside party and choose him. Steele earned only 24 percent of the vote in Prince George’s.

It isn’t clear how much damage the GOP suffered from widely publicized, last-minute campaign tricks that infuriated lots of Democrats. The Republicans produced glossy fliers suggesting inaccurately that some prominent Democrats were endorsing them — and bused in hundreds of people from a Philadelphia homeless shelter to distribute them on Election Day.

County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) said he sees the county as a bellwether in Maryland elections.

‘‘So goes Prince George’s County, so goes the state of Maryland,” Johnson said, repeating a sentiment that is becoming popular among local Democrats. ‘‘We worked very hard for the Democratic party.”

Mel Franklin, president of the Greater Marlboro Democratic Club, said those victory margins will keep climbing.

‘‘I think it’s going to continue, because you really don’t have the Republican Party competing for the votes in the county based on ideas,” he said. ‘‘They’re competing for votes in the county based on gimmicks. And voters in the county are a little too smart for that.”

U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Dist. 4) said Democrats have simply been more successful getting their voters out to the polls.

‘‘There is a Democratic tide that is spreading, and people are looking at Democratic policies,” he said, pointing to an emphasis on education and a commitment to getting troops out of Iraq. ‘‘They feel these are sound policies that they want to support, and I think it’s the policies that drive voter participation.”

The only jurisdiction that delivered more votes to the Democrats last Tuesday was Montgomery County, but margins there were not nearly as dramatic.

Maryland GOP spokeswoman Audra Miller said she doesn’t anticipate any big Republican gains in Prince George’s anytime soon, but said the party would still try to push candidates for state races in the northern and southern parts of the county, where Republican voters are slightly more plentiful.

She noted that the coming of the military’s Base Realignment and Closure plan, which is supposed to bring thousands of jobs to the metropolitan region, will drive up the population in central Maryland. And she predicted that those defense-sector employees would vote more Republican or Independent, offsetting some of the solidly Democratic districts close to Washington.

As for Prince George’s, she said, ‘‘I don’t think there’s any reason to believe in the next five years you’re going to have a significant Republican presence.”