Ehrlich Camp Remains Hopeful, Despite Early Polling

Although Maryland election officials are reporting that voter turnout may be running slightly below average for today's gubernatorial election, the staff at the Bob Ehrlich (R) campaign headquarters in Timonium, Md., say they're confident that Republicans will show up at the polls in large numbers.

Staff at the Ehrlich camp say they expect a substantial voter turnout for tonight's election. Andy Barth, Ehrlich's press secretary, says staffers tonight will be paying particularly close attention to those areas where Ehrlich is the strongest. He says that includes 21 out of 24 subdivisions of Maryland. He says the Republican candidate should win all of the counties in the state except Montgomery, Prince George's County and Baltimore City.

And even though several recent polls show that Ehrlich is trailing Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) by double digits, the Ehrlich camp doesn't believe the Democratic candidate is ahead in the polls by nearly as much as some have reported.

Staffers think voters will throw their support behind Ehrlich because of his commitment to create new jobs and lower taxes, and Ehrlich has said that if elected, his first order of business would be to roll back the state sales tax, so time will tell if he will be given the chance to do that.