SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
KLMNO
S Ehrlich faces a wild-card opponent in Md. primary Virtually no one outside Mur-
Republican’s likely share of vote becomes a guessing game
by John Wagner Sarah Palin put long-shot
Maryland gubernatorial hopeful Brian Murphy on the map with her unexpected endorsement last month. But it will be people like Rey Aldridge who determine his destination in Tuesday’s Repub- lican primary. Aldridge, the manager of a fam- ily-owned diner in Anne Arundel County, where business has waned during the recession, wait- ed patiently on a recent morning for the conservative 33-year busi- ness investor to drop by. “I think I’m going to vote for
him,” said Aldridge, who had nev- er laid eyes on Murphy before but allowed his campaign to put an oversize sign on her well-traveled intersection a few weeks ago. “We need a breath of fresh air, and he’s saying all the right things.”
phy’s loyal band of aides gives him any chance of upsetting former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) on Tuesday. But guessing the share of voters who will join Al- dridge in supporting a political novice has become somewhat of a parlor game among Maryland po- litical insiders. One of the few public polls that
have tested Murphy’s strength put him at 13 percent late last month. Since then, some pundits have suggested he could draw as much of a third of the primary vote — enough to embarrass Ehrlich as he heads into the November gen- eral election against Gov. Martin O’Malley (D). Maryland’s GOP primaries are open only to registered Repub- licans and tend to be dominated by the conservative wing of the party. Murphy has run to Ehrlich’s right on taxes, spending, abortion rights, gun rights, immigration and just about every other issue. “Everywhere I go, people tell
me, ‘You can’t win, but I’m voting for you,’ ” Murphy said after au- tographing the sign at Aldridge’s
The start of a new season
diner, a stop on his ongoing “Re- fuse to Settle” tour. “I love where we are, to be honest.”
Ehrlich, who proved moderate enough to win a general election in heavily Democratic Maryland in 2002, has been largely dismis- sive of Murphy’s candidacy. Last week he told reporters that Tues- day would be just another work day for him as he continues to tar- get O’Malley in November. “I haven’t given it one thought,” he said when asked how much of the primary vote he expected Murphy to draw. Whatever the outcome, it
doesn’t appear Palin will be much of a factor in the closing days. The former Alaska governor has not announced plans to come to Maryland to campaign with Mur- phy, as she has done with many of the other candidates she has en- dorsed around the country. And Palin’s endorsement ap- pears to have had a modest im- pact, at best, on Murphy’s fund- raising. Murphy, a Montgomery County resident, reported raising only about $35,000 — including $14,000 from himself — during an
18-day period that started about a week after the Palin endorsement and ended Aug. 29. By contrast, Ehrlich reported
raising more than $725,000 dur- ing the 18-day period — more than 20 times what Murphy did. Ehrlich had about $2.5 million in the bank at the end of the period, compared with the $30,776 that Murphy did. Still, Murphy credits Palin with
attracting a great deal of attention to his bid last month, including appearances on the CBS Evening News and in USA Today. Her en- dorsement was among the first things mentioned by Aldridge, the diner owner when asked what she likes about Murphy. “Everyone just keeps saying it’s about Ehrlich and O’Malley, but Sarah Palin likes him, and I love Sarah Palin,” Aldridge said. “She calls it like it is, and a lot of people don’t want to hear it.” Murphy, a former commodities
trader for Constellation Energy who now owns a small bakery on Smith Island, has also picked up endorsements from other nation- al conservative groups and fig-
ures. On Friday, he claimed the sup-
port of Concerned Women for America, a group that says it works to “bring biblical principles into all levels of public policy.” Gary Bauer, who gained promi- nence among cultural conserva- tives in the 1990s, also has written an endorsement letter for Mur- phy, citing his conservative views on both economic and social is- sues.
Gazette columnist Blair Lee re- cently wrote that Murphy could get a third of the GOP primary vote because he offers “red meat” to an electorate where “pro-life, 2nd Amendment, anti-illegals voters have amplified strength.” Richard J. Cross, a former Ehr- lich staffer, has also written in his blog that Murphy could “defy ex- pectations” on Tuesday. Cross pre- dicts 22 percent for Murphy, say- ing anything above 25 percent would push Ehrlich in the “em- barrassment zone.” In the 2002 Democratic pri-
mary, Kathleen Kennedy Town- send was arguably weakened when Bob Fustero, a retired gro-
cery clerk who did little cam- paigning, won 20 percent of the vote. Townsend went on to lose to Ehrlich in November. Senate Minority Leader Allan
H. Kittleman (R-Howard) de- clined to make a prediction about Murphy’s performance but sug- gested there will be no similar drag on Ehrlich in the general election. “There will be some people who want a total change on Tuesday, but I don’t think it’ll be that many,” Kittleman said. “The only number that matters is that Ehr- lich prevails, and he will.” O’Malley faces only token oppo- sition on Tuesday. Earlier this year, it appeared he would face a primary challenge from George W. Owings III, a former Demo- cratic state delegate from South- ern Maryland who served in Ehr- lich’s administration as veterans secretary.
Owings never officially filed for
office, citing recovery from sur- gery. He has since showed up at a couple of Ehrlich campaign events.
wagnerj@washpost.com
In final voting days, D.C. mayoral rivals
press for turnout Fenty and Gray sharpen their messages, attacks against each other
by Mike DeBonis and Tim Craig
Leading candidates for the Dis-
trict mayoralty kicked off the fi- nal stretch of campaigning Satur- day, seeking to get their voters to the polls before the end of voting Tuesday. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) be- gan his day mobilizing about 100 volunteers downtown, while main rival D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) whipped up about 200 supporters in a rau- cous “pep rally” at a Shaw church. In comments to his supporters,
Fenty compared his reelection campaign to a footrace. “We want to make sure . . . that
MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST
Members of the Friendship Collegiate Academy flag corps perform in the stands during Friendship’s game against DeMatha High on Saturday in Forestville. DeMatha beat Friendship, 35-32. Full game coverage can be found in Sports on D12 and online at
AllMetSports.com.
William & Mary grad killed in Afghanistan
by Clarence Williams and Martin Weil
Todd W. Weaver joined the Na- tional Guard after Sept. 11, served in Iraq and then graduated from the College of William & Mary as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was the best, people said, and they went further: the best of the best. Weaver, 26, a first lieutenant in the Army’s 101st Airborne Divi- sion, was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Kandahar, Af- ghanistan. Relatives said he was born in
Northern Virginia and went to school in the Hampton Roads area. The recipient of an ROTC commission, he graduated from W&M as a government major. “A very, very special man,” his
mother, Jeanne Nell Harris Weav- er, said Saturday.
“One of the best people I’ve
ever served with” Army Capt. Jeff Harasimowitz said in an inter- view. “The best,” said his wife, Em-
ma. “Clearly, he was the best of the
best,” an ROTC official at William & Mary said in a campus news publication. He and his wife attended Bru-
ton High School in York County, Va., together. But, she said their paths never crossed at Bruton where Weaver, a star in baseball and football, was always “the most popular guy.” Then came the party before his deployment to Iraq. She was leav- ing. He ran outside, in socks, in the rain, and asked for a kiss. When he returned on furlough, she said, they were together every day. And when the deployment was over, they remained together, got married and became the par- ents of a daughter named Kiley. Weaver was born into a For-
eign Service family and lived for much of his early life overseas, but was a senior at Bruton on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I remember the look on his
face,” said his mother. “It changed him.” He told his parents that day that as soon as he could serve his country, he would do it. He began college at James
Madison University, joined the Guard and, after his return from Iraq, transferred to William & Mary, his mother said. The W&M campus news de-
partment wrote of a tour in Iraq that began in February 2004. Among his favorite memories, it said, were of children running up to convoys and giving the thumbs-up sign. “I have a picture of this little
Iraqi kid wearing my uniform top,” Weaver was quoted. “He is saluting. That just shows that there was a connection.” He “truly believed in what he
was doing,” said Harasimowitz, who was with him in Iraq. Once home, his motivation was also strong. In a letter recom- mending him for Phi Beta Kappa, one of his teachers, Rani D. Mul- len, described him as “deter- mined to excel at his studies and to further serve his country as best he could.”
She recommended him “in the highest possible terms” citing a “stellar academic record” and in- tellectual abilities that went “far beyond” the ability to score well on exams and papers. He had a “genuinely brilliant and inquis- itive mind,” she wrote. He “clearly had a very bright future ahead of him,” said Prof. John J. McGlennon, chairman of the Government Department at William & Mary. “We’re very dev- astated.”
williamsc@washpost.com weilm@washpost.com
Gray supporters accused of luring voters to polls with gift cards by Tim Craig
camera she has to “get on the van” if she wants a $10 gift card. “We are going to buy you
On the last day of early voting in District neighborhoods, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s campaign ac- cused D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray supporters of at- tempting to lure voters to a poll- ing site with supermarket gift cards. Saturday night, a Fenty sup-
porter uploaded a video to You- Tube that shows an unidentified woman with a camera talking to another woman in a parking lot about how to obtain the Giant gift card. In the shaky video, a woman tells the woman with the hidden
lunch,” the one woman says. “If you get on our van, and go vote, and get back on, I will be right here.” The woman asking about the
gift card then asks, “Who do I got to vote for, Gray?” “No, we are non-partisan, you can vote for whoever, you can vote for yourself,” the other states. Later, the woman with the
camera asks a man, “Is that the Gray van?” “Yes, ma’am,” she’s told. A Board of Elections and Eth- ics official said Saturday night
that the board is aware of the alle- gation and is forwarding infor- mation to the U.S. Attorney’s of- fice.
Since midweek, Fenty has been
battling allegations that a sup- porter offered young adults $100- a-day jobs to vote for the mayor. Gray has called for a federal in- vestigation into the allegations, first reported by WJLA (Channel 7).
In the video, there is no docu-
mentation that any gift cards were exchanged and no footage of a van. The video, uploaded by Fenty campaign adviser Ronald Moten, ends with the woman with the camera getting climbing back into a car stating, “We got
we’re just sprinting to the finish line,” said Fenty, an elite-level athlete who is set to participate in the Nation’s Triathlon on Sunday morning. “When we race, we race to win.” Gray, widely believed to be the front-runner, used both candi- dates’ campaign colors to rally his supporters.
“Over the last few months, this
city has become a sea of blue,” Gray said at the rally, held in the gymnasium of Shiloh Baptist Church. “I know a bunch of other people who are green with envy.” After more than two dozen fo- rums and debates, Fenty and Gray are using the final three days of campaigning to sharpen their messages and step up ef- forts to get supporters to the polls. After the Fenty rally, volun- teers equipped with maps piled into rented vans and headed into city neighborhoods to canvass for votes.
Among the mostly young vol- unteers were several Fenty ad- ministration officials, including schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, who was assigned to visit homes in Tenleytown. “I’m going to do whatever they tell me to do,” she said. But Rhee’s emergence on the
stump remains controversial to some people. At the Gray rally, a member of the State Board of Education said she was alarmed by Rhee’s door-to-door cam- paigning.
“I think it is inappropriate for
’em.” Mo Elleithee, a senior strat- egist for the Gray campaign, said the video “speaks for itself.” “I think Ronald Moten and the
Fenty campaign are showing how desperate they are at this point,” Elleithee said. “Perhaps if they put half as much effort into find- ing who in their organization has been buying votes as they are into manufacturing videos about oth- ers, then maybe, maybe they would have a little bit of credibil- ity and integrity left.” The Fenty campaign deferred comment to a campaign lawyer, who was not immediately avail- able for comment.
craigt@washpost.com
any superintendent of a school system to campaign for an elect- ed official,” said Lisa Raymond, who represents Ward 6 on the elected board, which sets stan- dards for city schools. “A superin- tendent is supposed to represent all children, all families, not just those who support one individu- al.”
Fenty continues to make his
education reform efforts the fo- cus of his message. On Friday evening, Fenty and Rhee hosted a reception at Union Station for hundreds of teachers rated highly under a new evalua- tion system, on the day that D.C. Public Schools teachers received $45 million in retroactive raises under the terms of a new con- tract. The system touted the pay- ments as teachers’ “biggest pay- day ever.”
Voters may cast ballots at One Judiciary Square on Monday and at 143 precincts Tuesday.
In his speech to supporters at the church, Gray said he also sup- ports school reform.
But he said “parents will not be
kept out of the process of educa- tion in a Gray administration.” On Sunday, Gray is scheduled
to attend services at two church- es, in Shaw and Brookland, be- fore attending a church-spon- sored groundbreaking in Shaw and an afternoon prayer vigil. In an interview with reporters
Saturday, Gray jabbed Fenty for deciding to compete in the triath- lon instead of engaging in the tra- ditional pre-election hunt for votes in churches on the Sunday before the election. “He hasn’t really supported churches in the entire time he’s been mayor,” said Gray, noting that Fenty scrapped the Office of Religious Affairs. “I think him not going to churches tomorrow real- ly symbolizes how he’s been in the last four years.” Fenty said his schedule over the last days of the campaign rep- resent “a microcosm of what we’ve done” in his mayoral term. Midday Saturday, Fenty opened a $400,000 dog park in Ward 3, near McLean Gardens. On Sunday afternoon, Fenty is scheduled to attend a premiere of the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” which touts Rhee’s education reform efforts, before attending a Washington Red- skins game in the evening. Fenty and Gray also plan to campaign Sunday at the Adams Morgan Day festival. Both candidates continue to fo-
cus on the other’s perceived nega- tives. Fenty tried to bring atten- tion to Gray’s tenure as city hu- man services director two decades ago, saying Gray is “basi- cally in bed with the same special interest groups who got this gov- ernment into trouble in the first place in the early ’90s.” Gray, meanwhile, continued to press allegations that the Fenty campaign had sought to ex- change campaign jobs for votes. “We’re going to win on Septem- ber 14, but we’re going to do it the old-fashioned way,” he said. “We’re going to earn it, not buy it.”
Saturday was the last day of early voting. On Friday, elections officials said that more than 15,000 residents had voted — more than 10 percent of the antic- ipated turnout. Polls are closed Sunday, but voters may cast ballots Monday at the One Judiciary Square office building from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Polls at 143 precincts open at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and close at 8 p.m.
craigt@washpost.com,
debonism@washpost.com
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