Maryland Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley has now opened a clear lead over Republican challenger (and immediate past Governor) Robert Ehrlich, according to the newest Washington Post-ABC News poll. O'Malley now leads by a margin of 52%-41% among likely voters (MoE = 4%), and by 49%-35% among registered voters.
This is very good news, as most previous polls (including the previous Washington Post-ABC News poll taken in May) had shown either a dead heat or an O'Malley lead within the margin of error among likely voters. Ehrlich opened his campaign in Montgomery County (suburban D.C.) with an acknowledgment that he had to do better there than when he lost to O'Malley in 2008, but he is polling significantly weaker there than he did four years ago.
In news that's equally good, the results suggest that there's no signficant "enthusiasm gap," at least in this race. Among likely voters who support O'Malley, 84% are very or fairly enthusiastic about their choice, compared to 89% among Ehrlich supporters. That's actually very impressive for O'Malley, given the weakness of the economy, and the fact that reality always sets in for incumbents. But perhaps this has something to do with the fact that Ehrlich was Governor four years ago, and people remember that he didn't accomplish everything he hoped to, any more than O'Malley has (and any more than any politician is ever able to do).
If O'Malley is re-elected and doesn't run into serious problems in his second term, I wouldn't be surprised if he's in the contest for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 2016. He's a very good campaigner, has a sense of poetry and history, and he has been unashamedly progressive in his attitude toward immigration.
He used to be (including while he was Mayor of Baltimore) the lead singer and guitar player in a very popular local Irish rock band, for which he wrote many of the songs. How many politicians have we ever had who have the sense of history and poetry capable of writing these lyrics to "Native People," which was one of his band's songs:
http://www.omalleysmarch.com/...
Or these lyrics from "Streets of Baltimore," also written by him:
http://www.omalleysmarch.com/...