Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and his Republican opponent Bob Ehrlich remain at a virtual dead heat in the campaign for governor, according to the latest Rassmussen poll.
O’Malley won 45 percent of voter support and Ehrlich won 44 percent of votes in an Aug. 17 telephone survey of 750 likely voters conducted by Rasmussen Reports, a nonpartisan national pollster.
Three percent of voters said they prefer another candidate and 8 percent said they are undecided.
Last month, Ehrlich’s support inched one percentage point ahead of O’Malley’s to 47 percent. Ehrlich has made major gains since February, when Rasmussen reported he lagged O’Malley by 6 percentage points.
In April, the former governor fell three percentage points behind his Democratic opponent and by June, the two were tied at 45 percent.
The August poll found 90 percent of registered Republicans supporting Ehrlich, while only 70 percent of registered Democrats support O’Malley.
O’Malley’s campaign manager told The Examiner last month that the discrepancy between the candidates’ support from their political parties could be attributed to the fact that Maryland Republicans are less likely to vote for the “other” party.
“[Maryland] Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one, and if you are a registered Republican in Maryland you are arguably pretty far to the right,” Rick Abbruzzese said. “It would make sense that registered Democrats represent a wider variety of individuals and interests.”
