Republicans are still waiting to hear whom Gov. Robert Ehrlich will choose for his running mate, months after Lt. Gov. Michael Steele committed himself to the race for U.S. Senate.
Those waiting include one of those mentioned on the short list: state Sen. Sandra Schrader, of Howard County.
“No one has contacted me,” Schrader said Monday, contacted while she was substitute teaching, as she has for years, in a Howard County elementary school.
With the filing deadline in four weeks, speculation intensified when Schrader sent out invitations to “a special announcement” next Monday night ? but the announcement is simply the official kickoff of her re-election campaign, in which she is facing a tough fight against retiring Howard County Executive James Robey.
Schrader has been at the top of the short list of candidates for months, particularly because she would expect to do well among suburban women.
Polls have shown this is a group that is not supporting Ehrlich as much as they did four years ago.
Schrader is moderate and pro-choice, as Ehrlich sees himself, and her husband, Dennis, is Ehrlich?s director of homeland security.
She is also seen as someone who could be potentially helpful with Ehrlich?s troubled relations with the General Assembly.
Other possible candidates include three of Ehrlich?s Cabinet secretaries.
Kristen Cox, secretary of disabilities, a post Ehrlich created, gained attention last week when she was the only member of the administration besides Ehrlich to address several hundred high-roller Republicans at a fundraiser headlined by President Bush.
Secretary of State Mary Kane, wife of state GOP Chairman John Kane, and Victor Hoskins, secretary of housing and community development, have also been mentioned.
Schrader is the only one who has held elected office.
The man she succeeded in the Senate, Martin Madden, chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas Commission and an Ehrlich adviser, said, “I don?t know anything other that what I read in the newspaper.”
No longer being mentioned are two prominent Democrats who would have to change parties to run ? State Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick and former Prince George?s County Executive Wayne Curry.
The only thing Ehrlich campaign manager Bo Harmon would say about the selection process is that the announcement will come “before the end of June.”
