In the Maryland governor’s race, playing to your opponent’s base is becoming a common strategy.
Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan fired repeated broadsides at his Democratic rival, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, through a monthlong advertising campaign in the city and visited a school forum in Baltimore last night.
Today O’Malley takes the battle to Duncan’s turf, touring politically sensitive Clarksburg and seeking public input in Germantown.
Until this point, the Democratic campaigns had focused on incumbent Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
But now O’Malley will tour Clarksburg, where last year residents uncovered numerous violations in approved development plans, including homes built too tall and too close to the street.
The Clarksburg scandal and Duncan’s return of $20,000 in donations from businesses he said were tied to now-disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff illustrate Duncan’s connections to developers, said O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese.
“The bottom line is that the questions Doug now faces are not broughton by a sudden shift in this campaign,” he said. “The questions are brought on by Doug’s 20-year history of cozying up to developers.”
After the Clarksburg tour, O’Malley will head to Germantown for a town meeting in the evening.
The Montgomery visit, Duncan said Wednesday, shows that O’Malley’s campaign is “in trouble,” and his opponent can not continue to ignore him.
“I’m sorry he still won’t debate me,’’ Duncan said. “He still doesn’t want to engage on the issues. What’s he afraid of?”
Duncan continued to press his assault in O’Malley’s home base of Baltimore. He visited Calverton Middle School, where PTA and School Board members and parents invited him to discuss the possibility of a high school being consolidated into Calverton.
