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Ex-Gov. Ehrlich Doesn't Rule Out U.S. Senate Bid
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WJZ
Former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich said Tuesday supporters are urging him to run for U.S. Senate instead of governor, and he said their suggestions are "in the mix" as he considers his options.
Ehrlich, who became Maryland's first Republican governor in a generation when he won in 2002, has been testing the waters for a 2010 run for governor by traveling around the state to meet with voters.
After Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate race in January, Ehrlich said many supporters started urging him to run for Senate against Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who has been a senator since 1986 and is campaigning for a fifth term.
"It was unexpected, because these meetings that we've had have been very clear with a central purpose, which is the governorship," Ehrlich told reporters after speaking to the Pikesville Chamber of Commerce.
Mikulski held a fundraiser Monday night in Baltimore, where the 73-year-old made clear: "I'm not retiring."
Ehrlich, who spent eight years in Congress before running for governor, described the Senate seat as "obviously a seat that I've looked at over the years and I love Congress."
In Maryland's 2006 governor's race, Ehrlich lost his re-election bid, with 46 percent to Martin O'Malley's 53 percent.
Ehrlich, 52, has been using races in other states as a barometer of his chances to make another run in Maryland, where Democrats hold a 2-1 advantage in voter registration over Republicans. He also was closely following the Virginia and New Jersey governor races, both of which resulted in GOP victories.
After Brown's victory, Ehrlich said he held a couple of meetings with voters to gauge interest in his potential candidacy.
"A lot of people showed up -- way more than we had invited -- and all of them wanted to talk about running for the Senate -- not governor," Ehrlich said.
The former governor also declined to say when he would announce his plans. When he ran in 2002, he waited until March to make his bid for governor public, and that has led many to surmise he would announce at the end of this month. But Ehrlich said Tuesday he doesn't have a set timeframe.
"We're obviously close to the end of this process," Ehrlich said. "You never say never, but clearly we're moving in a direction that at this time last year I may not have predicted."
Ehrlich also downplayed talk that he is considering Mary Kane as a potential running mate, were he to challenge O'Malley. Kane is a former Maryland secretary of state who is married to former Maryland Republican Party Chairman John Kane.
"I don't know where that came from," Ehrlich said, noting that he's friends with both of them.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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