Maryland Governor: Revised Bottom Line

This race was supposed to be over once the nominees were chosen, but Republican businessman Larry Hogan is showing surprising strength against Democratic Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown in this heavily Democratic state. According to strategists, voters are restless and are looking for change. They don’t see Brown, who serves as outgoing two-term Gov. Martin O’Malley’s second in command, as change. Instead they see it as the equivalent of a third O’Malley term. Rumblings we had been hearing for a couple of weeks that the race had closed seem to be supported by Democratic ads attacking Hogan on abortion and guns. What has been missing is data. There is now a credible poll showing the race within four points Democrats' aggressive television advertising is a strong indictor that they have seen similar numbers and are working to widen Brown's lead. In other words, they seem to have caught the problem in time. Still, Maryland is not likely a place where they expected to have to spend money and they only have a month to disqualify Hogan. As such, the race moves