The Vail Spot via Instapundit

I’ve just heard from an impeccable source that Barbara Mikulski, the Democratic Senator who is up for reelection this November, will choose to retire. Mrs. Mikulski is expected to make her formal announcement in the next few days.

Mrs. Mikulski seriously fractured her right ankle last fall just prior to Edward M. Kennedy’s death. Due to the severity of the fracture, she had to have open reduction surgery, that included the insertion of pins, as well as the use of special surgical boots, during recovery. She had tried to arrive in time for Mr. Kennedy’s funeral but was turned away.

Her recovery has been exceptionally slow and she is evidently still in a great deal of pain. Reportedly, she has told her physician that she does not desire to seek reelection. Additionally, friends and family have been saying in the near future she will announce her retirement. Because of the very slow recovery, she has been forced to use a wheelchair, a walker or a cane in order to get around.

If Mikulski does retire, then who would run for her job on both sides? Does Ehrlich jump in the Senate race and leave the race for Governor on the GOP side wide open again?

UPDATE: We are also hearing that Senator Barbara Mikulski’s campaign has done polling in the past week or two.

UPDATE 2
Chris Cilizza on Twitter

Rumors that Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) is retiring are NOT TRUE, according to informed D source.

Update 3
Mike Memoli tweets that he has 2 sources saying it’s not true.

Other blogging:
Hot Air
Red Maryland
Baltimore Republican Examiner
NRO

Szeliga Event

Join us for Victory 2010
Fundraiser for
Kathy Szeliga, House of Delegates 2010
Baltimore and Harford Counties with special guest
Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.!

$100 – VIP Reception and dinner begins at 6:00 PM
$45 – dinner w/brief remarks from Bob Ehrlich begins at 6:30

Sponsorships available too – $1,000 – $150

Call or email Kathy Szeliga for more details:
kathy@electkathy.com
443-570-1555

Donate online and mailing address available at
www.electkathy.com

Tomorrow night, Dr. Jack Gordon will be having a fundraiser and announcing his candidacy for the House of Delegates in District 42. The event will be at An Poitin Stil (The Still) on York Road.

Incumbents in that district include two Republicans (Susan L.M. Aumann & William J. Frank) and a Democrat (Stephen W. Lafferty.)

If you’re running for office in Maryland this year, you can do a couple of things to promote your campaign and its events online.

First, add the #mdtweets hashtag to your Twitter postings (“tweets”) on campaign events and news. Anyone with government and political news or events to promote can do the same. Others with events to promote are encouraged to use it as well. We will have some other news on the #mdtweets front in the near future.

Secondly, send your press releases for your campaign and its events to mail@insidecharmcity.com and we will run your unedited press release, or, if you have a site or blog with the news or event on it, we will link to it and post excerpts.

MD GOP

The MD GOP is hosting a roundtable discussion with Michael Steele on Feb. 11th at 6pm at the HQ. If you are interested in attending please email kjorns@mdgop.org