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

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

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

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.

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

Our annual Lincoln Day Dinner will be held in the Bistro Dining Room of the Guerrieri Center (aka the Commons) at Salisbury University on Saturday, February 6th, with dinner served at 7 p.m. – the cash bar opens at 6:30. Tickets are $40 for individual, with couples at $75 and students $25. Sponsorships are also available and range from $15 to $50.

Featured guest speakers will, as noted in the title, be Bob and Kendal Ehrlich.

For information or tickets, contact Bob Laun at (410) 543-2116 – reservations must be made by January 27th and tickets are limited, so they’re sure to go fast!

Ready is challenging Del. Tanya Shewell and Del. Nancy Stocksdale, the incumbents for the Carroll County district, in the September 14 Republican Primary. Ready is the former Executive Director for the Maryland GOP. You can follow his campaign on his blog, Facebook, and on Twitter.

From WaPo’s Maryland Politics:

As former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) continues to mull whether to get back in the ring, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has started taking some swings.

The latest came in a fundraising solicitation Thursday in which O’Malley seeks to tie Ehrlich to the “fringe right-wing base” of the Republican party — a difficult spot from which to win elections in a state where Democrats enjoy a 2-to-1 advantage in party registration.

The text of the full letter from Tom Russell is below the fold.

As I write this, we’re just $40,000 away from hitting the $500,000 fundraising goal we set to keep up with the GOP onslaught we expect in the new year from former Governor Ehrlich and others.

We’ve had an amazing response so far — but we need one last push now to meet our goal before our online fundraising shuts down at the January 10 deadline.

Can you pitch in? If you’re the person to put us over our $500,000 goal, Gov. O’Malley will autograph a campaign sign for you to show his thanks:

http://www.martinomalley.com/January10

John, now’s the time to step up and give. The Legislative Session begins next week and campaign finance laws will prevent us from raising funds during those three months.

Meanwhile, Robert Ehrlich and the Republicans will be rallying their fringe right-wing base for dollars.

Despite these difficult times, we’ve made real progress in the last three years. We can’t let the right wing throw that progress away and move us backward. On his weekly radio show, Ehrlich regularly embraces the same conservative interests that cheer against an economic recovery, and gave us the “birther” movement and the “death panel” myth.

We can’t let the Republicans win back the state house this fall. And what we do right now, this week, will help determine what happens in November.

Help Gov. O’Malley enter the legislative session on a high note. Contribute now:

http://www.martinomalley.com/January10

Thanks so much for your support, and for being part of our campaign.

Tom