WTOP

While presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are making last minute efforts to get out the vote in battleground states, some high powered supporters are making a case for each candidate locally.

Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, (D-Baltimore), and former lieutenant governor Michael S. Steele spoke to WTOP Sunday. They talked about presidential politics, legalizing slots in Maryland and more.

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Cardin says things look very good for Obama and it will be terribly important for him to keep momentum in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Steele is the chairman of GOPAC, and a former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. He was defeated by Cardin in 2006 for the senate.

With less than 40 hours to go in the presidential election, Steele acknowledges that McCain has a steep hill to climb to the White House. He says Virginia and Pennsylvania could put McCain over the top. Steele says national polls aren’t reflecting what’s really happening on the ground and early voting patterns.

“There is a reason McCain is spending so much time in Pennsylvania because the internal polling and the things his team are seeing on the ground are giving him a good reason to be there,” he says.

Both Cardin and Steele say the biggest challenge for both campaigns is making sure that supporters come to the polls.

Cardin says what concerns him Tuesday are long lines. He urges voters to have patience. In addition, he encouraged Maryland voters to support Proposition One that would bring early voting to the state. He says Maryland is one of 14 states that does not have early voting. Most polls say that voters have turned out in record number for early voting.

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Steele questions early voting patterns. He says new and young voters haven’t turned out in this election as the Democrats have hoped to put Obama over the top. He says the increased numbers for early voting is more reflective of seasoned voters who don’t want to stand in long lines on Election Day.

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Steele says he isn’t a fan of the state “constitutionalizing” gambling and described the move as “boneheaded.” He says the best way to deal with the issue is through the Maryland Legislature.

“I think it’s the wrong place to do it,” he says. “The legislature basically punted, and they didn’t want to make the tough decision and passed it over to the citizens.”

Cardin described his vote for slots as a personal issue. He says he plans to vote against the slots legislation.

Baltimore Sun

The Baltimore County Public Library and the League of Women Voters will hold “Election 2008: Returns after Dark,” the final installment of the Election 2008 Speaker Series, from 8 p.m. to midnight tomorrow at the Towson library branch, 320 York Road. Participants can watch and discuss the election returns. Political analyst Matthew Crenson, a retired Johns Hopkins University political science professor, will provide commentary throughout the evening.

Daily Record

Around election time, Washington players and reporters do a lot of speculating about who will win plum posts when the new president comes to town. Although these types of things interest me, political appointments at the national level rarely affect my work directly at The Daily Record, so I tend to do a little less nosing around.

However, this year, word has it that environmental-industry types are whispering that Maryland’s own U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest could snag the job of director of the Environmental Protection Agency if Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat, is elected president.

The combo seemed slightly odd to me, since Gilchrest is a Republican, albeit a champion of the Chesapeake Bay who recently received kudos from the Maryland League of Conservation Voters. With a little digging, I found out that Gilchrest — who lost in the primary to Andy Harris — endorsed Obama in September.

Examiner

When Sen. Barack Obama rallied voters in Missouri over the weekend, an estimated 30,000 people showed up. Sen. John McCain commanded a more modest 10,000 in Columbus, Ohio.

But Ralph Nader’s University of Maryland, College Park, rally Sunday afternoon drew a fraction of the major candidates’ audience: a mere 150 people — most of them students at the university.

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Nader, 74, whose running mate is lawyer and activist Matt Gonzalez, said several factors contribute to the difficulty third-party candidates have running for office.

Nader cited ballot access restrictions, the fact that third-party candidates are not invited to debates and lack of media coverage.

“Joe the Plumber has gotten more publicity than the Nader-Gonzalez campaign,” he said.

Christine Wirth, 19, an undergraduate, said she had not decided her vote.

“I wanted to hear what he had to say,” she said of Nader. “If I vote for Nader, I think it’ll just kind of protest the two-party system.”

WBAL.com

With a big voter turnout expected on Tuesday, BGE says it has been working with election officials across the state to deal with power outages that could occur at polling places.

“Maintaining service reliability during the Presidential election is one of our top priorities,” says Andrew Dodge, BGE Vice President of Electric System Operations and Planning.

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He says BGE will try to give priority to polling places if there is a power outage.

Dodge says BGE has had a process in place for several years now to deal with potential power outages on election day. BGE says its corporate public affairs reps have reached out to the county and city election board officials in each municipality and re-affirmed communication channels.

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Maryland’s elections administrator said this week she projects about 85 percent of registered voters to show up on Election Day at the polls.

Linda Lamone said she is basing her prediction on registration figures she’s seen so far and previous elections. Turnout could be as high as 90 percent in some jurisdictions like Baltimore City and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, she said.

If turnout reaches 85 percent, it would be the highest for a Maryland presidential election at least since 1982. Since then, the highest for a presidential race was 81 percent in 1992.