Virginia’s State Board of Elections says more than 223,000 Virginians requested mail-in absentee ballots by the deadline Thursday.
That’s about 73,000 more than the number of absentee ballots cast in the presidential election four years ago, and it doesn’t include in-person absentee voting, which ran through Saturday.
More than 141,000 Virginians have cast their absentee ballots, either by mail or in person. All absentee ballots must be in by the time polls close at 7 p.m. tomorrow.
Jean Jensen, secretary of the state Board of Elections, said the heavy demand for absentee ballots points to voter turnout that could top 70 percent. Four years ago, 68.5 percent of Virginia’s registered voters went to the polls.
mPopular Schaefer
Maryland Comptroller William Donald Schaefer remains popular in Maryland, even though he has come under fire in recent months for remarks that some viewed as insensitive to immigrants and people with AIDS.
A poll conducted last week for the Baltimore Sun by Ipsos-Public Affairs said Maryland voters approve of the job Mr. Schaefer, a Democrat, is doing by a ratio of almost 2-to-1. But Democrats are divided about whether he should step aside. Forty-six percent of Democrats say he should step down, and 43 percent say he shouldn’t.
The telephone survey of 602 registered voters was conducted last Monday and Tuesday and has a margin of error of four percentage points.
mO’Malley ahead
A new poll suggests that a majority of Maryland voters would like to see Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley in the governor’s office.
The poll was conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs of Washington for the Baltimore Sun and said if the gubernatorial election were held today, Mr. O’Malley would defeat Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., 51 percent to 44 percent.
Mr. Ehrlich — Maryland’s first Republican governor in more than three decades — remains popular with voters. The poll shows that 59 percent of voters approve of the job he is doing. However, Maryland voter registration skews heavily Democratic.
Mr. Ehrlich told the Sun he is braced for a tough campaign and hopes his record will persuade voters to keep him in office.
In a potential matchup with Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, the poll gives Mr. Ehrlich 49 percent of the vote, compared with 45 percent for Mr. Duncan, but that tally falls within the poll’s margin of error.
The poll of 602 registered voters was conducted last Monday and Tuesday and has a margin of error of four percentage points.
mThe benefactor
A month ago, analysts for the Maryland General Assembly raised questions about a proposed sale of state land to an unidentified person listed in state documents as the “benefactor.”
They wondered why the state was selling land at cost without obtaining a new appraisal of its value. They also wondered why the state was trusting the benefactor’s pledge to preserve the land without a written guarantee.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. last week played down his involvement in the proposal, saying the deal was just one of hundreds he has reviewed as a member of the state Board of Public Works.
“This is one land purchase agreement among many,” Mr. Ehrlich said. “I do not get involved in the details of those land purchases. If I did, it would be very strange.”
Mr. Ehrlich said he had not yet determined if it was beneficial for Maryland taxpayers to spend $2.5 million for 836 acres of untouched forest in St. Mary’s County — as they did in February — with an undisclosed side agreement that the land would be resold promptly at the same price to the benefactor, who has been identified as Willard J. Hackerman, president and chief executive officer of Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.
A regular donor to political campaigns, Mr. Hackerman would receive a tax break worth as much as $7 million if the transaction is completed, without a written guarantee that the land would stay undeveloped. He also would donate some property for St. Mary’s schools. The public works board has not yet approved the sale.
“I think it’s a fair question, and it needs to be vetted,” the governor said. “I don’t think, necessarily, it’s a good idea or a bad idea.”
The real-estate deal has been heavily criticized recently by legislative analysts and environmentalists and was the subject of a state Senate hearing last month while the governor was on a trade mission to China and Singapore.
The St. Mary’s forest was a small portion of the second-largest conservation deal in state history, completed during the final days of Gov. Parris N. Glendening’s administration. The purchase of the 836 acres was delayed because of fiscal troubles.
Mr. Ehrlich said he has never had a conversation with Mr. Hackerman about the sale.
“I have never discussed the deal with the benefactor or anyone representing him, as you know,” Mr. Ehrlich said. “I have a big problem with the way the story has been portrayed, quite frankly. It is so inappropriate to characterize this as some sort of negotiation, some backroom deal, when there was no backroom.”
mWilliams honored
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams was honored last week by his Ivy League peers.
The mayor received the D.C. Harvard Club’s annual public service award Tuesday. Though Mr. Williams received his undergraduate degree from Yale, he holds a master’s degree and a law degree from the historic Massachusetts institution.
The Harvard Club cited Mr. Williams for his long career in public service, which includes time in the Air Force and years of work as a finance officer in Connecticut, the District and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mr. Williams told about 150 members of the club and their guests that the city’s revenues are up, government operations are improving and economic development is on the rise — but he said despite investment of millions of dollars in education, he remains troubled by the challenges of violence and learning confronting the city’s young people.
mMTA picks a leader
The Maryland Transportation Authority on Thursday approved the appointment of Trent Kittleman to replace Executive Secretary Thomas Osborne, who resigned when news broke that mistakes in resurfacing of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge will cost more than $7 million.
Mrs. Kittleman, until now the deputy state secretary of transportation, is the widow of the late state Sen. Robert H. Kittleman. The couple’s son, Allan Kittleman, was appointed recently to fill his father’s seat.
Mrs. Kittleman will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the MTA, which operates the state’s seven toll facilities.
Mr. Osborne resigned last month, saying he wanted the public to have full confidence in an objective and open review of what went wrong with the Bay Bridge repairs.
A preliminary study of the defective, cracked concrete decking on the westbound span of the bridge found that it will cost more than $7 million to repair the work. Damaged portions of the old bridge decking were not adequately removed before paving began, according to the report presented to state lawmakers this month.
• This column is based in part on wire service reports.
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