Black ministers with clout back Ehrlich

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BALTIMORE -- Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. received the endorsement yesterday of a half-dozen black ministers who could sway Democratic voters in the battlegrounds of Prince George's County and Baltimore to cross party lines in the election Tuesday.

Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, stood on a street corner in South Baltimore surrounded by the ministers and touted his record of reaching out to minorities and implementing policies for urban voters, including programs for drug treatment instead of prison time.

"This is an agenda for people regardless of color," he said. "This is white and black and Hispanic and Republican and Democratic. We are changing Maryland for the better."

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, the Democratic nominee for governor, said yesterday during his final campaign run that he has stopped trying to win over undecided voters as he focused on rallying party faithful to get to the polls.

"The conversation is over," he said. "People have pretty much decided. Right now, it is just a matter of mobilizing. There is a certain number of people who have decided that, on balance, I would be a better governor for the next four years, and those are the people that we are communicating to now."

The ministers supporting Mr. Ehrlich came from churches with tens of thousands of members in Baltimore, Prince George's County and throughout Maryland.

Several said crime problems in Baltimore during Mr. O'Malley's tenure as mayor -- including the high arrest rates of blacks and unchecked drug crime -- drove them away from the Democratic Party.

"Poverty is the driving force of crime," said the Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative, which represents about 2,000 Maryland congregations. "If Mr. O'Malley spent as much time creating jobs in Baltimore as he did locking people up, Baltimore could be a beautiful city rather than a deadly city."

Mr. Evans, who organized the event, also gathered black ministers Thursday to endorse the U.S. Senate run of Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, a Republican who faces Democrat Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin and Green Party candidate Kevin Zeese.

Mr. Steele, the first black elected statewide in Maryland, has with Mr. Ehrlich forged Republican inroads into black communities and has helped make their party competitive statewide for the first time in more than 30 years in Maryland, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.