Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley spent about $3.5 million more than Republican former Gov. Robert Ehrlich in Maryland's governor's race.
The last fundraising report made public by O'Malley's campaign on Wednesday shows that the incumbent governor spent about $11.3 million on the race. That compares with about $7.8 million spent by Ehrlich.
Ehrlich, who waited until late March to announce he was running in a rematch against O'Malley, began the race at a huge fundraising disadvantage. Ehrlich started the year with only $141,778 in his campaign account, while O'Malley had about $4.8 million.
O'Malley defeated Ehrlich by 14 percentage points in a race marred by many negative television ads. O'Malley won by 6.5 percentage points in their first race for governor in 2006.
Some of that was paid to a political consultant who has admitted responsibility for election night robocalls telling Democrats to stay home instead of voting because O’Malley and other Democrats had already won, The Washington Post reported.
The payments, included in a finance report made public Tuesday, bring the total Ehrlich spent on the services of Julius Henson to $111,150 this year. Payments were made to two firms run by Henson, Universal Elections and Politics Today. The two most recent payments are dated Oct. 21 and Oct. 29 to Universal Elections.
Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler has filed a civil complaint in federal court about the calls.
