Early Brown Poll Shows Him With 2-1 Edge Over O’Malley in AG Primary

U.S. Rep. Anthony G. Brown held a 2-1 lead over retired judge Catherine Curran O’Malley in a hypothetical Democratic primary for state attorney general, a poll taken last month for Brown’s campaign showed.

In the poll’s initial question, which tested a two-way primary between Brown and O’Malley, the congressman was the choice of 46% of likely Democratic voters compared to 23% who named O’Malley. Twenty-seven percent of poll respondents said they were undecided.

The survey of 500 likely Democratic voters, taken Nov. 8-11 by the national Democratic polling firm Garin-Hart-Yang Research, had a 4.5-point margin of error.

The poll showed Brown with significant leads among key constituency groups. He had a 63% to 14% advantage among Black voters, and a 48% to 22% lead with women. Brown led in the Baltimore media market, 44% to 26%, and he led in the Washington, D.C., media market “by nearly thirty points,” according to the firm’s polling memo.

“While the Congressman has the advantage of higher name recognition, he even has a solid double-digit lead among the Maryland Democrats who are familiar with Katie Curran O’Malley,” the memo said, though it provided no additional data.

Brown spent two terms in the House of Delegates before being elected lieutenant governor in 2006 on a ticket headed by Gov. Martin J. O’Malley (D) — Judge O’Malley’s husband. Brown lost a bid for governor in 2014, but was elected to the 4th District congressional seat two years later.

O’Malley officially launched her campaign last week.

She spent almost two decades as a judge in Baltimore City, but she is considerably less well known among voters than Brown, even with her husband’s political career and the long career of her father, former state attorney general J. Joseph Curran Jr. (D).

Brown’s polling firm — which previously worked for Governor O’Malley, as well as for Brown when he ran for governor in 2014 — was heartened by the survey results.

“The survey results are extremely encouraging about the early appeal of Anthony Brown among Maryland Democrats, and our polling indicates that Brown’s support has much more upside when voters are presented with his record of standing up for Marylanders as their lieutenant governor and in Congress for the last five years,” the memo said.

Judge O’Malley’s campaign has not conducted a poll. O’Malley rolled out an endorsement Tuesday from state Senate Majority Leader Nancy J. King (D-Montgomery).

“Hands down, she is the most experienced and best qualified to do the job,” King said. “It’s also about time that we elect a woman to serve as Maryland’s top law enforcement officer.”

Brown and O’Malley are the only two Democrats so far who have declared their intention to run for the seat of Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D), who is retiring next year. Senate Judicial Proceedings Chair William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) said Monday that he would not run for AG in 2022.

Republican James F. Shalleck, a former federal prosecutor who has a Montgomery County law practice, announced his candidacy over the summer.

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